Future Imperfect by K. Ryer Breese
Published: April 2011 by St. Martin's Griffin
Genre: YA Science Fiction, I think
Binding: Paperback
Page count: 310 in my copy
Part of a series: Yes, it has a sequel that I can't remember the title of and goodreads is being a jerk... Past Continuous and that came out November 8th, 2011
Amazon link and Goodreads link.
Summary (from the author's website): When 17-year-old Ade Patience knocks himself unconscious, he can see the future. However, he's also addicted to the high he gets when he breaks the laws of physics. And while he's seen things he's wanted to change, Ade knows The Rule: You can't change the future, no matter how hard you try.
His memory is failing, his grades are in a death spiral, and both Ade's best friend and his shrink are begging him to stop before he kills himself. Luckily, the stunning Vauxhall Rodolfo recently transferred to his school and, just like Ade saw in a vision two years previously, they're destined to fall in love. It's just the motivation Ade needs to kick his habit. Only... things are a bit more complicated than that. Vauxhall has a powerful addiction of her own. And after a vision in which Ade sees himself murdering someone, he realizes he must break the one rule he's been told he can't.
Ade and Vauxhall must overcome their addictions and embrace their love for each other in order to do the impossible: change the future.
Review: So I was at the library (in June or so when I read the book and wrote the rough draft of this review) and I noticed we had three new YA books on the new books shelf. Considering that only happens once or twice a year because our YA section sucks (still does but we've gotten about a dozen new YA books in the last year or so which is awesome), I was seriously tempted to take all three. BUT I have a three foot stack of review books to read (*cough* no comment) so I restrained myself. Right up until a day where my library was crazy busy and I had to wait and I read the back of this book. I got totally distracted by the back blurb, so I knew I had to take it out.
And I really, really enjoyed it, especially Ade's awesome voice.
Plot: I'm not even going to TRY. Go read it and you'll see why.
Characters: In case it's not clear, Future Imperfect is narrated by seventeen-year-old Ade, who's addicted to the high he gets when he knocks himself out to the point of giving himself a concussion. He was selfish, self-destructive and sometimes so freaking sweet that it broke my heart what he was doing to himself.
I found Vauxhall pretty interesting, too, and totally called her addiction. Oddly enough, I had just read a romance novel where the main character had a similiar kind of thing going on. The books weren't really anything alike, though, just that one thing that I noticed and probably no one else would. Anyways, I liked her. She was cool. But I didn't really love her. I think I just didn't click with her one hundred percent.
Ade, however, I really liked. I generally enjoy male narrators. It's a nice change of pace from all the female narrators I read. And Ade was no exception to that. The exact note I scribbled down while reading was, "Boy brains are funny. Particularly one that's been getting bashed up for years." And that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?
Normally when I talk about boys in books, they're the love interest and I spend a fair amount of time swooning over them. Something I really enjoyed about Future Imperfect being written from Ade's point of view was that h was very three-dimensional and real. So I'm still swooning because, well, I can, but it's not just because Ade was hot, you know?
Cons, complaints, bad stuff, etc.: Sometimes the dialogue could be a tiny bit confusing and I noticed a few more typos than seemed normal in a finished book. Though, really, I read more ARCs than not, so they don't bug me much, but I still noticed them. The last chapter was... odd, to me. I liked the ending fine, though, and it didn't ruin my read or anything. It just didn't fully click with me.
PG-13 stuff: Well... yeah. Language, violence, mature content, yada yada. It's an older YA and it all felt necessary, so I'm cool with it.
The one thing I'm not so cool with in books (or life) is the underage drinking thing. And remember, I'm Canadian so I'm not talking twenty-one. I'm talking under eighteen. (Though the drinking age in my province is 19 and obeying the law is a good thing.) It's a STUPID thing to do in real life and I don't like it in books. BUT I know it's realistic. It's just a pet peeve of mine in books, on TV and in real life. So you can probably ignore this because I don't want my quirks to stop you guys from reading a good book. Moving on now!
Cover comments: Funny story. All the time I was reading this, I was pretty sure I'd heard about it before. Possibly even WoW'd it. (Totally did.) But I had never seen the cover when I saw it at the library. I'd only seen this one.
Anyways, I like this cover. The boy on the front looks kinda pretty despite the fact that the library put the bar code sticker right across the space between his mouth and his nose like some sort of weird mustache. I like the faded look, too, and I think it might sort of appeal more to boys because it's pretty unisex, yeah?
Conclusion: I enjoyed Future Imperfect a lot and I'm excited to read the sequel. Four out of five roses.
Other notes:
Okay, explanation time first. Saskatchewan is a dry province. We normally lean towards the whole drought thing. So the year before last, we had a grasshopper/cricket problem. And they freak me out. A lot.
But.
This last summer, it rained a LOT, and there were so. many. dragonflies. (Weird coincidence - dragonflies are a recurring thing in Future Imperfect.) So keep that in mind when you read the notes I had.
- "My backyard has a lot of butterflies and a dragonfly is stalking me." (It was summer and I was reading outside.)
- "FREAKING DRAGONFLY."
- "STALKED BY A DRAGONFLY."
It kept landing on my notebook. *shudder* And I was covered in bug spray.
- "Soothsayer is a cool word."
- "Flutterby's a real word?"
- Not a direct note, but when I was reading the back at the library, I thought Vaux was goingto be a guy and I was bit thrown off at first that she was a girl and a tiny, tiny bit disappointed. But that was just me being weird and it was only for a couple pages.
And that's all folks! Wow, this was long. Have you read this? What did you think?
Peace and cookies,
Laina
Yes, but it was still a good book. I liked it a lot. :)
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