We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach: Book review

Book title/Author: We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

Publisher/Year: March 26th 2015 Simon & Schuster Children's

Genre: YA Contemporary

Series: No

Pages: 384

Source/Format: e-arc | NetGalley

(Thanks NetGalley/Simon & Schuster!)

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affects my opinion.

*This review may contain spoilers!*

Synopsis

Before, we let ourselves be defined by labels - the athlete, the outcast, the slacker, the overachiever. But then we all looked up and everything changed. They said the asteroid would be here in two months. That gave us two months to leave our labels behind. Two months to become something bigger than what we'd been, something that would last even after the end. Two months to really live.

My review

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2015, so when the email came through with my acceptance from NetGalley, I was so excited! I only knew vaguely what the book was about before going in, but that's how I like it.

Because of the amount of main characters this book has, I couldn't really connect to any one in particular, but I do remember liking Anita a lot, so if I had to pick a favourite, she would probably be it. On the whole, the characters were all interesting and I liked how different they all were to one another.

One thing that really drew my interest to this book initially was the concept of high-school kids discovering themselves in the lead up to an asteroid hitting earth. With something like that, it really needs to be executed well, and I'm happy to say that I thought it was. Wallach's writing style helps, as he can change the tone of his writing so flawlessly when writing from each person's perspective, and how they view the asteroid in a unique way.

My favourite thing about this book is how the story isn't about the asteroid, or the world ending, but how something like that affects everyone differently, and this book shows that so well. Wallach uses high-school clique clichés to display how people come together in times of need.

This book wasn't perfect in my eyes, but it was great, so I would definitely recommend picking this up if you want to read a touching story of discovery.

Izzy