Hello Everyone!

Today’s my stop on the Ultimate Blog Tour hosted by the wonderful The Write Reads for Things to Do Before the End of the World by Emily Barr. Thank you to Penguin for providing me with an advanced copy of this book through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I started reading this book earlier in the week, but then life got in the way, and I haven’t had the time to finish it yet. Today I’m going to spotlight the book and give my thoughts so far, and next week I’ll have my full review up of this young adult thriller.

About the Book (From Goodreads): Timely and powerful; the new coming-of-age thriller from the bestselling author of The One Memory of Flora Banks.

One minute you’re walking in the park, hiding from a party. Then you discover that the next nine months will probably be your last. Everyone’s last. You realise that you happen to be alive at the time when your species becomes extinct.
You have to decide whether to go with it meekly like you usually do, or to do something brave, to live your last months with all the energy and bravery you can muster, to rage against the dying of the light.

Olivia struggles to live her real life as fully as she wants to. She plans out conversations and events in her head but actually doing them and interacting with other people is hard. When the news breaks that humans have done such damage to the earth that there’s only nine months of safe air left everybody makes bucket lists and starts living their best lives – everyone, that is, but Olivia who is still struggling to figure out who she wants to be.

Then out of the blue comes contact from a long-lost cousin Olivia didn’t even know existed. Natasha is everything Olivia wants to be and more. And as the girls meet up for their last summer on earth Olivia finds Natasha’s ease and self-confidence having a effect on her. But what if Natasha isn’t everything she first appears to be . . . ?

Thoughts So Far: I’m only about 20% into the book, but I’m intrigued by the premise. I don’t read very many thrillers, and I can’t recall ever reading a book about the end of the world, so I’m looking forward to seeing where this book goes.

So far there have been a few moments that I’m not too sure about, but it’s still early, and I don’t know how those moments are going to tie into the rest of the story. I am looking forward to reading more this weekend so I can find out.

As far as the characters go, right now I’m liking Olivia, and I think she’s relatable, and I’m curious about how her character is going to develop.