Once Upon a Twilight!: Book Review: We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

We All Looked Up
Author: Tommy Wallach
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genres: Science Fiction | Realistic Fiction
Date Release: March 24th 2015
Review Source: 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.

The best books, they don’t talk about the things you never thought about before. They talk about things you’d always thought about, but that you didn’t think anyone else had thought about. You read them, and suddenly you’re a little bit less alone in the world

This story inspired me.

Weirdly enough, I’m not sure what it inspired me to do, but after I finished reading We All Looked Up, I closed the book and I just felt inspired. That, and a little blown away. The novel, the ending, everything just wasn’t as I expected and I’ll admit I loved every second.

I was expecting to read about a group of friends journey as the find out their days are more than likely numbered, but it wasn’t that at all. A group of people—people who’ve probably never had a full conversation with each other previously—are very loosely connected, yet somehow they all begin a journey together. Unlikely friendships form, and they take each other down roads they wouldn’t usually travel, and they all teach each other new things about life. All coming from different backgrounds and social statuses, they all have something new to inspire each other with.

We All Looked Up was real. If an asteroid was heading towards Earth and we had a 60% that it would hit and wipe out humanity, I bet people would react exactly the same as they did here. People quitting their jobs to spend their supposedly last days with their families, laws being broken because, hey, who cares, the world’s ending soon.

Well, a lot of people have just started thinking that they don’t have anything left to lose, and it’s our job to protect you from them. I don’t want to scare you, but history tells us that whenever there’s panic, there’s death. It’s the way of the world.

It was one of those books were I wish I could unread it just so I could feel all those feelings again the first time I read it. It inspired me, made me smile and think of things in a way I wouldn’t have before, broke my heart into little pieces, and it tripped up my mind up at the end. I want this book in paperback, I want it to be one of those books I often re-read, and I know it will always be a story I enjoy.

Let's begin this reflection with how I received the book. It arrived in my mail box with a rock. Yes a rock! That alone right there grabbed my attention. Why would a book be sent with swag that resembles a rock. Well now after reading the book, I know it suppose to be the Asteroid Audor talked about in the book. Will get to Audor in a bit.

You can see the picture I've included in this review to see what I've been describing. And if your wondering, it's made out of foam, so it's squishy. The nice touch was adding the book title to the asteroid rock swag. Now on to the cover, it's simple yet intriguing. You wouldn't think a cover that mostly all black would capture your interest, but it does. You have the people sitting on the floor looking up to the sky and that leaves you wondering, why? The marketing team did a good job with this cover and swag. Of course I have an advance reader copy, so the cover might be tweaked after this review is posted.

We All Looked Up is a debut novel for author Tommy Wallach.

As you begin reading the book, you notice right away that each chapter is focused on one specific character important to the story. The characters are connected through different avenues. Since we are reading what they are seeing, living and feeling, you feel like your getting several stories at once in one single book. I really enjoyed that. And it's not jumping around back and forth, even though it's different folks, the time line's moving forward as you change characters per chapter. So no confusion whatsoever. Really easy to follow along. And just a great read in general.