We All Looked Up

by Tommy Wallach

First published 2015

The news breaks on an ordinary day: an asteroid will strike Earth in two months. Four Seattle teenagers hear the announcement and watch their carefully constructed identities crumble. Peter the basketball star, Eliza the academic perfectionist, Andy the stoner, and Anita the outsider have spent years locked into their roles. Now none of it matters. School becomes optional. Parents panic or check out entirely. Some kids throw parties while others find religion. Peter questions whether his college scholarship means anything now. Eliza wonders if her straight A's were worth the sacrifice. Andy stops hiding behind his apathy. Anita discovers she wants connection after all. As the weeks count down, each teenager sheds the label that once defined them. They make choices they never would have made before. They hurt people and forgive people. They fall in love and break apart and come together again. The asteroid forces them to ask what really matters when everything ends.

Genres: fiction, coming-of-age, contemporary, young-adult

Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking

Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family

Setting: Seattle

Period: 21st-century

370 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

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