It’s the End of the World As We Know It, But These Books Feel Fine

In We All Looked Up, Wallach’s highly anticipated (and already optioned for film) debut novel, we’re introduced to four high school seniors wrestling with the usual complications of teenage life. They’re struggling with popularity, life decisions (like college), and, of course, the big unknown future. But, that future becomes extra uncertain when scientists discover an asteroid on course to make impact with the planet—maybe. Scientists aren’t 100 percent sure it will hit. What happens to the world when the apocalypse may be looming? When it’s almost here, you can see it coming, but you still may escape unscathed? How do people act, and what happens to society? Does anarchy reign as communities break down, or do people band together and look for a way to survive?
What makes We All Looked Up and its ilk interesting isn’t their exploration of how the world ends, but of what people do when confronted with their possible end. Here are six more end of the world novels for your bookshelf.

Tumble & Fall, by Alexandra Coutts
For the YA-loving crowd, here’s another novel that throws an asteroid into the mix and asks the question: What do we do when the world is going to end? Tumble & Fall is told from the perspective of three different teenagers, each battling with their own complicated issues of love and loss, family and friends.

Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel
One of those rare books that shakes me up just talking about it, Station Eleven presents the end of the world in two ways. One shows you the world after civilization has collapsed following a deadly pandemic, and oh my, Mandel paints a stunning picture. The other perspective comes to you before the apocalypse, following several lives leading up to the end. It’s preapocalyptic and postapocalyptic, all at the same time.

The Last Policeman, by Ben H. Winters
A detective novel blending elements of science fiction with mystery, The Last Policeman also features an asteroid heading towards Earth, and explores the slow crumble of society as the world gives up hope. However, the protagonist of the series (there are three books, including Countdown City and World of Trouble), Detective Hank Palace, refuses to give up doing his job. He’s a bastion of hope in a world gone to pieces, and keeps doing good no matter how fast the clock is ticking.

Life As We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Instead of an asteroid heading toward Earth, it’s a meteor…that collides with the moon, pushing it closer to our planet. The result? Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic explosions, the world ending in slow motion as the seasons change and things fall apart. This is the first book in Pfeffer’s series, which introduces you to new characters in the second and returns to the originals in the latter two. There’s loads to explore here, in a world that’s barely holding on.

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, by Nancy Kress
Another narrative exploring both the before and after of the apocalypse, this sci-fi novel about the end of humanity is packed with aliens, time travel, and so much more, combining three timelines to tell a truly unique narrative. It jumps from 2035, where the remaining survivors of Earth’s ecological destruction are holed up in an alien enclosure, to 2013, to a detective trying to figure out why people keep disappearing. Discovering how they connect through time and space, and how they all affect the future, makes this one impossible to put down.

The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker
This time, nothing from space is coming to mess with us humans. No asteroid. No meteor. No moon. No aliens. In The Age of Miracles, it’s the slowing rotation of the planet that dooms us. The story focuses on an 11-year-old struggling to understand what’s happening around her, as days and nights lengthen, people slip off or struggle to stay on the grid, and her parents’ marriage comes apart at the seams.