I enjoyed the way Wallach varied the voices of each character, making them real and distinct. And finally, Andy showed me a type of person I have never met before, but challenged stereotypes and made for a wonderful device with which to teach perhaps the harder lessons of life.Įach character showed a slightly different extreme, and their contrast was an excellent way of presenting how differently the same situation can affect people.

Anita went through a particularly big character development, but one that is understandable faced with two months to live and a life that hasn’t really been lived yet. Eliza gave me a whole new type of character to think about, and her different dimensions seemed very well thought out. I found some aspects of his character were easy for me to relate to, as his questions and thoughts were in line to similar ones I’ve had. Peter, the athlete and the first chapter of the book, gave an insight into selflessness. In the face of such an inevitable and terrifying end, their decisions and changes are more than justified. I thought all the characters displayed good and realistic developments. As a theme I thought this novel was quite unique, and provided not one, but four interesting and rounded perspectives on the end of the world.Įach character was beautifully flawed in their own way, and whilst some scenarios you could sense were about to occur, their decisions sometimes surprised and delighted you which is much more exciting than the same, predictable characters.

I’ve read many post-apocalyptic books (The Hundred, The Maze Runner, and Warm Bodies to name but a few) but few seem to deal with the thoughts and fears of people in anticipation of the end. We All Looked Up gives us the lead up to the apocalypse. I have read apocalyptic books before, but none quite like this. Two months to become something bigger than what we’d been, something that would last even after the end. That gave us two months to leave our labels behind. They said it would be here in two months. But then we all looked up and everything changed. It was as equally heartbreaking as beautiful and I’m excited to see what Tommy Wallach comes up with next.īefore the asteroid we let ourselves be defined by labels: the athlete, the outcast, the slacker, the overachiever. As debut novels go, We All Looked Up is probably one of the most powerful I have read.

We all looked up book review