There is nothing more terrifying than thinking about our future. Every day our lives are filled with news stories that portend doom. Lately, dystopian novels have felt a bit tough for me to read – mostly because they actually feel like they could happen in real life now. A tyrannical despot that brings about the fall of democracy? Climate change making our planet uninhabitable? Seems like we’re on our way to that type of future.

So, I was a bit trepidatious going into Naomi Alderman’s “The Future.” I absolutely loved her last novel, “The Power,” so the bar was high. But I also wasn’t sure if I could handle reading about tech giants and their connection to the end of the world. Luckily, I ended up in good hands. Alderman has this ability to create characters that feel so real and unique. Even when I was feeling like the events in the book were hitting a little too close to home, I was also completely intrigued to find out what was going to happen next to these characters.

“The Future” is told from the perspective of several different titans of the tech world (the typical obnoxious billionaire type). But the story becomes especially interesting from Martha and Zhen’s point-of-view. Martha escaped from a doomsday cult as a teenager and has become one tech guy’s right-hand-man. Zhen, her love interest, also fled as a teen, but from a refugee camp. She becomes a well-known social media star who shares her survivalist strategies to the masses. I loved that I thought I knew where this story was going, and then there were several twists I didn’t anticipate.

“The Future” does have a few faults that prevented this from being a five-star read for me. First off, I felt like the timelines were a bit confusing. Even towards the end of the book, I found myself unsure which events took place at which time. Secondly, there were side sections in the book that detailed Martha’s opinions about specific Bible passages (stemming from her very religious upbringing). These sections felt extraneous to me – I wasn’t 100 percent sure why Alderman included them. Perhaps I didn’t get it because I’m not super informed about the Bible or maybe the connections just went over my head. Either way, it took me out of the story instead of furthering the action in a meaningful way.

Despite these issues, I was drawn into the story the entire time, and I was impressed with how Alderman was able to tie all the loose strings together at the end. This book didn’t make me any less scared for the future, but if there are more books like this in store for me, maybe it won’t be so bad.

4.5 stars

*Free ARC provided by Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review*