Author Priscilla McGee reviews  This Thing Called the Future by J.L. Powers. 

This is not your mama's coming-of-age story. In a South African shantytown, 14-year-old Khosi struggles with poverty, disease and oh, there's a boy at school she has a huge crush on. This Thing Called the Future, the latest from Fulbright scholar J.L. Powers, pulls you right into Khosi's confusing, magical world, where ancient tradition collides with modern problems. Where the teenage anticipation of a first kiss or going away to college is marred by the deadly threat of AIDS. It hangs in the air, thick like an approaching storm, like thunder just in the distance. Publisher's Weekly: "Through the eyes of a conflicted teenager, Powers (The Confessional) composes a compelling, often harrowing portrait of a struggling country, where old beliefs and rituals still have power, but can't erase the problems of the present.

​Readers will be fully invested in Khosi's efforts to secure a better future."

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