Me on Where Futures End

Title: Where Futures End
Author: Parker Peevyhouse
Release Date: February 9, 2015
Publisher: Kathy Dawson Books (Penguin imprint)

One year from now, Dylan develops a sixth sense that allows him to glimpse another world. Ten years from now, Brixney must get more hits on her social media feed or risk being stuck in a debtors' colony. Thirty years from now, Epony scrubs her entire online profile from the web and goes "High Concept." Sixty years from now, Reef struggles to survive in a city turned virtual gameboard. And more than a hundred years from now, Quinn uncovers the alarming secret that links them all. Five people, divided by time, will determine the fate of us all. These are stories of a world bent on destroying itself, and of the alternate world that might be its savior--unless it's too late.

Where Futures End is a journey through time, a haunting collection of stories, of glimpses into what the world might become given the possibility that another world is right there, brushing up against ours, and how that connection changes us.

This is going to be a bit of a non-standard review from me. It has to do with how the story is written, how I want to express how complex and bizarre and somehow expertly connected all 5 stories are with each other. In the beginning, Dylan is looking to escape. It seems that he doesn't like his life, considering the number of times he pretends to be his brother and doesn't correct anyone. Like he wants to be someone else, wants to be somewhere else. Wants to be someone people pay attention to. Each narrator/main character is looking for something, is wanting something. They all want to escape and be in a better place.

There's a part of me that's fascinated by how each story was connected, how each time period was influenced by both the one before and the Other Place, and there's a part of me that's still confused. I think this book plays with connection and with possibility, with the idea that when we look to the future we need to keep an eye on what we're doing now, on the warnings. This book also plays with storytelling, how we recount the stories from the past and how they influence the present. If you're looking for a book that moves through time, that allows for short bursts of insight into different time periods, that somehow through all this movement still highlights the setting, then check this book out.

(I received an advance copy of this title from Penguin Random House Canada.)