The Preapocalypse Is Now: 5 YAs That Take Place Before the World Ends

We All Looked Up, by Tommy Wallach
It’s a bit reductive as a descriptor, but The Breakfast Club meets a devastating, Earth-destroying asteroid in Wallach’s masterful pre-impact tale. An outcast, an athlete, an overachiever, and a slacker—the big four of high-school cliques are represented here. But as four seniors struggle with the minor conundrum of what their short lives have meant, they transcend stereotypes and display emotive, fully fleshed perspectives. In so many apocalyptic narratives, humans don’t see their doom coming until it’s too late. Wallach presents a situation perhaps even more trying: how would you choose to live if you knew you were very likely about to die?

All We Have Is Now, by Lisa Schroeder
Asteroids are a common theme in preapocalyptic fiction, but with Schroeder’s preamble to the end times, the countdown is even shorter. Twenty-seven hours and 15 minutes remain until an asteroid obliterates North America, but when we meet Emerson and Vince, they’re trying to shorten the timeline even further by jumping off a bridge. Instead, these two kids who’ve eked out a life on the street meet Carl, their own personal Clarence Odbody, who has decided to spend his last hours on Earth granting wishes. When he forks over some cash to the pair, he extracts a promise that they’ll pay the kindness forward. So instead of a grim look at the end of the world, Emerson and Vince’s story is an endearing glimpse into the resilience of human generosity.

Grasshopper Jungle, by Andrew Smith
Asteroids are a theme, not the rule. Sometimes giant genetically spliced bugs will do the trick. If there’s a more rollicking recounting of the accidental end of the world, I have yet to find it. What Smith gives us is the definitive history of the end of the world, as told by 16-year-old Austin Szerba of Ealing, Iowa, one of the parties involved in the series of calamities that unleash an army of 6-foot-tall, relentlessly procreating praying mantises on the world. While interweaving tales of his Polish heritage and overwhelming sexual confusion, Austin manages to relate a story that might’ve been produced in a test tube, spliced with the DNA of Kurt Vonnegut. Raunchy, madcap, complex, and utterly unique, Grasshopper Jungle leaves you scratching your head and begging for more.

The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker
What happens when the world stops acting like it’s supposed to? Walker’s poignant, enthralling story centers on Julia, an 11-year-old who wakes up to find the Earth’s rotation is slowing. It doesn’t take an Ivy League science major to understand some of the inherent consequences on gravity, the length of days, the tides, and, most importantly, the behavior of humans. At Julia’s age, life is already complex enough without the slow march to the end of the world. But the ways in which this external crisis affect her personal world, seen through her relationships with her parents and peers, are striking as they’re laid out before us.

The Last Days of California, by Mary Miller
All right, so maybe the world doesn’t exactly end in Miller’s disarmingly charming debut, but 15-year-old Jess’s family sure thinks it’s about to. Jess and her older, secretly pregnant sister, Elise, are on a road trip with their parents, handing out religious tracts (with varying degrees of enthusiasm) from Alabama to California as they drive to greet the Rapture. This road to the Second Coming, along with the parade of gas stations, motels, and roadside attractions, is a backdrop for a detailed glimpse of the awkward process of coming of age. Having grown up in the shadow of her “cooler” sister, Jess has the typical feelings of confusion, inadequacy, and curiosity, all of which are amplified by a childhood spent waiting for the end times.