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Værker af Lucas Klauss

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Philip's sophomore year isn't exactly off to a great start: Track is already horrible - running hills in the heat - and now his coach has decided to single him out. One of his best friends has decided to ditch him (and their other best friend) for a group of complete jerks. His dad is selling the emergency supplies that fill their basement - even though the world could end any day now.

Philip, who usually enjoys his apocalypse, the-world-is-doomed books finds his attention captured by Rebekah a girl he's never met before who saves him from the wrath of his track coach. And invites him to her church's youth group.

Living with an atheist father, Philip knows the youth group won't exactly be an okay activity, nevertheless he finds himself intrigued . .. more so by the chance to see Rebekah again so he goes.

Will what he finds there be what he's looking for or will it lead to even more questions.

With Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse, I liked the beginning better than the end which I liked better than the middle. The introduction to Phillip Flowers, the main character, his father, his brother, his two best friends - Asher and Mark - and the girl he can't get out of his head, Rebekah draws readers in.

Philip's personal relationships - the one he has with his atheist father, the one with his two best friends and the one he develops with Rebekah - are anything but simple. They are real and feel true to life, with their ups and downs and the drama that everyone encounters (just, maybe, ratcheted up a little for sake of the story).

As Philip starts attending church with Rebekah and thinks he's found a new purpose or calling for his life, each and every one of the other relationships in his life changes drastically. Either due to his new(found) beliefs or the characters changing with age - or both. It's nice that the stories of the relationship continue parallel to Philip's religious discovery.

Philip's decision that Rebekah's church - and really, religion in general - was so definitely for him, didn't quite click with me. I am all for more religion in YA books (maybe not always evangelical religion, though), I just didn't see where he found this great connection.

Things in that section of the story seemed to develop either too quickly or without enough development for me to really feel them. I understood Philip wanting to explore religion - especially as we got to see more of his past - but it seemed that he was just suddenly very gung-ho for it.

There were also too many anti-gay remarks for me to be okay with. I can understand that the novel was dealing with a) teenage boys and b) evangelical Christians but . . . I don't think it was necessary.

I loved the first part of this book, probably until about fifty percent of the way through. After that, I wasn't as able to connect with the character or understand his reasoning/motivation.

Read thanks to S&S's Galley Grab
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… (mere)
 
Markeret
BookSpot | 3 andre anmeldelser | Sep 28, 2012 |
3.5 Stars!

Sophomore year has a rough start for Phillip. His friends quit track and leave him to deal with the “Ferret” on his own. One friend ditches him completely to hang out with some douchebags. All the while Phillip still hasn’t come to terms with his Mom’s death…and his Dad keeps trying to get him to talk about it.

Then Phillip meets Rebekah…the “unconventionally” hot girl running track with him. She invites him to a youth group meeting at her church, which he goes to, to see her again. And continues to go to youth group, but is Phillip going to see Rebekah? Or is Phillip going because Christianity is starting to resonate with him? Oh and did I mention Phillip’s Dad is a rather staunch Atheist? Makes for some interesting conflict…wouldn’t you say?

Honestly, had I known going into this book, how Christianity driven the storyline would be I would have skipped it. Having said that though, I did read it and had kind of a love/hate thing with the book. At times the story was rather “preachy”…I hate being preached at! But there were other aspects to the story that I wanted to find out about. For example…interspersed throughout the book were reflections on the last year of Phillip’s Mom’s life…leading up to her death. I wanted to know what happened there and when it was revealed, it was a total let down after all the build up. It was another one of those times when I would have thrown the book across the room had I not been reading on my kindle.

The Christian church in the story is non-denominational, which to me is usually all inclusive, but this one was more fundamentalist. I strongly disagree with a lot of fundamentalist tenants! So the book preached to me about things I strongly disagree with…LOL…Like I said, a bit of a love/hate relationship with this one.

I did love Phillip’s Dad…While staunchly Atheist, he did come around to allow Phillip to be honest in his feelings about church and becoming a Christian. I think it was hard for the Dad to support Phillip but his love for his son won out over his beliefs. Another positive, was Phillip finally questioning everything he’d learned…throughout most of the book he’d taken on everyone else’s beliefs and never stopped to think or question anything, prior to that point he was a little parrot regurgitating everything he’d been told by people he assumed knew more than himself.

While I wasn’t a fan of the subject matter I can’t argue that the book makes a person think and examine their own beliefs, hence my very strong reactions while I was reading. But do take this as a warning, if you are a non-Christian reading this book, you will be offended! The book and Phillip will be redeemed by the end, so don’t totally give up on him.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
psteinke1122 | 3 andre anmeldelser | Jan 9, 2012 |
The Scoop:
Phillip is your typical teenage boy. He runs. He has couple of good friends. He has a girlfriend (he thinks). He draws mushroom clouds topped with little hearts (among other things). And he's got a basement full of survival rations (including dirt, fertilizer, a generator and water). Phillip's mother has also recently died and he feels lost in his place in the world. Along comes Rebekah offering him a path to God and, not knowing (or having) his beliefs in place he follows her to youth group, church and even a youth religious conference. On his path to enlightenment Phillip learns more about his father, his friends and himself.

