Future Shock
Future Shock #1
Elizabeth Briggs
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Publication Date: April 1, 2016

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 being there. But when the time travelers arrive 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.

There is nothing better than a good Young Adult story that is full of adventure, young love, and suspense. Add in the musings of a gifted author and you have yourself a great book and start to a series that is sure to be great! Future Shock mixes so many themes and elements into one story, bringing together allies you would not expect at first glance. It couples a band of misfits with an incredible theme: time travel. When I was younger I always wanted to travel to the past to understand history in a real way and explore what happened. In this book, I turned my eye to the future and was caught up in the excitement. This book nailed it. The future is masterfully shared in such a way that it is most definitely something that could happen. It has enough elements of what we know today mixed with the things that are slightly evolved and fantastical. Elizabeth Briggs does a great job of building this world into something that is real and taking the reader on a adventure that is both exciting and dangerous. 

Elena is a brilliant YA heroine. She is the marginalized girl in society without hope for a future, a foster kid who has been pre-labeled and cast aside before she even has a chance to make her mark. I loved the depth of her character and the reality of her situation. Briggs does a great job of sharing something personal and relevant, connecting the reader to her character. Elena has the odds stacked against her but I loved watching her fight and muddle through everything the future throws her way. She is brilliant and kind, all encased in a tough as nails exterior. Her emotional balance and struggles add depth to the story and give the reader a story that is fantastic. 

Every person you meet in this book adds a spice of life to what is happening. I loved getting to see each person who was hand picked to go into the future and to understand their gifting, the reason they were recruited. What starts as a band of misfits barely keeping the peace turns into a team that works well together. When fear beings to rule, we see the system break apart but learning to trust is a high component of this story; both learning to trust others and learning to trust yourself. 

Future Shock is a brilliant debut for Briggs to break into a new genre. I knew she could write great stories and switching it up has just upped her game. I am excited to see where the series leads and hope for a few things to come out in the end of the series. I won’t share since they would spoil the ending but I am sure once you read it, we will be on the same page! 

You can grab your copy of this awesome YA novel today from the retailers listed below!

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