Title: Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse
Author: Lucas Klauss
Genre: YA fiction
Review:
First of all, let me put this out there: the title is misleading. Very misleading. I picked up this book in the bookstore because the title of the book caught my eye. This book has nothing to do with the apocalypse or zombies or nuclear meltdowns (okay...maybe that was harsh--the books does mention the apocalypse a little bit.) But nevertheless, I found myself flipping through the pages of this novel in the bookstore chair for a good thirty minutes until I realized I might as well buy this book seeing that I was 160 pages into it already. The fact that is was on sale for $4.99 doesn't hurt either.
Ever since Phillip's mother left the world, he has become obsessed with TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it--look it up if you don't believe me...it's an actual acronyme.) He literally has a collection of books all dealing with the apocalypse. But that's beside the point...Phillip's world is turned upside down when he meets Rebekah during cross country training.
Rebekah's basically the antithesis of Phillip. She's very religious--he's not (in fact, his dad is a hard core atheist.) She's a good girl and follows rules--Phillip drinks and doesn't follow rules. Yet somehow Phillip can't help but become drawn into her. Before he knows it, he's "converted" into Christianity behind his father back and begins doing community service just to spend time with Rebekah.
But life is just an uphill climb for Phillips. He gets into a fight with his two best friends, Ferret (the cross country coach's assistant) seems determined on making Phillip's life hell by giving him one-on-one training, he's not exactly getting along with his father and even Rebekah seems to be distancing herself from him. Somehow, Phillip finds himself starting to obsess over religion just a little bit...
I found Ferret's character to be very interesting and in depth. At first glance, he is presented as a bit of a sadistic young man just out of college. But as Phillip spends more time with him, it becomes clear that Ferret simply is lonely and feels excluded...yet he still manages to piss off Phillip 80% of the time. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy towards Ferret because he's simply a guy trying to find his place in the world--and through screwing up many times, he finally sets out on a journey at the end of the novel to discover who he is.
Rebekah's almost the opposite of Ferret, in my opinion. At first I loved her character and rooted for the Phillip-Rebekah couple thing. But then she started to act, I don't know, a little bit cold towards Phillip when it was uncalled for. Also, I felt like she was playing with Phillip's emotions a lot (whether she knew she was doing so or not, I cannot tell.) At the end, I was groaning why would Phillip want to get back together with her after breaking up. But the author has a surprise in store...they don't exactly quite get back together, but both parties are happy.
Phillip undergoes drastic change throughout the novel. He has matured in many ways; he has grown and overcome his fears, heartbreaks, challenges, and most importantly, discovered his own identity. The whole becoming-a-Christian-and-other-religious stuff got really intense towards the second half of the novel. Even I wasn't sure if I could ride it out, since I'm not a huge huge fan of reading religious works. At one point, it almost seemed as if Klauss was trying to convert readers! Boy, was I glad that I didn't abandon the novel (not that I really would've) because going through the whole religious phase shaped Phillip's character in many ways and readers also learn more about the event leading up to the divorce between Phillip's parents in his flashbacks (Phillip's dad thought his mom was getting "brainwashed" by church and didn't want the kids to become indoctrinated.)
Phillip finds out that being a Christian isn't as simple as checking off a list of requirements--moreover, he discovers that maybe everything he hears in church isn't right. What's wrong with other religions? Why would worshippers of other religion go to hell, according to his youth pastor? Why is abortion a sin? Why is being gay bad? I loved how Phillip learned to form his own opinions at the end.
This is a great coming of age novel and I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read general YA fiction.
Rating:
