Publishing Date: October 22, 2019
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 432
Young Adult Sci-Fi
The Premise of the Book: "Seven days. Seven days. The Earth might end in seven days. When news stations start reporting that Earth has been contacted by a planet named Alma, the world
is abuzz with rumors that the alien entity is giving mankind only few days to live before they hit the kill switch on civilization.
For high school truant Jesse Hewitt, though, nothing has ever felt permanent. Not the guys he hooks up with. Not the jobs his underpaid mom works so hard to hold down. Life has dealt him one bad blow after another — so what does it matter if it all ends now? Cate Collins, on the other hand, is desperate to use this time to find the father she’s never met, the man she grew up hearing wild stories about, most of which she didn’t believe. And then there’s Adeem Khan. While coding and computer programming have always come easily to him, forgiveness doesn’t. He can’t seem to forgive his sister for leaving, even though it’s his last chance. With only seven days to face their truths and right their wrongs, Jesse, Cate, and Adeem’s paths collide even as their worlds are pulled apart" (HarperCollins).
My overall thoughts and review: When I first read the premise of this book a while back, I was intrigued because I mean, if a higher power, or aliens deemed that humans were treating the planet badly and that they would come and wipe out humanity, I wouldn't say "you're wrong" - I can definitely see it, and this book right off the bat reminds us that maybe how we treat the earth is not so particularly great. The story follows 3 main characters and how they all deal with the news that the world is ending soon. You are first introduced to Jesse who hasn't really known some permanence, and it's always been easiest for him to just not get close to someone, and the book began with him having to come to terms with another hook up ending. He attempts to stay strong, but it's clear that it does hurt him. Financially, Jesse and his mother are struggling, so when news comes of the world ending, he simply says that they are too broke to worry about it anyways. On the other hand, we have Cate, who is struggling with her mom who is a schizophrenic. With the impending news of the world ending, she decides to venture out and look for her father. And lastly, we have Adeem, who is great at computer science and programming, and despite the anger he feels towards his sister, he decides to go look for her. I will say the representation in this book was handled really well (there's a lot here in terms of race, sexuality, class, mental health, etc), and I genuinely was pleased that they were all able to cross paths in some way. I will say, out of all the characters, I definitely cared most about Jesse and I kept reading quickly to get to his chapters. He's a character that I just really empathized with, especially his relationship with his mom. Overall, I enjoyed Rishi's writing. I liked that despite the impending fate our characters faced, there was some lightheartedness thrown in the mix, and of course, a sort of hopefulness, that it could work out in the end, but even if it didn't, we'd all be ok anyways. If I could accurately comp this, it definitely had some Scythe vibes with the aliens being a sort of higher power, and the some aspects that tug at your heart strings were reminiscent of Adam Silvera's books. I look forward to seeing what Rishi tackles next in her writing!
My rating of the book: ✮✮✮½ - 3.5/5 stars
Available for purchase at:
Chapters/Indigo, Kobo Books, Amazon, and Book Depository
About the Author
Farah Naz Rishi is a Pakistani-American Muslim writer and voice actor, but in another life, she’s worked stints as a lawyer, a video game journalist, and an editorial assistant. She received her B.A. in English from Bryn Mawr College, her J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School, and her love of weaving stories from the Odyssey Writing Workshop. When she’s not writing, she’s probably hanging out with video game characters. You can find her at home in Philadelphia, or on Twitter at @far_ah_way.
Disclaimer: An advanced e-reader's copy of the book was provided by Glasstown Entertainment for participation in the book tour. All opinions of the book are my own.
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