“We All Looked Up” is Realistic, Gritty Science Fiction

“Every life ended in an apocalypse, in one way or another.”

This book is about a realistic apocalypse. You know all those ridiculous zombie apocalypse novels that are fun to read but would never happen in real life? What do you think would really happen if a huge asteroid was spotted plummeting toward Earth, threatening to destroy everything in its wake?

People would probably figure that if they only had a few weeks left to live, then they’d better live like there’s no tomorrow—because there literally might not be a tomorrow at this point.

We All Looked Up was full of characters who felt so real it was scary. This book was very much about teenagers who were defined by nothing more than their labels coming to life, each with their own problems, hopes, and dreams. They broke through stereotypes and proved that underneath every outside appearance, there’s a real person in everyone.

“And there in the darkness of the hotel room, scarcely more than twenty-four hours before the maybe end of the world, the three of them managed to laugh together.”

The characters were all different; there were Christians and Atheists, and I appreciated how the author didn’t force any religion on the reader, but because he did include spirituality, there was some really cool philosophy from the minds of teenagers.

“The fundamental rule of life: Things were never so bad that they couldn’t get worse.”

Wallach’s writing was lyrical and flowing. His style perfectly balanced out the grittiness of the novel. Toward the end of the book, with the asteroid getting closer to Earth with every passing second, the world went a bit crazy. There were all kinds of awful, violent things happening and sadly, they’re real-life things that don’t need a coming apocalypse to happen every day.

I loved the creative idea this book tackled in such a stupendous way. It’s definitely worth the read.