Lost in a Good Book

Published: 9 May 2023 (print)/11 May 2023 (audio)
Publisher: Penguin Books/Penguin
Pages: 416/9 hrs and 49 mins
Narrator: Georgie Sadler
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult
★   ★   ★ – 3 Stars

We Are Okay meets They Both Die at the End in this YA debut about queer first love and mental health at the end of the world-and the importance of saving yourself, no matter what tomorrow may hold.

Avery Byrne has secrets. She’s queer; she’s in love with her best friend, Cass; and she’s suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to live: an asteroid is headed for Earth, and no one can stop it.

Trying to spare her family and Cass additional pain, Avery does her best to make it through just nine more days. As time runs out and secrets slowly come to light, Avery would do anything to save the ones she loves. But most importantly, she learns to save herself. Speak her truth. Seek the support she needs. Find hope again in the tomorrows she has left.

I looked up how long we’d get before we could know about an asteroid big as or bigger than the dinosaur one and while some answers say years there is also a chance it is a few days so the nine day estimate isn’t far off. As the blurb indicates it is reminiscent of They Both Die at the End but en masse and without the infrastructure or safety nets to help people.

We know it’s happening outside the realm of Avery’s bubble but it is her story we’re hearing so we can only know the reaction around her experience. There could certainly be areas where a lot of different things are happening and I understand that St Jude can’t include everything but while a few bad things happen, it is relatively peaceful, a lot more internal conflict than external. Also the impact is in the United States so who knows what the rest of the world is doing, though I’d’ve loved it if St Jude had thrown in a radio broadcast or something to check in on the rest of the planet.

There is a handy warning at the start of the book about the content which is the best approach, people can’t mark a book down for having something in there they don’t like if they are warned ahead of time and continued anyway.

With suicide intent and the end of the earth looming the story is relatively light. There are strange freedoms and priorities given that the world is ending but I understand it in a way from Avery’s journey of herself and what she needs to do. It doesn’t always make sense, especially around Cass and her family versus her life at university, but I guess if you see it from Avery’s perspective it is about her and knowing who she is and that’s what she has to do.

I think this is a book that needs to be viewed from one angle and not another. The realities of the world ending and the possibly unrealistic way St Jude portrays everyone’s actions shouldn’t take away from the way the story tries to explore depression, identity, and love.

I liked the jump through time as we went from years ago to the final day. It helped break the story up and helped give good character background without needing it through present day dialogue or exposition.

A lot of the secondary characters felt flat and you forget about them unless they are on the page Sadler does a good job narrating and each character is identifiable so that was a bonus.

Overall it was a good book. It isn’t perfect but it covered interesting themes about family trauma, religion, identity, and love. Plus you get the think about what you’d do if the world was ending.

You can purchase If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come via the following

QBD |  Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery |  Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible