I was expecting a more fast paced dystopia read bit I didn't fully get that with The Forevers. I did enjoy parts of it but I found it a little slow. I did enjoy the beginning but by the end I was not fully in the world or the story.

Although this is a YA book I was intrigued by the unusual storyline and a fan if this author so thought I would give it a try. This book is based around the premise of the world ending due to an asteroid strike and the question of how you would live your life with that knowledge. I read this book in one sitting, through the night as I could not put it down. So many characters with their own dilemmas and twists,I loved it!

NOTE: I have only put the star rating as I could not publish the review without one. I would not typically star rate a dnf, but just wanted to share my reasons for not finishing.

Dnf at chapter 21 (about 45% on the audiobook)

I decided to listen to the audiobook available on Borrowbox.

The Details
Read by: Fran Burgoyne

the narrator
Nothing of note. It was read well. Some voices weren't pulled off as well as others.

the story
I don't think I've ever read any end of the world, meteor comet books before so this was giving me Don't Look Up vibes, to start with. I liked the idea of what would happen to society and individuals if they were on a count down to the death of the whole population but unfortunately this just wasn't the one to deliver it to me.

Reasons I dnf'd
-I didn't care about the characters - they were pretty whiny, unlikeable and unrelatable to me (though I understand I'm not the target audience).
-I kept zoning in and out, mostly our, which meant I didn't care enough about the story.
-Confused as to what was actually happening.
-Too many characters to keep track of and not introduced in a way that kept me on track.

The Forevers is an interesting read focusing on what you would do if you knew the world was ending. It's an enjoyable read and makes you wonder what would you do?

DNF at 50%.
I found it hard to care about what was going on with the characters. I understand that the end of the world was coming and the continued attempts at putting the meteor off was making everyone either apathetic or rebellious but none of the characters impelled me to care.
Mae was lost in her head and seemed so selfish that I wasn't bothered by her imminent demise. I also wasn't too invested in why they were called the Forevers , why they were still going to school and work or why people cared.

The world has known for ten years that the end is coming. Efforts to stop an asteroid heading for Earth have so far been unsuccessful, but the endeavours of the scientists continue.

For seventeen year old Mae and her friends, actions may no longer have consequences. The popular kids are both revered and resented and grudges are turning deadly. So did Abi Manton jump or was she pushed? Mae is determined to find out what happened to her childhood friend regardless of what else she uncovers.

'The Forevers' is a beautifully written coming-of-age tale with universal themes of belonging, having something to believe in and secrets and lies. Chris Whitaker captures the mindset of teenagers with nothing left to lose perfectly. Superbly paced and utterly beguiling, 'The Forevers' will leave its mark.

If you knew the world was ending in a month what would you do? How would you behave if you knew there would be no consequences? This YA thriller is based in this premise, and we see the best and worst of people throughout the story.

Mae and her friends grew up knowing that time was short as the asteroid heading towards earth had been identified 10 years before. They decide to take back their Forevers and be true to themselves.

Acceptance and friendship are the underlying themes of this gripping book. The mystery of whether a well-loved student committed suicide or was murdered keeps the reader on the edge of their seat through the twists and turns of the plot.

Although the subject matter of impending doom and the worst of human nature being revealed is very dark, there are some amazing one-liners which had me laughing out loud on numerous occasions.

This is a book that really makes you think about what is really important in life, and making the most of whatever time you have.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.
For ten years everyone has lived with the knowledge that the world was almost certainly going to be destroyed by a giant asteroid. Now there’s only 30 days left and the focus of the story is the small coastal town of West. When her once-best friend apparently takes her own life, Mae decides to find out the truth. In doing so she discovers the hidden secrets of many of the townsfolk.
The story starts slowly, and I found it quite ‘bitty’ - short snippets of story, like jigsaw pieces which would hopefully eventually reveal the big picture. There are a lot of characters: Mae, her family, her classmates, their parents, teachers, and I struggled to keep track of them all. There were also a lot of concepts covered: high school rivalries, falling in love, dealing with all the issues of adolescence whilst knowing that there is no future, dark family secrets hidden behind masks of respectability…. And more. It’s a YA novel, so a lot of the issues covered are pertinent to that age group. Some of the deeper issues were covered more superficially, but with so many stories going on that’s probably inevitable. (Is that a tautology? Anyway, you know what I mean.)
The pace picked up towards the end, and the characters easier to follow, but there were a lot of storylines being tied off in a very short period of time.
However the story is interesting and thought- provoking, if at times confusing.

