Things To Do Before the End of the World | Blog Tour

Huge thank you to The Write Reads and Penguin for having me on the Things To Do Before the End of the World blog tour!

So what is the book about?

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 exsisted. 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 . . . ? -Goodreads

My rating: 3/5 stars

Published: 6th of May

Things To Do Before the End of the World is a fascinating combination of genres, it’s a YA thriller, it also has elements of a contemporary YA, and a dystopian backdrop. All these elements together make for quite an odd reading experience, as the reader you are not quite sure about what you are reading. I enjoyed this level of mystery, it added to my enjoyment of the novel, and the puzzle we have to unravel.

I love the idea of this novel: how would you spend the summer if you knew humanity would be wiped out in August? Honestly I have no idea how to even begin thinking about this question, let alone answering it, so I was intrigued as to where the author would take this novel. However, despite such a promising premise, this novel soon leaves the realm of dystopia and “last days on Earth philosophy” and turns into a fairly regular thriller. I found this a little disappointing, but then perhaps I went in with completely the wrong expectations!

I would have loved much more background to this humanity ending event. What has caused the lack of oxygen? How long has it taken to get this way? What did humanity do to try to stop it? There were mentions of people creating bunkers to live in, rigged up with oxygen supplies. Could we get more info about them? I love a dystopian novel so maybe I just went in with too much enthusiasm!

The thriller and mystery element of the novel revolves around Natasha, Olivia’s cousin. From the very first page I disliked her, and I found myself getting infuriated by Olivia and her naivety. That was my main issue with the novel really, I didn’t like or connect to any of the characters. I didn’t feel sorry for Olivia, or happy for her when she went adventuring around Europe, I just felt non-plussed about it all.

I did enjoy the descriptions of places. Barr has a lovely writing style for describing places and landscapes, and I did enjoy the descriptions of small cafes in squares, and the galleries and fountains the girls visited.

Overall I did enjoy Things to Do Before the End of the World. It was a quick read, which had an interesting mystery running through it.

Thank you to The Write Reads and Penguin for having me on the blog tour!

Buy the novel from Waterstones here

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