Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A.S. King
Author: A.S. King
Series: None
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: October 14, 2014
Genre: Fiction; Realistic Fiction; Contemporary; Coming of Age; Young Adult
Pages: 308
Format: Hardcover
In this masterpiece about freedom, feminism, and destiny, Printz Honor author A.S. King tells the epic story of a girl coping with devastating loss at long last--a girl who has no idea that the future needs her, and that the present needs her even more.
Graduating from high school is a time of limitless possibilities--but not for Glory, who has no plan for what's next. Her mother committed suicide when Glory was only four years old, and she's never stopped wondering if she will eventually go the same way...until a transformative night when she begins to experience an astonishing new power to see a person's infinite past and future. From ancient ancestors to many generations forward, Glory is bombarded with visions--and what she sees ahead of her is terrifying: A tyrannical new leader raises an army. Women's rights disappear. A violent second civil war breaks out. And young girls vanish daily, sold off or interned in camps. Glory makes it her mission to record everything she sees, hoping her notes will somehow make a difference. She may not see a future for herself, but she'll do anything to make sure this one doesn't come to pass.
Graduating from high school is a time of limitless possibilities--but not for Glory, who has no plan for what's next. Her mother committed suicide when Glory was only four years old, and she's never stopped wondering if she will eventually go the same way...until a transformative night when she begins to experience an astonishing new power to see a person's infinite past and future. From ancient ancestors to many generations forward, Glory is bombarded with visions--and what she sees ahead of her is terrifying: A tyrannical new leader raises an army. Women's rights disappear. A violent second civil war breaks out. And young girls vanish daily, sold off or interned in camps. Glory makes it her mission to record everything she sees, hoping her notes will somehow make a difference. She may not see a future for herself, but she'll do anything to make sure this one doesn't come to pass.
I always say that A.S. King writes young adult novels for adults. Her writing is so edgy and rough and sharp, it’s unique and cannot be duplicated in any way. Her novels are not for the fainthearted. It’s no wonder that A.S. King always gets honors and awards; she is so different than anyone else and takes risks other people are afraid to take.
Glory O’Brien’s mother went the way Sylvia Plath did. In an oven with dish towels shoved under the door to make sure 4-year-old Glory didn’t become a secondhand suicide. Not that it helped much. Glory’s mother may have stopped breathing, but Glory did not. She lived, or continued to breathe at least. With an overweight, depressed dad and a dirty void in the kitchen where the oven used to be, Glory was left alone, doomed to wonder if she would turn out the same way, if suicidal tendencies were genetically transmitted. She wondered if her future was already planned for her, and if what little say she had in it had vanished the day her mother’s heart stopped pumping. Her love of photography at least, was passed down along with the X chromosomes. The day Glory’s friend finds a petrified bat, deemed Max Black by Glory, and they decide to do something weird, even stranger events follow. After learning the future is at stake, Glory feels a duty to change it even when her own future is still a mystery.
Every time I read an A.S King novel, I just have to take a minute and try and process everything I had just experienced/read. Her books are so rough and unforgiving. She talks about things people only wonder about, but never really have the guts to say. A.S. King may have hard writing, but her fearlessness is more than respectable.
Too many books these days skim over things they’re afraid to write about or reflect upon. A.S. King dives in and attacks them with the style of a great white shark. She sinks her teeth into reality and rips it into shreds until she uncovers the disturbing truth behind honest subjects. In the History of the Future, she talked about suicide, the impending doom of humanity, depression, and loss.
While exaggerated to the point of ridiculousness, A.S. King’s ideas of the future and the present held echoes of truth and validity. I understand the strangeness of her method of writing because she’s dealing with tough topics, and people listen more to the truly outrageous.
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