Review | We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach
Published By: Simon & Schuster
Published On: March 24, 2015
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 370
Format: Paperback
Source: Bought
Rating: ★★½

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Before the asteroid we let ourselves be defined by labels: The athlete, the outcast, the slacker, the overachiever. 
But then we all looked up and everything changed. They said it would be here in two months. That gave us two months to leave our labels behind. Two months to become something bigger than what we'd been, something that would last even after the end. 
Two months to really live.

When it is revealed that an asteroid is headed straight for Earth, four high school students must learn to break away from their defining labels. In the two months before the asteroid is due to hit, the athlete, the outcast, the slacker and the overachiever are drawn together as they attempt to deal with the reality that they could all be wiped out completely.

This book wasn’t really what I was expecting. From the synopsis, I was expecting some kind of empowering story about getting rid of high school labels and stereotypes and all coming together in the face of disaster. I didn’t feel like I got anything like that from this book. I don’t think there was any real ‘shedding of labels’ as they seemed to be separated by their labels from beginning to end.

I expected more about the asteroid, less about the high school drama. Considering there is currently an asteroid headed for Earth throughout this story, I was definitely expecting that to be more of the focus. Instead the book became more about the drama of high school. That aspect seemed quite juvenile and the characters definitely seemed to have their priorities in the wrong order.

As this wasn’t what I was expecting, it became clear it just wasn’t my kind of book. What I was expecting from the synopsis would have been my kind of book. This just wasn’t the kind of story I enjoy reading and that was a little disappointing. This was just an average read for me because of that.

The characters were okay. I didn’t particularly love the characters, or really feel any kind of connection to them, but they weren’t bad characters. I enjoyed reading about them for the most part and found their lives quite interesting. I did like some more than others, particularly Peter.

I really did not like the romance in this book. To me the romance just seemed like the most ridiculous forced love triangle. I don’t know if Wallach just decided ‘oh the world could be ending, they need to find love’ and thought he would throw in some instant love triangle but it certainly seemed that way to me. I was definitely not a fan of the romance.

Overall, it was an interesting premise that could have been written so well. Unfortunately, as much as I found the story interesting, there was far too much high school drama and forced romance for me to enjoy it. It was an average read for me but as this was just not my kind of book, I can seen why others may enjoy it.