If you know the world is going to end, how do you live? That's the premise of The Forevers by Chris Whitaker. It's a young adult novel, his first foray into that genre, and his characters are deft and well created. There is a mystery element running hand in hand with the dystopian end-of-world plot; when Mae finds the body of Abi, the question is whether there was anything suspicious about the death?

It's really nicely written and with plenty of depth, it's quite an intense read. Very enjoyable.

Certainly an unusual book, a lot of this read as though it was set in a school in the US, except every so often the reader would be reminded that it was set in England. This should have been a very depressing book, yet it wasn't, which means that it is quite cleverly written.
Surely every reader must have sympathy with Mae, and the trials caused by the breakdown of society and the lack of pension payments was distressing and thought provoking. It was hard to think badly of her at all with her need to steal to support her grandmother and little sister, and I found the character of her sister to be quite delightful.
The ending was done well, I won't say what happened but it seemed to be done with grace, if that is an appropriate way to put it. Certainly a memorable book.

The Forevers by Chris Whitaker

Asteroid Selena is on a collision course with Earth. Several extreme attempts have been made to divert it but all have failed. Now, ten years after its discovery, Mae Cassidy, aged just 17, knows the exact date of her death and it is barely days away. Just like her friends – and enemies – Mae is trying to cope with this knowledge while also dealing with the emotions of growing into adulthood, forming relationships with other teenagers who are also having to shape their last days.

Some fall. There have been three teenage suicides, the latest, Abi, was once Mae’s best friend and now that friendship is being turned against Mae by others in the community. For Mae and Abi were once Forevers, a secret society they developed for coping that makes others feel suspicious and excluded. Meanwhile Selena continues its relentless journey towards the Final.

I can think of no other author writing today who understands and portrays young people as Chris Whitaker can. His wonderful novels (do read them all!) are full of beautifully depicted children and teenagers, many of whom are isolated and lost. It wasn’t a surprise to me that he should now write a Young Adult novel, focusing on the very last generation of teenagers who face unique problems while still going through adolescence and school. Mae is a fascinating character. Her parents dead, she lives with an unsympathetic grandmother and cares for her blind little sister. Mae is already different from everyone else. But now, as the end comes closer, her friendships become more alive as she sees the world with intense, scrutinising eyes.

My favourite character is Felix, the boy who is determined not to sleep a single hour, and will do anything to win over the girl of his dreams who will barely look at him. Here is another reason why I love Chris Whitaker’s books – they are bleak and they are troubled but there is also humour and faith in goodness and kindness. Felix made me laugh time and time again.

The end of the world doesn’t just affect youngsters, of course, and we witness how it damages parents and others. Relationships are tested and ruined. Many become Leavers. People just vanish. Teachers lose motivation every bit as much as their students.

Through it all are memories of the schemes to divert or destroy Selena, and flashbacks to the friendship between Mae and Abi. This is, after all, a novel about friendship and love. For some people, this means religion, for others it means running away in hope of an earthly paradise, and for others it means joining together as the Forevers. It is all so beautifully explored by Chris Whitaker. It isn’t always an easy read – the minds of these teenagers are deeply troubled and fearful – but it is certainly powerful, engrossing and real.

And what a stunning cover!

Other reviews
Tall Oaks
All the Wicked Girls
We Begin at the End

A tricky one to review, overall Id recommend reading it. I loved the first part, where the scene was set and we meet the characters, and the waiting unfolds beautifully. The second half definitely got more interesting but, without giving too much away, it felt like a sell out and tried to get too controversial.

