Who would have ever guessed the discovery of wormholes between parallel universes would happen in a science's teacher half packed living room in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona?

Not me. That's for sure.

Escribir buena ciencia ficción no debe ser un trabajo fácil. No es sólo desarrollar los personajes, sino también crear una trama que, aunque fantasiosa, sea también creíble. Y debe ser especialmente difícil cuando se trata de viajes en el tiempo o entre dimensiones paralelas. Son muchos detalles a los que prestar atención, muchas explicaciones que dar.

Y este libro falla en todas y cada una de esas cosas.

Los personajes son poco creíbles y bastante estereotipados, como hechos con un molde del cual no se pueden salir.

La trama no tiene ningún tipo de fundamento, tenemos una que otra conversación "científica" que intenta ser inteligente pero no lo logra. Y por momentos parece ridiculizada casi intencionalmente, como si se tratara de una comedia muy mala y obvia.

Tenemos viajes interdimensionales que todos creen sin rechistar. Un profesor ex-agente de la NASA experto en teletransportaciones. Persecuciones de la CIA. Una historia de amor que intenta aportar el elemento dramático, como si viajar entre dimensiones no fuese suficientemente dramático de por sí. Familias disfuncionales. Too much. Too fast.

Y, por si fuera poco, un final sin desenlace. Los personajes están hablando y de pronto: FIN.

Sin explicaciones de NADA de lo que ocurre a lo largo de la historia, sin cierre.

Como dije antes, escribir buena ciencia ficción es una tarea difícil. Por lo que me imagino que escribir este libro fue facilisimo.

La parte más triste: realmente quería me gustara :( ( )

If you like science, you’ll love this book. This is a science fiction novel about parallel universes.

Danny’s world is one of repression. The government watches them closely, and he and his friend Germ do mildly subversive acts. They discover they are helping a terrorist group, saying this small act will be the only thing they do for them when an explosion occurs and Danny is catapulted into a parallel universe.

Eevee sits in English, her worst subject, bored when the kid next to her suddenly jumps. It’s the bully, Danny. Danny recognizes Eevee from his world and asks for her help. When he explains what happened and Eevee can easily tell this is a totally different person, they become almost inseparable. Danny stays at Eevee’s Dad’s house because the foster home is violent. This is a pretty good life, but Danny misses his mom and dad and his best friend; but, if he leaves, he must leave Eevee. This Eevee is worth knowing; the Eevee from his world is not such a nice person.

I enjoyed the book. This is Part I; part II takes place in the alternate universe where you meet the other Danny and the other Eevee. The science was interesting and made me wonder if this could really occur and may make you want to do your own research. ( )

I loved this book! It took me a little longer than normal to get into it, but, then, I could NOT put it down. It was amazing! As soon as I finished it, I started reading the second book. ( )

Ok, seriously I have tried to read this book about three times now. I first time I was not feeling it at all. So I stopped after about 5 chapters. Then I saw other people raving about this book and so I decided to try again. Nope it was not happening for me. Nothing about this other world excited me. Also, I found Danny and Eevee boring. Plus, what is with all of the talking. I need more action and adventure. Lastly, I tried this book again only this time I skipped ahead some and read some more. Nothing new had changed, There was still a lot of talking and I was still not intrigued by the characters and what was happening to them. ( )

ELEANOR & PARK meets Sliders.

If you're looking for a realistic, slow build romance with a sci-fi twist, NOW THAT YOU'RE HERE is the book for you. Comparing it to ELEANOR & PARK is a big claim, but in this case it's a fair one. The two protagonists (who alternate POV) are very different yet equally realistic characters. They each have family issues that they are dealing with and those families are made up of fully fleshed characters. Often with books that are as high concept as this one, the characters don't end up being as dynamic since the plot does the heavy lifting. Conversely, in character driven stories, the plot is often secondary to the character arc. What's so great about NOW THAT YOU'RE HERE is that it is high concept and character driven. In fact you could actually remove the parallel universe premise and have a solid contemporary YA with a really sweet romance with nothing insta about it.

That's not to say it's a perfect book, there are a number of things in this book that require suspension of belief--and I'm not even counting the theoretical physics. It's hard to buy into two 15 year olds figuring out how parallel universes work, believing a former bully who claims to be from one without anything close to proof, and having a teacher who used to work for the government but who now conveniently is secretly working on travel between parallel universes etc. etc. There is a lot of convenient stuff going on. But, honestly, it didn't bother me as much as it could have because of the characters and solid writing.

Parallel universes are big in YA right now from the already published TANDEM, UNRAVELING, and PARALLEL to the upcoming DISSONANCE. Not to mention the sequel to this book, WHILE YOU WERE GONE, which tells the story of the Eevvee and Danny in the other universe. Based on the tantalizing--and Big Brother esque--details revealed in this book, it promises to be another thrilling read. ( )