rluo2294's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
3.5
enjoyed it overall. had a bit of a forrest gump vibe with an added doomsday element
moonshake's review against another edition
4.0
a great premise, a very strange middle, a heavy ending...I dunno. I loved the last third of this book a whole whole lot.
aristeegan's review against another edition
2.0
Very interesting concept --- but I found the book way too depressing. The family you got to know, hoped for in the beginning pages of the book, unravels page by page. I love books that evoke emotion, but this one left me drained rather than thoughtful.
mjthomas43's review against another edition
5.0
As it says in all the descriptions of this book, "Everything Matters!" by Ron Currie, Jr. is about the life of a man who grows up with the knowledge that the Earth will be destroyed and what day it will happen. But it is much more. Or rather it is exactly that: how this knowledge affects him and how he therefore affects the people around him, as well as the choices he makes and could make. It's about family, love, baseball, medicine, government agents and sacrifice. Excellent work. I'm glad I read it.
tonythep's review
4.0
Narrated in part by the voices in Junior's head, Everything Matters is the answer to the question: if you know that the world is going to end in 30 years, does anything matter? Just when I thought I'd figured out what was going to happen, the rug is pulled out from beneath me. I'm not completely sure how I feel about this, but it is one of the most inventive things I've read.
good_winter's review against another edition
4.0
" Everything ends, and Everything matters."
Life isn't great when you know how the movie ends. This is the apocalyptic life story of Junior Thibodeau, from the moment of his conception (literally, from the womb), up until the moment of his death 36 years and 168 days after he is born, when a giant comet collides with the Earth and destroys both it and all of its inhabitants.
To me, Everything Matters! reads like what I would imagine eating a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans would be like. The first bite is strange; the book is narrated by a large cast of people in Junior's life, but most notably a God-meets-aliens voice in his head, who inform Junior of the coming apocalypse, the destroyer of worlds. It's weird, but I was definitely intrigued.
The book hits a serious sweet spot as Junior grows from adolescence to young adulthood, with the added weight of knowing that the world is going to end- so what's the point? Junior's objective approach to real issues that we have all experienced is both broody and oddly refreshing.
Alas, we unfortunately come across a vomit-flavored bean about 3 quarters through the book, where the plot seems to become counterintuitive to the novel's title.
Despite the fact that a prolonged rambling in which the main character saves his ex-girlfriend from a serial killer CIA agent and cures his father of cancer in the same breath nearly ruins what could have been a perfect book, Everything Matters! goes out with a bang. On the last day of his life, the higher power in his head gives Junior the chance to go back to any moment in his life and do it over again, the perfect ending to a philosophical and emotional roller coaster that I'm glad I hopped on- even if a loop towards the end made me hurl.
Life isn't great when you know how the movie ends. This is the apocalyptic life story of Junior Thibodeau, from the moment of his conception (literally, from the womb), up until the moment of his death 36 years and 168 days after he is born, when a giant comet collides with the Earth and destroys both it and all of its inhabitants.
To me, Everything Matters! reads like what I would imagine eating a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans would be like. The first bite is strange; the book is narrated by a large cast of people in Junior's life, but most notably a God-meets-aliens voice in his head, who inform Junior of the coming apocalypse, the destroyer of worlds. It's weird, but I was definitely intrigued.
The book hits a serious sweet spot as Junior grows from adolescence to young adulthood, with the added weight of knowing that the world is going to end- so what's the point? Junior's objective approach to real issues that we have all experienced is both broody and oddly refreshing.
Alas, we unfortunately come across a vomit-flavored bean about 3 quarters through the book, where the plot seems to become counterintuitive to the novel's title.
Despite the fact that a prolonged rambling in which the main character saves his ex-girlfriend from a serial killer CIA agent and cures his father of cancer in the same breath nearly ruins what could have been a perfect book, Everything Matters! goes out with a bang. On the last day of his life, the higher power in his head gives Junior the chance to go back to any moment in his life and do it over again, the perfect ending to a philosophical and emotional roller coaster that I'm glad I hopped on- even if a loop towards the end made me hurl.
smrankin5's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this book, specifically teh beginning. The middle gets pretty muddled, and it definitely goes off on some tangents that drag for awhile, but the ending is pretty darn good. Well worth reading.