The story is set in a small, seaside town and for the past 10 years or so the world has been anticipating the collision of a massive asteroid that would end life on earth. Mae is an outcast with a tragic past. She lives with her grandmother, who treats her cruelly (we don't know why) and her sister who she worships and is blind. Mae is just surviving, but when her ex-best friend dies, she brings secrets from the grave and the town begins to realize how special and unique Mae's perspective is.

The book is really thoughtful, with deep insights into what it must be like to have your whole life ahead of you, and yet know you'll never reach it. Its an unusual writing style, which could be a bit confusing at times, but overall felt quite poetic, And the key characters all felt unique and real. I didn't like that every character had a tragic story - in such a small town, so much tragedy felt unnecessary, gratuitous and unrealistic. That said, the story overall has an impact on me and will continue to think about it,

Let’s forget labels for a minute. The Forevers is a Y/A book and I’m pretty sure that audience will devour it, but this is a book I’d recommend to anyone. If you have read We Begin At The End (if you haven’t, stop here and go and get it) then you will know that Chris Whitaker excels in characterisation and an exceptional ability to understand and get to the heart of what drives people; to take the essence of human nature and distil it into a story that is powerful and emotive, yet feels all too real as you read it.

So it is with The Forevers. For the last ten years an Asteroid – Asteroid Selena – has been approaching Earth set on a course that will destroy the planet. There have been numerous attempts to divert it from its course, but all have ended in failure. There’s to be another attempt, but no-one now believes that will work. With a month to go before it hits, the end, as they say, is nigh.

Things have tried to stay as normal as they can be. Kids still go to school where they are taught about the previous failed attempts. Churches are fuller than they used to be and there’s as very big survivalist movement which has its own versions in this coastal town. Fear and panic sit side by side with an aura of false normality and suicides rise with the realisation that there is nothing that can help them now.

17 year old Mae Cassidy is a high school student. She’s never really fitted in. Her parents died when we was 10 leaving her and her blind younger sister, Stella in the care of their grandmother who is now suffering from dementia. Mae has to care for them both and find the resources to feed and clothe them. She’s become rather an expert housebreaker in the process.

It’s a harsh way to grow up and Mae, who is a brilliant big sister, does not go out of her way to ingratiate herself with her less burdened schoolmates. So she finds herself the subject of bullying and tormenting from the clique that every school has – you know the ones – where there is a popular, attractive and generally more affluent girl who surrounds herself with adoring classmates and together they pour scorn and sarcasm on anyone who isn’t part of their privileged lives, calling them weirdos, creeps and spreading rumours about them that are even worse. In this school, the cheerleader is Hunter Silver. Even her name reeks of money and Hunter has a particularly good line in slut shaming that she uses mercilessly on those excluded from her circle.

Mae is torn apart when she discovers the dead body of Abi Manton, who used to be her best friend but who had been tempted over to Hunter’s clique. Abi’s death is considered a suicide – not that unusual now. It’s the third one they’ve had recently. Abi and Mae together formed the first ‘Forevers’; their group of friends who, as misfits, know how much they want to belong.

Though they had been apart, Mae discovers that Abi had tried to get in touch with her before she died and wants to know why and what really happened to her. As she tries to find out, Abi finds that she is attracting an ever larger group of misfits to ‘The Forevers’. There’s the funny Felix with his Barry White obsession and his unrelenting love interest in the unobtainable Candice, Fat Sally Sweeney and the enigmatic Jack Sail, to name a few.

One of the reasons this book resonates so much is that it comes after 18 months of living with a deathly pandemic. Whitaker’s themes of young people being robbed of their chances to grow up, of the opportunities lost to them and the hopelessness that brings feels very close to home just now. The usual rules for living have been tossed away and there is no future. If it wasn’t the pandemic, it could just as easily be climate change though. The sense that the earth is hurtling towards its doom is not a new one to young people today. The saddest thing of all is the way these young people prepare for their graduation ball, which they call ‘The Final’.

