A male perspective on sorting love from loss, faith from fear—brimming with humor and romance.
Phillip’s sophomore year is off to a rough start. One of his best friends ditches him. His track coach singles him out for personalized, torturous training sessions. And his dad decides to clean out all of the emergency supplies from the basement, even though the world could end in disaster at any moment...and even though those supplies are all Phillip has left of his dead mom. Not that he wants to talk about that.
But then Phillip meets Rebekah. Not only is she unconventionally hot and smart, but she might like him back. As Phillip gets closer to Rebekah, he tries harder and harder to turn himself into the kind of person he thinks she wants him to be. But the question is, can he become that person? And does he really want to?
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
A coming of age story with a twist
By TChris
For the sake of a pretty girl, the "vaguely atheist" Phillip Flowers finds himself attending a Wednesday night church youth group. Phillip is a high school kid filled with the usual teen angst. He hates the track team's assistant coach and thinks his two best friends have betrayed him by quitting the team. Rebekah is Phillip's newest obsession, an improvement over his usual worries about the many possible sources of the planet's destruction. Not that Rebekah is much help in that regard: she turns him onto the Book of Revelation, giving Phillip even more apocalyptic scenarios to fret about.Rebekah's evangelical (but absent) father would be angry if he knew that Rebekah was sort of dating Phillip while Phillip's devoutly atheistic father becomes apoplectic when he learns that Phillip has been attending an evangelical youth group. Can puppy love blossom when the big dogs are determined to keep their kids apart? Or will Phillip allow himself to be converted to a new belief system because that's the way to a young girl's heart?Just as troubling for Phillip is his friend Mark's new allegiance to two kids who regard Phillip as a loser. Phillip's other best friend, Asher, is having girl problems of his own and may, in fact, have his eye on Rebekah. To top off his list of troubles, Phillip is having difficulty coming to terms with the loss of his mother, and it doesn't help that he's continually embarrassed by his father.There's a not-so-hidden message in this book: that nonbelievers can be just as annoying as believers when they attempt to convert others to their inflexible ways of thinking. At times, in fact, as when Phillip announces that he "wants a real relationship with God," I was wondering whether this novel is Christian lit sneakily disguised as mainstream comedy. Fortunately, the novel isn't that simplistic. When Phillip has a crisis of faith -- when he realizes he has none, not even in himself -- he discovers that his evangelical girlfriend has problems of her own, despite her devout faith. He eventually wonders whether people who claim to know the Truth have any more insight into the Truth than anyone else. Ultimately, Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse is a coming of age story with a twist: coming of age for Phillip means accepting the fact that he doesn't have -- that nobody has -- all the answers.Lucas Klauss writes easy, breezy prose that makes the novel a quick read. I love the dialog. Klauss perfectly captures the attitude and language of high school kids. His adult characters are less convincing. The assistant track coach, in particular, I didn't buy at all: his actions and motivations are unconvincing. My only other gripe is that Phillip's relationship with his mother is developed in a series of flashbacks that are interspersed with the rest of the story, a technique I found distracting. In fact, the subplot involving Phillip's mother is so cheesy that it detracts from the main story.For the most part, however, the novel is funny, entertaining, and moderately insightful. It neither bashes nor endorses religion; it simply tells an amusing story about religion's impact on different people, and on a young man's struggle to understand it all, and to understand himself. I guardedly recommend it for those reasons.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.The Aussie Zombie
By Kat
I admit, I purchased this book because it had Apocalypse in the title and I liked the cover. I didn't even read the synopsis (which is something I almost NEVER do). When I started reading it, I realized it was not something I would normally chose for myself, but the beginning was good so I kept going.Phillip is a bit of a weird, but otherwise pretty average teenage boy. Living with his father and brother, he has two best friends and is in training for the school cross country team when he meets the "unconventionally hot" Rebekah whilst hiding behind her mailbox. When she invites him to an unspecified meeting, Phillip instantly accepts - without realizing it is a church youth group to which he has been invited.With an extreme atheist father and his mother having died a few years earlier, Phillip isn't really sure that church is for him, but with the promise of spending more time with Rebekah, he gradually becomes more and more involved with youth group.Now I have to say, religion is not my thing. As a theme through a book I don't have a problem with it, as long as the book doesn't become too "preachy". In Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse this is how religion is used - as a theme to tie in the story of Phillip's coming-of-age.Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse is well written, and gives (what I can imagine) is a good insight into the mind of a 15 year old boy who has just met his first real girlfriend, is dealing with inevitable friend dramas, doesn't understand his father and is trying to understand more about the world around him and the people in it. As a character, Phillip was likeable in that geeky-boy kind of way and his gradual realization that no one can know or understand everything was interesting to read.I almost gave this book five stars for originality and excellent writing, but about ¾ of the way through it did feel a little like treading water and the religious themes became a bit too heavy for my liking. As a young adult book it is spot-on in terms of tone, theme and there is only a smattering of swearing, with some light alcohol use (such as taking shots of brown tequila stolen from someone's parents liquor cupboard, ick!).
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.Review by Chapter by Chapter
By MaryAnn
Ok, so to start things off, this book is absolutely not about the actual apocalypse, so if you think this is going to be an end of the world, survival, zombie infestation type book...it's not, BUT this book was a pleasant change from zombies, vampires, werewolves and everything else supernatural. We follow the main character, Phillip Flowers, as he attempts to figure out who he is and what his beliefs are. Told in first person view (my personal fav, as you all know), Klauss has incorporated humour into a novel that deals with issues that have plagued many teens, whether it be religion, or relationships with family and friends. Klauss' writing style made me feel like the character was really talking to me, confiding in me...even opening up to me. I really enjoyed his telling of this story in a teen's perspective. Klauss did a fantastic job of writing how Phillip, a male teen, expresses his feelings and thoughts. For example, it was interesting to see Phillips point of view when it came to asking out girls, and with dealing with his emotions. One of my favorite aspects of the novel was how some of the chapters Klauss writes were lengthy and detailed with events and conversations, where other chapters are very short and to the point, but was written with so much emotion.Klauss introduces us to a cast of unforgettable characters, and allows the reader to experience the emotional ups and downs of friendship and love. You can see that Klauss has put in so much personality into these characters, that there is no way that they cannot make an impact on the reader. We are lucky to experience Phillip's first kiss, his inner conflict with religion, how and where he draws his strength to continue on the path he chooses, and how he deals with the many revelations revealed to him along the way. You can feel the emotion and confusion and pain Phillip goes through when the ones he trusted the most, betray him.I felt that Klauss wrote with so much raw emotion, that I could not put this book down. There were points in the novel where I would put the book down, look back on my life...back to when I was a teenager, and reflect on the decisions I had made, and what the consequences were. But on the flip side, as a parent, I also reflected on the decision I make now with my kids, and how that will influence them when they grow up. I found that it was the littlest details that kept me intrigued. You are told in the synopsis that Philip's mother is dead, but Klauss allows the reader the tiniest of teases throughout the book without revealing how it happened until the end.Not necessarily my type of book, but I do recommend this to anyone who enjoys contemporary YA novels, who enjoy a good coming of age story mixed in with a little humour, and a lot of heart.
