Elena Martinez has hidden her eidetic memory all her life–or so she thinks. When powerful tech giant Aether Corporation selects her for a top-secret project, she can’t say no. All she has to do is participate in a trip to the future to bring back data, and she’ll be set for life. Elena joins a team of four other teens with special skills, including Adam, a science prodigy with his own reason for … reason for being there.
But when the time travelers arrive thirty years in the future, something goes wrong, and they break the only rule they were given: do not look into their own fates. Now they have twenty-four hours to get back to the present and find a way to stop a seemingly inevitable future from unfolding. With time running out and deadly secrets uncovered, Elena must use her eidetic memory, street smarts, and a growing trust in Adam to save her new friends and herself.
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Elena, Adam, Zoe, Chris, and Trent each have their own talents and strengths. They are chosen to go into the future by Aether as a team. Story has a bit of a mystery to it. Action packed and fast paced story. Likable characters. Ended well. Definitely will pick up the next book. Perfect book to take my mind of what is going on in our world.
Tattooed foster child Elena Martinez, along with four other teens, is recruited for a trip into the future. They are to observe the changes they see, and return 24 hours later with their information, in exchange for a very substantial payment. However, once they are 30 years in the future, Elena discovers that she and 3 of the other 4 teens are killed a day after they return. Their attempts to alter this future reality, and several unexpected plot twists, make for a can’t-put-it-down story.
I saw the cover for this book a few weeks before RT2016, and right away I wanted to read it. I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but how can you not with this one?! Gorgeous. Then I read the premise and was sold! A time travel YA? Yes, yes, yes! Imagine my joy when I went to a YA party in Vegas at the RT2016 convention and not only got to take this amazing book home, but had Elizabeth Briggs sign it “for my niece.” Wink, wink. (Okay, I promise I’ll allow my niece to read it now that I’m done, but I’m keeping this one!)
Then I read it. Wow.
When I read a book, I ask a lot of questions. Of myself and the author and the characters. It’s just my nature. And when a book goes on and on but doesn’t answer those questions, I get annoyed. Really, really annoyed. It’s okay to leave a question here and there, as long as the author has at least alluded to the fact that it will eventually be answered, but leaving me in the dark or leaving holes in the plot loses me. Fast.
Future Shock didn’t do that. Elizabeth Briggs did a great job of setting it up, bringing the characters in, giving them each a purpose, and explaining it all so the reader knew why it was happening. It was nice, reading a high concept YA that explained why all the main characters were teens. A lot of times it feels like the author simply makes the characters teenagers because they want to write a young adult book, but often I find myself wondering: why? Why would anyone use teenagers for something like this? Why would it be okay to expect a kid to pull this off? But with Future Shock, there was no why. I had the answers to my questions (or foreshadowing telling me the answer was coming) almost before I asked them. That is the sign of a good writer.
If you like a nice, clean read that will keep you turning the pages, this is a book for you! It was inventive and mind-blowing, almost making me believe I was getting a glimpse of the future, and it had me rooting for the characters like crazy. I rarely read an actual book (I’m pretty attached to my ereader) but with this book the only problem I had was not being able to highlight passages the way I do on my iPad.
Thanks Elizabeth for providing me with a copy to take home from RT, and for signing it! This is definitely one book I will hold onto the next time I move.
This book took me almost all of August to read, but it wasn’t the story’s fault; I just had an insanely busy month. There were nice twisty future-type dilemmas in it, and a cast of diverse characters. The future worldbuilding was fun, from self-driving automatic cars to communication “flexis” worn on one’s face. I also really liked the detail of Elena having an eidetic/perfect memory.
I thoroughly enjoyed this young adult time-travel sci-fi thriller. The main character, Elena, is strong and smart. I liked the other teenage characters too. Future Shock is fast paced and full of action and intrigue. I liked the future/past time travel concepts and there was a twist I did not see coming. It was hard to put down.