The Forevers may be speculative fiction, but it feels very real.

Verdict: Whitaker’s book is emotive and poignant, funny and fearless. It asks some very big questions and digs under the surface at what is really going on in these teenagers’ lives. In doing so it does not miss some important themes surrounding mental health and well-being. The Forevers is a novel about coming to terms with who you are and what is important to you. It is about understanding and accepting yourself and standing up for who you are and what you need. Beautifully, evocatively written, this is a book about love and acceptance of self. Characters are beautifully drawn and you are immersed in these lives and this world. I loved it and would unhesitatingly recommend it to anyone, even though, damn you, it made me cry.

It is hard to imagine how you would feel knowing that in 10 years time there was the almost inevitable end of the world as you know it and having to live in the shadow of that knowledge, praying for a miracle, putting your faith in science and wishing for a future but this book captures that very situation from the viewpoint of a bunch of teens who have been living under the shadow for most of their lives.
Plenty of raw emotions, denial, faith and a loss of it, hope that is lost time and time again and all the while still having to try for normality...attending school, working and falling in love whilst simultaneously falling apart.
A fantastic read with an ending that really makes you think.

The Forevers is a compelling and original young adult mystery thriller and asks the question: what would you do if you could get away with anything? They called it Selena. Its real name was Asteroid 2012HWN – on an inevitable collision course with earth. Seventeen-year-old Mae has lived with the threat for a decade. She’s followed every attempt to stop it, gathered on the beach with the other kids in town and watched rockets rip through their sky. They call themselves the Forevers, but after each failure, forever has never felt more like a fairy tale. It’s now the last summer before the expected collision and Mae is spending her days in a school where the teachers have lost all control: bullies have become targets and the popular have become trophies.

At night she is desperately looking for a way to allow her sister to reach a safe place. She doesn’t have time for friends, or to fall in love. But then she meets Jack Sail, and her world begins to turn again. This is a compulsive, captivating and exhilarating story depicting what happens when, as the clock ticks down, people begin to realise there will be no consequences to their actions, and Mae finds each passing day might be just as dangerous as the rock hurtling toward them. Thrilling and romantic, this is a mesmerising coming of age YA debut from the bestselling adult crime and thriller writer. Imaginative, full of tension, drama, action, twists and chaotic surprises, I was engrossed from cover to cover of this pacey, well-woven yarn. Highly recommended.

Mae has been living with the threat of an asteroid hitting Earth since she was 7. Humanity had 10 years to find a way to save itself and time is almost up. There's a month left and this story starts when she finds her ex-friend Abi dead. What happened to her? And what happens when consequences don't matter anymore?

Mae is tough as nails, delightfully sarcastic and does not care about what others think. The people she does care for, she does fiercely and deeply. She feels like the calm before the storm. A person you would want in your corner when the going gets tough.

The premise gifts the narrative with a sense of foreboding, tinged with bittersweet sorrow, and a quirkiness to the descriptions. Figurative speech that colors all the senses. Captivating writing that sparks emotion, makes you care about the story. Wonderful creativity in the drama department, you won't believe some of the events that transpire.

There is cruelty and selfishness, pain, but also compassion. Hope springs eternal and it is deeply embedded in this text, that despite its philosophical tone still offers us many funny moments, mostly from Felix who you will adore. You will also love Stella, admiring how she contemplates the world and last but not least Sail. And some other characters that I won't spoil.

I really enjoyed seeing the different takes on how to deal with the end of the world. The antic of a lot of the characters were sensational. And there are quite a few WTFs to leave your mouth hanging open and some Wow! moments too.

This is about wanting to belong and searching for meaning. Can anyone be a hero? Can anyone be good or bad or both? Instances of fighting back are threaded in the story.

If you love stories with small towns where crazy things happen, and everybody is up in everybody's business but nobody knows what's really going on, you're going to love this. A thought-provoking, highly quotable, soul-searching appreciation of life in an end of the world tale.

