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nancyadelman 's review for:
We All Looked Up
by Tommy Wallach
Life changes forever when an asteroid nicknamed Ardor is found to be on a collision path with Earth. For Anita, it is a chance to break out of her rigid way of life and live the life she always dreamed. For Eliza, it's her moment to document a momentous time in the history of the world. For Peter, it's all about doing something for the greater good of the country. And for Andy, it's a chance to be a star on a big stage. But will they survive the impact?
I had high hopes for this novel. I nearly put this book down as a "did not finish" but I was morbidly curious to see where it went. It brags about a blurb calling it the equivalent to The Stand. This is not equivalent to The Stand, it just proves that whoever wrote that blurb has never read The Stand. The Stand is a post-apocalyptic story: the end of the world has already happened. This book is pre-apocalyptic: before the end of the world. And The Stand was written by Stephen King, a master author. I'm not sure how many other books Tommy Wallach has written (nor do I care, I won't be reading them). There are so many problems with this novel that I scarcely know where to begin.
Okay. so this book is about a bunch of teenagers being consumed with teenager problems. But there seem to be few adults, and only when it is convenient for the story. I get that teenagers don't like having parents around, but it's just not realistic to have next to zero adults in this story.
Next, we have a bunch of teenagers who are taken into custody and kept in a top-secret location aboard a former Navy base for disturbing the peace and making a scene. And all of these teenagers are kept there without being allowed to communicate with the outside world? The outside world just seems to forget they exist? They have no adults looking for them or who seem to care for them? No one is interested in making a single phone call? The way that they escape is by one of the teens sending a picture by email to all of her friends via a phone that someone smuggled into the facility, and just one person finding the email Just in time! And that person just happens to be nearby someone who knows exactly where the picture was taken and can get there quickly! It's all just too convenient. So then these teens come to the rescue with protests outside the Navy base. Again, they probably could have used the help of adults, but there are no adults for the majority of this story. The protesters get loud and rowdy and they eventually break in to the facility where these teens are being held. And the head of this facility says I'll let them all go, just don't harm my men. Just too easy. And then they break out the teens from the facility, and wouldn't you know it, but everyone has brought the makings of a party to a breaking out of jail protest. There is a bar set-up with red solo cups. There is a sound system. There is space for people to dance around and be wild and crazy. And then later, people have sex in the bunk beds of this place. This just strains the limits of credulity so much. Like, who brings red solo cups, and a sound system, and that much liquor to a protest?
About 50 pages later, there is an execution of one teenager at the hands of another teenager who is something of a mafia boss. The teenager dies and it is all very sad. But never fear, there is another party just a couple of hours later, and magically everyone at the party has already heard that this teenager has died, even though power is out and cell phones are dead, and it's only been a couple of hours.
The whole point of writing a book is to engage the reader and suspend their disbelief for a little while and enchant them with this new world. But it was impossible with this book. I just couldn't do it. Every few pages it was just one thing after another.
The setting is entirely in Seattle, Washington. The characters are almost all teenagers, though there are a few adults in this novel. There is precious little character development in here. You have to take what you can get. And as a result there's no real emotional connection to any of them when one dies or another has a moment to shine. The plot line seems to be: Let's Party like it's the End of the World!
The story is told from multiple teenagers' third person limited point of view. There are some references to sex and rape, though nothing too risque on the page. You have to use your imagination. There is plenty of alcohol and street drug use throughout this book. There is some violence near the end of the book. It's mostly off the page as well, and you have to use your imagination for that too.
I was going to give this book three stars, but after sleeping on it and thinking about it some more, I am giving it two stars because of the problems with this story.
I had high hopes for this novel. I nearly put this book down as a "did not finish" but I was morbidly curious to see where it went. It brags about a blurb calling it the equivalent to The Stand. This is not equivalent to The Stand, it just proves that whoever wrote that blurb has never read The Stand. The Stand is a post-apocalyptic story: the end of the world has already happened. This book is pre-apocalyptic: before the end of the world. And The Stand was written by Stephen King, a master author. I'm not sure how many other books Tommy Wallach has written (nor do I care, I won't be reading them). There are so many problems with this novel that I scarcely know where to begin.
Okay. so this book is about a bunch of teenagers being consumed with teenager problems. But there seem to be few adults, and only when it is convenient for the story. I get that teenagers don't like having parents around, but it's just not realistic to have next to zero adults in this story.
Next, we have a bunch of teenagers who are taken into custody and kept in a top-secret location aboard a former Navy base for disturbing the peace and making a scene. And all of these teenagers are kept there without being allowed to communicate with the outside world? The outside world just seems to forget they exist? They have no adults looking for them or who seem to care for them? No one is interested in making a single phone call? The way that they escape is by one of the teens sending a picture by email to all of her friends via a phone that someone smuggled into the facility, and just one person finding the email Just in time! And that person just happens to be nearby someone who knows exactly where the picture was taken and can get there quickly! It's all just too convenient. So then these teens come to the rescue with protests outside the Navy base. Again, they probably could have used the help of adults, but there are no adults for the majority of this story. The protesters get loud and rowdy and they eventually break in to the facility where these teens are being held. And the head of this facility says I'll let them all go, just don't harm my men. Just too easy. And then they break out the teens from the facility, and wouldn't you know it, but everyone has brought the makings of a party to a breaking out of jail protest. There is a bar set-up with red solo cups. There is a sound system. There is space for people to dance around and be wild and crazy. And then later, people have sex in the bunk beds of this place. This just strains the limits of credulity so much. Like, who brings red solo cups, and a sound system, and that much liquor to a protest?
About 50 pages later, there is an execution of one teenager at the hands of another teenager who is something of a mafia boss. The teenager dies and it is all very sad. But never fear, there is another party just a couple of hours later, and magically everyone at the party has already heard that this teenager has died, even though power is out and cell phones are dead, and it's only been a couple of hours.
The whole point of writing a book is to engage the reader and suspend their disbelief for a little while and enchant them with this new world. But it was impossible with this book. I just couldn't do it. Every few pages it was just one thing after another.
The setting is entirely in Seattle, Washington. The characters are almost all teenagers, though there are a few adults in this novel. There is precious little character development in here. You have to take what you can get. And as a result there's no real emotional connection to any of them when one dies or another has a moment to shine. The plot line seems to be: Let's Party like it's the End of the World!
The story is told from multiple teenagers' third person limited point of view. There are some references to sex and rape, though nothing too risque on the page. You have to use your imagination. There is plenty of alcohol and street drug use throughout this book. There is some violence near the end of the book. It's mostly off the page as well, and you have to use your imagination for that too.
I was going to give this book three stars, but after sleeping on it and thinking about it some more, I am giving it two stars because of the problems with this story.