She finds an outlet in taking photographs and composing blog posts on Tumblr.
So, star-crossed lovers? Not so much.Įliza’s catalogue of problems includes a mother who walked out and a father with pancreatic cancer, issues that eclipse the college admissions agita of her peers. Though neither is aware, the star foreshadows the fatal meteor that will strike in just a few months. As Peter sees Eliza leaving school one evening, he notes “a single bright star, blue as a sapphire,” then points it out to her in wonder. Obviously, after a year of being tormented, Eliza wants nothing to do with Peter. As commencement approaches and dreams of college acceptances have come true, prospective graduates are paradoxically terrified of what may (or may not) lie ahead.ĭuring his junior year, Peter’s capricious hook-up with the second narrator, Eliza, has now made her the target of a venomous “mean girls” campaign courtesy of Stacy. Despite all of these surface successes, Peter feels that “his certainties had all disappeared.” Having taught 12th graders for many years, I’ve witnessed countless existential crises. Peter, the first narrator, is a scholar, an athlete, and a student council representative he has a beautiful (albeit flighty) girlfriend named Stacy, and he’s going to Stanford on a sports scholarship. The cover of We All Looked Up offers images of the four narrators, two male and two female, their backs to the audience, all on the cusp of high school graduation, all having endured years of being judged by their proverbial covers. Even a cursory glance at covers during independent reading reveals boys who choose books based exclusively on their dearth of pinkness. (Mar.Whoever said “don’t judge a book by its cover” has never taught high school.
Agent: John Cusick, Greenhouse Literary Agency. Stark scenes alternating between anarchy and police states are counterbalanced by deepening emotional ties and ethical dilemmas, creating a novel that asks far bigger questions than it answers. Debut novelist Wallach increases the tension among characters throughout, ending in a shocking climax that resonates with religious symbolism. Rounding out the story’s rotating voices are Anita, a straight-A student who just wants to sing, and Andy, a slacker who must decide where his loyalties lie and how to handle his dangerous friends. Eliza, a photographer with an unseemly reputation, negotiates her father’s cancer diagnosis, her mother’s abandonment, and the need to chronicle the chaos erupting around her, while finding herself drawn to Peter. Peter, a basketball golden boy, must decide if he should save his sister from her nihilistic boyfriend and whether true love is worth ignoring the status quo. As four Seattle teenagers count down the weeks until impact, they wrestle with the meaning of their lives and their possible deaths. An asteroid named Ardor is on course to destroy the world.
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