We All Looked Up
By Tommy Wallach
By Tommy Wallach
Synopsis:
Four high school seniors put their hopes, hearts, and humanity on the line as an asteroid hurtles toward Earth in this contemporary novel.
They always say that high school is the best time of your life.
Peter, the star basketball player at his school, is worried "they" might actually be right. Meanwhile Eliza can't wait to escape Seattle--and her reputation--and perfect-on-paper Anita wonders if admission to Princeton is worth the price of abandoning her real dreams. Andy, for his part, doesn't understand all the fuss about college and career--the future can wait.
Or can it? Because it turns out the future is hurtling through space with the potential to wipe out life on Earth. As these four seniors--along with the rest of the planet--wait to see what damage an asteroid will cause, they must abandon all thoughts of the future and decide how they're going to spend what remains of the present.
Four high school seniors put their hopes, hearts, and humanity on the line as an asteroid hurtles toward Earth in this contemporary novel.
They always say that high school is the best time of your life.
Peter, the star basketball player at his school, is worried "they" might actually be right. Meanwhile Eliza can't wait to escape Seattle--and her reputation--and perfect-on-paper Anita wonders if admission to Princeton is worth the price of abandoning her real dreams. Andy, for his part, doesn't understand all the fuss about college and career--the future can wait.
Or can it? Because it turns out the future is hurtling through space with the potential to wipe out life on Earth. As these four seniors--along with the rest of the planet--wait to see what damage an asteroid will cause, they must abandon all thoughts of the future and decide how they're going to spend what remains of the present.
My rating: 3.2 / 5
**I received a free ecopy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
It took me a while to get into this book, in fact I think it was at 28% through that I wondered why I hadn't given up already, because I usually abandon books that I'm not into once I'm about 10% of the way in. I had a good feeling that the story would turn around and I'm glad to say it kind of did.
It took me a while to get into this book, in fact I think it was at 28% through that I wondered why I hadn't given up already, because I usually abandon books that I'm not into once I'm about 10% of the way in. I had a good feeling that the story would turn around and I'm glad to say it kind of did.
The book is told from 4 perspectives and each of the characters become closer linked as the story progressed. As the asteroid, and with it their inevitable demise, approaches, people become desperate and we see lots of changes for the worst. Those far off dreams that they had, now seem unreachable so it's pretty much now our never. Some like Anita, see this as an opportunity to pursue her secret ambition of being a singer, whereas others, like Peter, are depressed and don't see the point of anything.
What I liked most about this book is that the asteroid forced people to act. It made me think what would I do if I knew that there was a 66.6% chance that we would all die in a few weeks? The approaching asteroid also brought out characteristics in people that were strange and often disturbing. Riots and violence everywhere, kids being locked up in a secret prison for being in the wrong place at the wrong time; everyone's emotions were heightened.
I can't say which of the characters was my favourite because I liked all four: Peter might seem like a typical jock but he was beyond sweet, trying to do everything in his power to help others, Anita's ambition inspired me, Eliza's perspective was sad but I loved what she was doing with her blog, and Andy might be a hooligan but he had a good heart, despite his stoner nature!
Aside from it taking me forever to become enthralled by the story, another thing that irritated me was the four points of view. Often the same event would be repeated from a different character's perspective, which sometimes was a waste of time and frustrated me because it dragged the story out longer than necessary. The final thing that ticked me off was the ending. What the hell?!!
I won't say anymore but despite it being an overall okay-ish story, I can't give this higher than 3-stars.
I won't say anymore but despite it being an overall okay-ish story, I can't give this higher than 3-stars.
Zed (:
Favourite Quotes:
Already, they'd stopped hanging out as much as they used to. The most painful part of it wasn't that they wouldn't be friends, but that they wouldn't even care that they weren't friends.
But that diagnosis was her first taste of what she now recognized as the fundamental rule of life: Things were never so bad that they couldn't get worse.
None of it really mattered. Today was just another shit day in a life that sometimes felt like a factory specializing in the construction of shit days.
"I thought you said not to be afraid.""I said don't be afraid of the asteroid. This is the twenty-first century. The oceans are rising. Mad dictators have access to nuclear weapons. Corporatism and the dumbing down of the media have destroyed the very foundations of democracy. Anyone who isn't afraid is a moron."
It was incredible, the way that people kept on going, whether they were dying of pancreatic cancer or drug addiction or the apocalypse itself.
"Maybe not. But we had to do something. It's been five days.""You should have been patient. Given enough time, the ocean can turn a mountain to sand.""It's the end of the fucking world, man! We don't have time to be the ocean."
Real winning was having the most to lose, even if it meant you might lose it all. Even though it meant you would lose it all, sooner or later.
"...'They don't really deserve a second chance,' he said. And Chris was like, 'Well, it wouldn't really count as mercy if they deserved it.'..."
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