All We Have Is Now by Lisa Schroeder

From Goodreads:

"What do you do with your last day on earth?

Just over twenty-four hours are left until an asteroid strikes North America, and for Emerson and everyone else who didn’t leave, the world will end. But Emerson’s world already ended when she ran away from home. Since then, she has lived on the streets, relying on her wits and on her friend Vince to help her find places to sleep and food to eat.

The city’s quieter now that most people are gone, and no one seems to know what to do as the end approaches. But then Emerson and Vince meet Carl, who tells them he has been granting people’s wishes—and gives them his wallet full of money. 

Suddenly, this last day seems full of possibility. Emerson and Vince can grant a lot of wishes in one last day—maybe even their own."

Goodreads - All We Have Is Now

I discovered this book on Scholastic and figured it would be interesting enough for me to indulge myself in.  I recently moved and I haven't set up my cable yet.  This being said, I was EXTREMELY bored one weekend.  I had watched all the movies I could stand to watch.  I snatched a book off of my book shelf and it just so happened to be the book All We Have Is Now.  I was immediately pulled into the whole "the end of the world is coming" theme.

It starts off with the reader finding out that an asteroid is going to strike North America.  We quickly find out that most people have fled and people are panicking to get home to loved ones.  This story follows the two main characters: Emerson and Vince.  We soon find out that they are homeless and have been living on the streets (their life stories come a little later in the book).  They decide to jump off of the suicide bridge so that they don't have to wait for the asteroid.  At this point they meet Carl who is trying to help as many people as he can before the end of the world.  Emerson and Vince decide to do the same thing that Carl was doing.  We tag along as Emerson and Vince try to go fill as many bucket lists as they can before the world comes to an end.

The story continues to switch viewpoints between Carl, Emerson, and Vince.  This has almost a third person feel to it at times which gave it an interesting quality.  It was so interesting to follow and try to predict who they might meet next and who they might help.  I enjoyed reading and experiencing a relationship flourish between Emerson and Vince.

I'm trying not to give away too many spoilers, but this book was really good.  The only thing that I didn't like was that this book ended rather abruptly.  I felt like it just kept building and building and building and then KAPUT!  I would really like to read another book that steps back a little and tells what REALLY happened at the end.  Did people panic as everything started to fall apart?  Did the asteroid hit Earth or not?  Was this whole asteroid ordeal created by the government as a cover for something bigger?

I really would enjoy to read a secondary book that answers these questions and follows the characters and their journeys through the year after the asteroid. I just wanted a little more at the end of the book.  It was a really good read.  I would recommend it to junior high or high school kids.  As far as end of the world books, this one ranks pretty high on my list and I would give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars.

My question for everyone is...

What would you do if you knew the world would end in 24 hours?