Headlines:
Difficult plot to gel with
Unlikeable characters
Confused writing

I'm sorry that I don't have better things to say about The Forevers. I love the cover and I definitely found the blurb appealing but as it spun out, the plot was very difficult to like. When the end of the world is definitely coming in 30 days, this small community was pretty wrapped up in the death of Abi, not the big impending asteroid. That seemed a little out of kilter with my expectations.

Mae as a character was likeable but the rest of the characters weren't. The school, the forevers, the community were a messed up ball of intricate effed-up-ness. Added into this was the fact that the writing was really confusing at times. I was jarred when unnamed characters entered scenes and I never knew who that person was and so the plot point was lost. There were also occasions where I felt like a small chunk of narrative was missing, so again, I was confused. All that said, I was able to string the story together but it was a push to keep going with the aid of some skimming.

I liked the premise but sadly the execution didn't work for me.

Thank you to Hot Key Books for the early review copy.

I have loved everything Chris Whitaker has written, but here he departs from his usual fare, focusing on YA in this pre-apocalyptic novel set a month prior to the destruction of the earth. 10 years previously, NASA's Juan Martin Morales identified Asteroid 8050XF11, named Selena, was set on a path for our planet, but optimistically it was thought that disaster could be averted. However, every attempt has met with failure and with not long to go, people are going off the rails, there are riots and suicides, amidst the fear, panic and terror, and the stark awareness there is nothing more to be done. Impoverished 17 year old Margaret 'Mae' Cassidy lost her parents when she was 10, and had to grow up pretty sharpish, having to take care of her prematurely born blind sister, Stella and her grandmother. She is responsible for providing for all of them, breaking into houses and stealing what she can.

At school she is isolated, despised and bullied by the likes of the privileged and popular Hunter Silver and her followers, spreading vicious nasty untruthful rumours about her. It is Mae who discovers the dead body of Abi Manton, a former best friend who had abandoned her after her family's fortunes improved. Hers is the third suicide at school, whose taped voice is heard at school, with Mae coming under suspicion for orchestrating this. However, after hearing how Abi had tried to get in touch with her, Mae feels the need to know what happened to her ex-friend. It is those tapes that reveal Mae and Abi were the first 'weirdos and creeps' to be the 'forevers', a concept that surprisingly gather a large number of followers, as it becomes glaringly apparent that threats, loss, grief, and other horrors reside behind the closed doors of so many, from rich new boy, Jack Sail, Hugo Prince who has everything and yet has nothing at all, to the overweight Sally Sweeny.

I have to admit that for quite a while I felt that this was not a book meant for the likes of me, and more geared to a younger audience, although it eventually redeemed itself for me through the author's wonderful trademark abilities in characterisations which won me around. From Mae's courage, willing to go out on a limb to connect and help others, even if they had made her life a misery, the brilliantly humorous exploits of close friend Felix Baxter to garner the attentions of Candice, to the incredible support the Forevers offer to their fellow 'weirdos and creeps'. This is a uneven, bittersweet read that I came to appreciate and savour, depicting a humanity that is coming apart at the seams as catastrophe and challenges looms. We see the best and worst of people, where the Forevers offer the unheard of opportunity to be the real you, and a source of comfort in both a personal and global crisis. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Rounding up to 4 stars


If you've read Whitaker before,you'll know he writes the best characters. He has a knack for the kids especially.
Here again we have a flawed character,with many issues ,that you can't help but come to like.
A comedy side kick that is a lot more than that.
And a whole host of supporting characters that prove their loyalty and worth when it's needed.
I can't imagine living most your life knowing the end is coming,(and if I did,I'm pretty certain I wouldn't be in school for the final weeks) but that's just another complication for these teens,along with all the other complications life throws at them.

This is Whitakers first YA book,pretty sure it won't be his last.
I'll definitely be reading them all.

Apologises but I was unable to get to this book prior to publication date, life got in the way. I will read at a later date and leave reviews accordingly.