Book Review: We All Looked Up

HAILEY KLINE Lifestyles Editor

The bad helps us appreciate the good 

Tommy Wallach’s fiction novel “We All Looked Up” is the epitome of the phrase “we’re all in this together.” As four high school students approach the end of the semester, they are struck with news, literally. A meteor is hurtling toward Earth without intentions of stopping. This news sends chaos within the town of Seattle while affecting everyone differently. 

For Peter, the high-school superstar athlete, the news was devastating, imagining all the accomplishments he wouldn’t get the time to achieve. 

Eliza, however, did not accept the news as harshly as Peter. Carrying a “not–so-conservative” reputation, Eliza wonders why she ever cared for the opinions of others in the first place

The most dumbfounded of the four, Anita, did not understand why she’d worked so hard to only be destroyed. The straight -A student worked her entire life to get into an Ivy League university only to have it ripped from her hands. 

Slacker Andy is not on the same page as the rest since he does not give much thought to his future plans. In the midst of the epidemic, he continues his life as he’s always lived, laughing at the frantic individuals doing whatever they can before the meteor strikes. 

“We All Looked Up” paints a beautiful picture of breaking stereotypes and connecting individuals to feel whole. Through a whirlwind of emotions and secret relationships, Wallach is able to prove that opposites do, indeed, attract. This page turner explains the importance of union within a community, especially in times of extremes such as this.

Without the hardships, the goodness would never be revealed. The sense of community would have never occurred. Sometimes, horrible things must happen to fully understand the meaning of love. Life is not intended to scare us or to force us into living on our own. It’s unity. It’s love. It’s something we can only understand when we ignore the little things and simply look up. 

Rating: 3/5