Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by novaturient_bibliophile
We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This is a perfectly decent book if you go into it with no expectations of greatness. Unfortunately, I saw this book getting hyped up on Pinterest and decided to give it a read. Worst decision of my life.
This EASILY could have become a quintessential teen novel if it was actually widely relatable to teens instead of just having them as characters. So much of the action/plot was SO far removed from the realm of high school and just entirely implausible to SO many groups of teens.
This EASILY could have become a quintessential teen novel if it was actually widely relatable to teens instead of just having them as characters. So much of the action/plot was SO far removed from the realm of high school and just entirely implausible to SO many groups of teens.
Not to mention, it tried to touch on so many ideas and criticize so much but yet it conveniently left out issues such as race and queerness that the author clearly had bias on based on his offhand comments.
Besides that omission of minorities, all of the “impactful” lines were beyond cliched. I feel like the author tried to subvert this by using the teacher’s little speech at the beginning about “the best books saying nothing new”, but instead it just angered me even further.
Besides that omission of minorities, all of the “impactful” lines were beyond cliched. I feel like the author tried to subvert this by using the teacher’s little speech at the beginning about “the best books saying nothing new”, but instead it just angered me even further.
And don’t even get me started on the relationships or the characters. Genuinely just a crap show of cliches and misogyny, with muddled “development”.
The only thing about this book that I truly liked was how the author incorporated asteroid-themed figurative language throughout. It truly hammered home the whole concept of the book even when the plot itself went a bit off the rails.
Overall, this was a majorly disappointing book because I truly believed that I would read this before my senior year and it would change my perception of everything. Yeah, right. I was able to answer a Jeopardy question about Pyrrhic victory but that is the only lasting impact that this book will ever have on me.