My Thoughts:
Well, this book wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I knew that it wasn't going to be dystopian or zombies (even though the title implied that a bit, which was a-ok by me--sometimes you need a dystopian break) but I didn't realize how "churchy" it was going to be. And while that isn't something that I mind, per se, it isn't usually my cup of tea and it wasn't what I was expecting going into the book and so it threw me off on how I was expecting to interpret the story. I think this all goes back to my high school days where the popular kids were all part of "youth group" and they talked about what they were doing and, uh, well, you know, it's just me projecting typical high school issues all relating to not being part of the popular crowd on a book that wasn't even part of it--no biggie. But, it's not like I wanted to be a part of that--oh, you know, I think that's enough of my embarrassing high school memories.
Anywhoo, Phillip seemed like a typical teenage boy--concerned with how others (his friends, peers and girlfriend) seemed to view him and not very confident in what he believed for himself and how others should be allowed to believe on their own terms. And, of course, like most stories where one of the parents dies Phillip believes it is his fault and he is trying to cope with that internal struggle. I guess he was really looking for somebody or something to show him a way and to truly believe in while he was feeling all adrift in his life--his mother's death, his father wanting to sell her stockpile of survival stuff, one of his best friends was pulling away from him and the constant pushing of his running coach in a mostly negative way. I can see how somebody such as Phillip with all of that weighing down on him would be looking for something--just something. I think also, because his mother was returning to church just before she was killed he probably saw it as a way to connect to her and maybe find the answers that she was also searching for.
And, honestly, I didn't find this book bad, offensive or even judgmental or trying to preach the story of God (although some of the characters were a little more "pushy" than I would have liked--um, Ferret, I'm speaking to you) it just wasn't what I was looking for when I was reading the synopsis. And while I think Philip had a break-through in his relationship with God and his focus on what he wants to believe in I didn't really feel that his personal relationships (with his dad, Rebekah and friend, Mark) made any remarkable steps or that his emotional journey towards the acceptance of his mom's withdrawel, depression and eventual death really made any forward progress. So that was a little disappointing to be reading this book where Phillip's emotions touched on all those points but essentially only really resolved one aspect with the conclusion of the book.
But, I do have to give the book extra points for such an outstanding cover (which I was able to see even on my e-reader). I loved the bright colors and the paper cutout of what I believe is reminiscent of Phillip's mushroom cloud/heart drawings.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Simon and Schuster for a fair and honest review. This book is now available.
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1 stem
Markeret
readermarina | 3 andre anmeldelser | Jan 3, 2012 |
Featured at An Abundance of Books

By the third chapter this is what you think you know:
1) Phillip's mother was obsessed with the end of the world.
2) She has died.
3) Phillips father is a raging atheist.
4) Phillips cross country coach is a bully.
5) The only way Rebekah will like Phillip is if he becomes a Christian.

At this point you think you've got the book figured out. There will be some growing pains, some self discoveries, girls, and an angry father. You keep on reading because Klauss is a great writer, Phillip is a relatable and witty character, and the story is good.

And then you start to realize that this book isn't as predictable as you thought it was. In fact, it's not doing anything you were expecting.

Reading Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse was a lot like Phillip's growing awareness of the people around him: nothing is what it seems, nobody is what we expect.

Phillip is a bit apathetic about the world around him, he's just going through the motions, not really making choices for himself. He doesn't really obsess about the end of the world, it's like an old habit left over from his mother, something he picked up from her. The loss of his mother has isolated his family from each other, and Phillip wants to talk, but he doesn't know how. While becoming a Christian wasn't his original goal, events seem out of his control because he keeps doing what he thinks Rebekah and his coach want. Christianity forces him to start thinking and asking questions, not just about whether or not he agrees with the teachings of a fundamentalist church, but opening up to his dad, forgiving friends (and himself) and letting other friends go. It's essentially a book about growing up and making some of the hard choices that go along with that.

Klauss writes a really good teenager. His characters curse (but not tons, it's natural and not overdone), they drink, party, and want to meet girls. Phillip and is friends are typical teenagers who run into the typical problems: growing apart, trying new things, jealous, new friends, etc. Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse was a witty book filled with multi-dimensional characters. Characters didn't do what you expected them to do, because like real people, you don't know their whole life, just the face they show you/Phillip.

In the end, I don't think this book was about religion, or evangelizing, or even spreading the Word to readers. I saw the religious aspect of the book more of a vehicle to force Phillip to confront some things in his life. At every point characters are telling Phillip he needs to think about what he's doing or saying he believes in. He wants answers, he wants things fixed, he wants to be comfortable and accepted, and he thinks religion will give him this. Then he learns that he's actually supposed to be thinking about his "faith" and then he starts questioning how the Bible is interpreted by this particular denomination, and he's forced to actually make some decisions about his life.

Verdict:
I was totally caught up in Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse, I hated having to put it down for irritating things like sleep or work. I enjoyed Phillip and his struggle to make connections and figure himself out. I think it's a great contemporary YA book, especially since it's unpredictable. It's a different type of read, and I highly recommend it, but you might want to try it from the library first.

Read full review HERE
… (mere)
 
Markeret
AbundanceofBooks | 3 andre anmeldelser | Dec 30, 2011 |

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Værker
1
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