Aussie YA Bloggers

This is my post for the Australian YA Bloggers & Readers Secret Santa Blog H AusYABloggers_SecretSanta op.

The idea is to answer some questions so we can find out a little bit more about each other and leave some clues for our Secret Santa recipient.

So lets see if we can guess who got who.

Questions:

What are your top 5 favourite books this year? Damn only five. In no particular order: Illuminae, Attachments, Night Owls, I am number four & Ice Kissed.
How did you go with your Goodreads challenge? Kicked it’s ass 😛 I had aimed to read 100 books this year, so far have read 137. This is a BIG deal for me as it’s the most I’ve ever read in a year.
How many times did you post a week on average? Do you think you’ll post more/less in the future? Average for this year has been two posts a week. I’m planning on a three post a week spread next year, so that will be posting more.
What is your favourite blogging moment/achievement of 2015? The Adventures of SacaKat turning Two. Receiving some review books from publishers. Prior to this year all the books I reviewed I had purchased, borrowed or been given by the lovely authors Louise White and Leigh Hutton, who took a chance giving a newbie blogger they met on twitter ARC’s.
Did you read mostly review or non-review books this year? mostly non-review books as I inhaled a lot of graphic novels this year. My plan for next year is to not take on many review books and try to tackle my TBR pile, reading as many of the beautiful books I purchased this year as possible. I’m going to post reviews on my blog for all Aussie author books I read in 2016 and any other books that are standout four/ five stars reads.
What are your blogging goals for 2016? Reading more Aussie authors. Getting stuck into my TBR. Putting out three posts a week, one review, one bookish babble and one flash fiction piece.
What books are you looking forward to in 2016? The Illuminae Files #2, The Reluctant Jillaroo, The Shadow Queen, Reign of Shadows and The Great Hunt just to start off with.
Based on the answers above, have you been a good or naughty blogger this year? Hahahaha well if you ask my husband, naughty, because of all the hours I locked myself away much to his annoyance.

My three Secret Santa recipient clues:

You live in the state that holds The Cup.
Your Goodreads profile picture is an adorable pup.
Bookshelves cover the background of your blogspot blog.

#LoveOzYA? Join the Australian YA Bloggers on Goodreads and Facebook to join in the fun!

Follow the Aussie YA Bloggers Secret Santa blog hop!

We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

Release date: April 1, 2015

Thank you Simon & Schuster Australia for giving me an ARC to read and review

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.

When I finished reading the last page I actually laughed at loud “that’d be right”. I closed the cover and muttered to myself “that’s brilliant”. Yep, I LOVED IT. And dare I say, I think it’s going to be the next big thing, I’m imagining the closing credits for the movie adaptation already.

I finished We All Looked Up on Sunday morning and I’ve been trying to figure how to write a review to do it justice ever since. Wallach’s writing is beautiful, easy to read, emotional and powerful.

We get backgrounds on the four view point characters and then follow them as they learn that there is an asteroid tearing toward earth with a 66.6% chance of impact, with the possible collision being so catastrophic it will wipe out the world. The four viewpoints are: the all-around golden boy and Jock Peter, the promiscuous and artsy Eliza, the good girl and overachiever Anita and the stoner and slacker Andy. Wallach uses teenage stereotypes and makes them feel real. He gives a world of complicated characters to care for and despise all at once. There is a little bit of all of us in this story somewhere.

We follow them as they try to survive until the end, as they try to deal with and make sense of their lives, as the world goes crazy and they try to come to terms with death. There are inner demons faced and new friendships made. The story keeps moving on, revolving through the different viewpoints. The different points of view flow beautifully and I enjoyed getting in all their heads.

The ending was open and leaves us to ponder. I’d like to think this book might make a few teens wake up to themselves. What would you do if the world was coming to an end? I found a few parts hard to swallow, mainly Anita’s struggle of living her life for everyone other than herself, as I feel that way sometimes, so that made me contemplate my own situation.

FIVE STARS for the next big thing > > > We All Looked Up.