The less then two month old novel "Future Shock" is a young adult novel dealing with nefarious big business practices, young love, murder, futurism and much more.
Elena Martinez, a 17-year-old who is growing up in the U.S. foster care system is about to be 18-years-old and on her own. Struggling to find even a waitress job, the Aether Corporation which has developed an accelerator that creates a rift in the in the space-time continuum, a temporal aperture that can send people to the future has plans for her.
The Aether Corporation offers Martinez and four other extraordinary teens to participate in a short research program that when completed will be enough money to graduate college 100 percent debt free.
Adam O'Neill, another teen who is recruited by the Aether Corporation becomes Martinez's love interest, but is O'Neill just another rich self centered soul who is so evil, he'd allow the deaths of Martinez and the other teens for his own personal gain?
The Aether Corporation wants to send Martinez, O'Neill and three other teens to the future so the teens can document what they see in the future and bring back their information to the company, so Aether can use their knowledge of the future to always have the latest medical and tech toys of the future.
It's only safe for the young to do time travel because of severe mental repercussions, and even teens aren't immune to these harsh repercussions, but the allure of huge money makes the teens want to go, except for O'Neill who is already rich, but his crush on Martinez gives him that sense of immortality.
Once into the future, the teens really see the harsh complications. If the teens don't do the right things, they could all be killed and also the fate of a 4-year-old girl with cancer becomes their responsibility.
Can Martinez and O'Neill someday live a live of love together, or must their love for each other be thrust into the abysses for the benefit of many more people they know?
Things really get complicated when Martinez realizes she may be a cold blooded killer like her father who bludgeoned her mom to death with a golf club when she was 7-years-old in front of her, hence her reason for being a foster child.
For a young adult book, some harsh themes are throw about, but in the end, real bad things happen in real life. The F-word is used once in a blue moon, but over all this is a PG-13 book OK for most readers. Three stars for UCLA graduate and author Elizabeth Briggs first young adult book "Future Shock."
