Time's Path

Summary

Andrew Baltos is sent to a hospital and Prenna and Ethan head home. They talk to the community counselors and tell them that if they promise to send Katherine home and let people be free (as long as they don’t change time negatively), then Prenna and Ethan won’t tell the police, Child Services, and other organizations about the crimes the counselors have done. Everything begins to go well: Katherine is sent home, new leaders are elected (Prenna one of them), investigation in the plague is started, people have freedom, and everyone promises that they will not alter the future anymore; time has to go in its normal path because it has been changed many, many times. Only one thing isn’t going well for Prenna, she can’t be with Ethan for safety reason. She has to let him go although she loves him deeply.

Quote 1

“And that means we have to be careful and disciplined all the time. We can’t live like regular people. We can’t choose our relationship like regular people. We can’t start families like regular people. We can’t risk starting new pandemics just as we’re trying to bring this one under control. We have to be the solution, not the problem.” (p. 233)

It is here when Prenna has to mature and take the hardest decision a human being can take: letting go; she must let go of Ethan. It’s the only way the future won’t collapse again. I know it’s hard for her because I also done this many times. But sometimes, when we don’t let go of the things won’t work, we end up hurting ourselves more than we ever expected.

 

 

Quote 2

“No matter how our hearts break, we bend toward life, don’t we? We bend toward hope.” (p. 241)

It’s true. When our hearts break, we rely on hope. We try to hold on to the feeling that everything will be okay in the end even though, sometimes, deep down, we know it won’t. Hope keeps us going. Hope is something that never abandons you unless you cease to believe.

 

 

 

Conclusion

I would definitely recommend this book especially for girls 12 years and up. “The Here and Now” by Ann Brashares, is a novel full with suspense, love, action, and many more that I have really enjoyed and related to. There are several strong messages that come with this book. One of them is that we can’t change time, we have to live with it; time travel can be very dangerous. We can’t wait for someone to correct our mistakes, we must act and create a solution. A perfect society doesn’t exist. But most important of all, we have to let go of what we love in order to cause a positive change.