Book Review: We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

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We All Looked Up
Author: Tommy Wallach
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genres: Science Fiction | Contemporary
Released: March 24th 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
 

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.

For starters, I had really high hopes for this book. The cover seemed to be in line with something up my alley, and the synopsis was very interesting.

This book was written in 3rd person point-of-view and it followed the stories of 4 teens in the face of an impending asteroid. Intense, I know. At the beginning, these people had very loose connections to each other. As it progresses and emotions run high, it becomes clear why these 4 characters' lives would eventually cross. I am usually not one for 3rd person writing, but I see why it makes so much sense in this story.

This book gives a realistic insight, I think, into the reactions of these 4 types of people, and their friend groups, in a situation like this.

There's lots of history, drama, love, and caring within all of these characters. Which only gives the book that much more depth.

In the end, though, I struggled to maintain interest for a consistent period of time. It may have been the amount of action going on, or the fact that this theme at this scale is something new to me.

Either way, it was a good book.

Check out Shannon & Yara's We All Looked Up review