ARC Review: We All Looked Up

We All Looked Up
Tommy Wallach
Young Adult/Pre-Apocalypse
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
March 24, 2015

Four high school seniors put their hopes, hearts, and humanity on the line as an asteroid hurtles toward Earth in this contemporary novel.

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, ddoesn'tunderstand 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.

This is a scenario which could potentially happen. We do hear about asteroids coming what science calls "close to earth", when in reality they are millions of miles away. But for the characters in Tommy Wallach's We All Looked Up, coming close isn't a factor. This asteroid is almost destined to make impact. It's a pity the characters and their story didn't leave a great impact on this reader.

The story starts out with getting to know these teens and their lives prior to the devastating news that will change their lives. What I found interesting is the different reactions to the news of the asteroid. Some people pull closer to their families while others rebel against everything and everyone. It makes you wonder if they are going against their nature or if the event is bringing out their true nature.  It's always good when a book makes you think.

The main characters don't have much in common at the beginning but band together and find some surprising commonalities  as they come to know each other. The pairings up would not have occurred in real life but this is a surreal life these characters are living, knowing their lives might be ending in a very short amount of time.  Might as well make the most of it seems to be the prevailing attitude.

If the plot had continued focusing on the main characters the story would have held my interest but instead we are lead into another direction. The world of drugs and crime populated by thugs left me caring little for the outcome of these characters. They continued to make poor, idiotic choices, wasting away the time they had instead of appreciating it.

In the end, while I wanted to care about these characters, about the changes they made prior to the asteroids impact, I felt a bit empty by the end.

Rating: C-