Hello! And welcome to We All Looked Up Apocalyptic Blog Tour!

As part of this tour we will sharing reviews, our end of the world bucket lists and there is also a giveaway! Welcome to the end of the world :)

Synopsis: Four high school seniors put their hopes, hearts, and humanity on the line as an asteroid hurtles toward Earth in this contemporary novel.

They always say that high school is the best time of your life.

Peter, the star basketball player at his school, is worried “they” might actually be right. Meanwhile Eliza can’t wait to escape Seattle—and her reputation—and perfect-on-paper Anita wonders if admission to Princeton is worth the price of abandoning her real dreams. Andy, for his part, doesn’t understand all the fuss about college and career—the future can wait.

Or can it? Because it turns out the future is hurtling through space with the potential to wipe out life on Earth. As these four seniors—along with the rest of the planet—wait to see what damage an asteroid will cause, they must abandon all thoughts of the future and decide how they’re going to spend what remains of the present.

 

Goodreads: Add it to your reading list

 

Tommy Wallach is a Brooklyn-based writer and musician. His first novel, We All Looked Up, will be published by Simon and Schuster in April 2015. His work has appeared in many nice magazines, such as McSweeney’s, Tin House, and Wired. He has released an EP with Decca Records, and will be independently putting out an LP in Spring 2014. He also makes music videos, including one that was exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum. You should buy him dinner.

 

Where to find Tommy:

 

In this fantastic apocalyptic story, We All Looked Up follows the lives of four teenagers in the days that are leading up to what may be end the of world.

From the popular boy with everything from a great family to the perfect girlfriend, Peter, to the promiscuous girl who hides behind her camera, Eliza, to the deadbeat and desperate Andy, to the all-round overachiever, Anita. We have our cast of appropriate misfits who all have their own fears and dreams, and are all living their life by what is expected of them rather than following their own hearts. But as the news that an asteroid (Ardor) may collide with earth in the next two months, it is time for people to start reassessing what, and who, is important to them. Peter, Eliza, Andy and Anita are brought together by circumstance and fate - and with the threat of Ardor nearing closer, these teens may just find that the life that they know will end, one way or the other.

We All Looked Up brings us the question ‘what would you do if you only had a finite time left to live?’ And by following these four teens, we get to experience a varying range of feelings and emotions, changes and confines. Told in third person with four points of view, this book will explore each character, along with their own hopes, fears, insecurities and dreams. I personally loved the fact that this book was written with alternating points of view, as not only were we able to understand and connect to each character, but also to understand the six degrees of separation between them. It shows that sometimes there are people, or events, that happen in your life that are not mere coincidence, but in fact could be a turning point in your life.

The four characters are subtly connected by varying desires. Peter, the jock who has the “perfect” life is questioning if he living the life how he wants to, and since an encounter with Eliza a year prior, he is left with more questions. But while this incident left Peter with questions, it left Eliza with nothing but a bad reputation. And since she already had a bad reputation, Eliza thought she may as well earn it. She parties, she struggles with her family situation and she hides behind a camera so no one can see the real her. However, Andy has seen the real Eliza, and he likes what he sees. This stoner musician hasn’t yet acted on his feelings, and doesn’t really seem to care about much besides his best friend and his music. And Anita, the overachiever who wishes for nothing more than to break free of the smothering restraints of her parents and follow her heart - which is music.

As their lives begin to tangle these four teens build unlikely friendships, and lead each other down paths they never would have expected. These characters are not always likeable, or sensible, but they do have to face some hard truths, about themselves and others. This book is ultimately about finding your way, even if that means finding your way to the end.

For those who are thinking that an apocalypse/end of the world storyline isn’t original, you’re right - but it doesn’t need to be. What Tommy brings to you in We All Looked up is original enough. Sure, there are clichés such as stereotypes and impending doom, but the raw fear, desperation, love, pain, violence, acceptance, hurt, and hope is almost palpable. What I loved about We All Looked Up is that it takes a makes a honest assessment of what people could do in a situation like this. How would people act in the face of an apocalypse? Not only does this book take a look at the four teens involved, but at society in general. A crisis such as this could bring out the very best and the very worst in people, and this book covers everything from dismay to acceptance and to violence and compassion.

We All Looked Up is a poignant tale of four teens and the struggles they face with threat of an apocalypse on their doorstep. Emotional, honest, fluid, gripping and touching, this book will make an impact. You will be left assessing your own life, and wondering what you would change if you knew you only had a certain amount of time to live it.

 

So let’s pretend the world is on the verge of ending, humanity as we know it will be wiped out. So we’ve been only given two months to get our affairs in order… Just in case. Here’s my world ending bucket list, inspired by We All Looked Up.

• Tell all my loved ones how special they are to me
• Head down to the Cadbury factory and stock up on massive amounts of supplies. Because if I survive, I WANT ALL THE CHOCOLATE! (if there is any left after my “I am going to die, so EAT ALL THE CHOCOLATE phase)
• Tell everyone on Twitter to go re-read their all-time favourite book - who wants to face an apocalypse knowing they didn’t read it one more time?
• Move to Prague. If the world is going to end, I want to be on the Charles Bridge when it happens. And if it doesn’t, yay, I am in Prague!
• Buy a motorbike - because I would be in Europe and they have some lovely places to see, and what better way to get to them by flying along the Autobahn on a new Ducati?

 

Simon and Schuster Australia is giving away 5 copies of We All Looked Up as part of this blog tour.

Enter below – Australians only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Take a look at the other stops for the Australian We All Looked up Blog Tour:

April 1st: Diva Booknerd

April 2nd: Loony Literate

April 3rd: Infinity Reads and Readers Wonderland

April 5th: Fangirl World

April 6th: Inside My Worlds and Happy Indulgence and Whimsical Nature

April 7th: The Girly Geek

April 8th: Cassie The Weird and Thoughts by J

April 9th: Genie in a Book and Looking for the Panacea

April 10th: Book Nerd Reviews and Daring Damsels