b-r-double o-k-lyn drama

2012 Book #6

Meh writing squandered the greatest YA novel premise I have ever heard:

It’s 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They’ve been best friends almost as long - at least, up until last November, when Josh did something that changed everything. Things have been weird between them ever since, but when Josh’s family gets a free AOL CD in the mail,his mom makes him bring it over so that Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign on, they’re automatically logged onto their Facebook pages. But Facebook hasn’t been invented yet. And they’re looking at themselves fifteen years in the future.

By refreshing their pages, they learn that making different decisions now will affect the outcome of their lives later. And as they grapple with the ups and downs of what their futures hold, they’re forced to confront what they’re doing right - and wrong - in the present.

Also, had the writers watched some Degrassi, they would know that there’s already an Emma Nelson. Also also (and this is, to be fair, not the writers’ fault), I know a married couple named Josh and Emma and couldn’t stop imagining the characters as them, which was distracting.