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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
This had the potential to be a great book, but it didn’t quite get there. The premise of it really sounded good, and early on I quite enjoyed it. I could completely relate to feeling unsure of the world and terrified after graduation. However, in order for this to have really resonated and been great, I needed to feel empathy or sympathy or really anything other than disdain for any of the characters. Unfortunately, I didn’t. The main characters, especially Julia, are privileged, entitled, self-centered, and selfish and I didn’t like them. They made stupid choices, or in Julia’s case, no choices at all and still had everything magically dropped into their laps and/or fixed when there was trouble. I hated the Julia/Adam storyline, especially once what happened with them in college is fully revealed. I wish this had been better, but it’s not one I’d recommend unless you want to be extremely angry and depressed.
I found this book interesting at the beginning and at the end, but the middle was a long slog of "selfish people doing shitty things."
Anna Pitoniak’s debut novel, The Futures, is about two recent college grads trying to find success and their way in the real world. It’s 2008 and the beginning of financial instability for this country. Julia and Evan have been dating for a couple of years are college sweethearts and are deeply in love. They both just graduated from Yale and are excited to be moving in together in New York City. Julia is unsure of what she wants to do with her life and Evan is working at a reputable hedge fund corporation. However, they soon become distant, cold and rather selfish. I appreciated the ease and flow of the novel and Pitoniak’s writing and description of NYC, but felt it lacked more diverse and multicultural characters (it is NYC after all). I found the book to be okay. Perhaps millennials will identify with the characters more than I did.
Thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown and Company for giving me an ARC of the book, in exchange for my honest opinion.
For more reviews, visit: http://debbiesbooknook.com/book-reviews.html
Thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown and Company for giving me an ARC of the book, in exchange for my honest opinion.
For more reviews, visit: http://debbiesbooknook.com/book-reviews.html
This book was an entertaining, fast, and well-written read that could have been a 4 for me if the ending were more satisfactory. There was something about trying to wrap everything up neatly, yet not really demonstrating a lot of growth and change from the characters, that bothered me.
Not particularly deep but an entertaining, quick read.
I liked the beginning of this book. It did evoke a lot of the emotions and stresses of leaving a comfortable college experience and moving to the city and hoping, hoping to find a job that pays real money and is even fulfilling.
However, the characters of the book were just as narrow and white as my experience was, despite being set five years later and in the face of legitimate economic catastrophe. So for most of the book it was a pleasant enough read for nostalgia's sake, but it wasn't mind opening in any way.
And I was completely unimpressed by the ending. I think it was meant to show the characters were growing, but nope. Didn't work for me.
However, the characters of the book were just as narrow and white as my experience was, despite being set five years later and in the face of legitimate economic catastrophe. So for most of the book it was a pleasant enough read for nostalgia's sake, but it wasn't mind opening in any way.
And I was completely unimpressed by the ending. I think it was meant to show the characters were growing, but nope. Didn't work for me.
After reading several books this last year about young white people in NYC, I think I have finally learned my lesson. I'm not sure if the characters in these novels live a life so unlike my own reality that I can't relate or if it is that I hate every cliché they stand for (cheaters, liars, shallow, money obsessed...), but if a novel even MENTIONS "New York City" then I'm going to do myself a favor and skip it. This book was not for me and the only reason I bumped it up to two stars was because there was at least SOME character development for the female protagonist at the end.
The two main characters are entitled, whiny, and all around awful and I had no sympathy for them at the climax of the book.