I realllly wanted to like this one. I'm fascinated with advocacy, and climate change is something that truly scares me (mostly because so many people deny its existence.) However, the fascination and passion I have was no enough to make up for the lackluster story line (that may have been better had it not been so long.) The characters were engaging and realistic, but it just didn't do enough for me!

In this astonishing debut novel, the climate crisis looms large as four characters navigate a burning world. Despite the chaos, life goes on: teen love, marital strife, identity crises, and rebellion against despairing parents persist. Didrik, a misguided media consultant, embodies masculine incompetence. Influencer Melissa faces lost dreams after denying climate change. André, son of a sports star, seeks vengeance amid erupting violence. And Vilja, Didrik's daughter, steps up as a leader. Amidst devastation, these characters grapple with personal turmoil and societal collapse, crafting a story that i found both harrowing and hopeful. This will stick with me!!

It was the cover that bought this book to my attention.
It might have been better if I skipped it.

I had to DNF it because I lost focus a few chapters in. It was a lot of effort to recall who was writing and also to follow the story as well.

Engaging, immersive and entertaining. A recommended purchase for collections where clifi is popular.

The first half of this book was AMAZING! I was hooked. The characters are so flawed, but it didn't bother me. The whole "we should've done something sooner" was a wake up call, and the book was very original.

This book is one of the most pointless books I’ve ever read. I really hate giving bad reviews, because someone put their passion into this, but I suppose when you put an ARC out there, you have to take the good with the bad. I found the whole thing to be a muddled mess, unfortunately. The book is written in four stories:

1. The First Day of the Rest of Your Life

Didrik and Carola, and their kids, Becka, Vilja and Zach, are supposed to be going on vacation to Thailand, but instead they get stuck in a Swedish forest fire. Their neighbor Martin helps them escape, but the kids get separated and the husband and wife split up - not only to find their kids, but to end their marriage.

2. The Chinese Word for Crisis

Photographer, podcaster, climate change denier and opiate addict Melissa is in Sweden housesitting for a former tennis star, Anders Hell. One night, Didrik knocks on the door in the middle of the night with Becka in tow, saying he and Carola are done. He professes love for Melissa and says he wants to raise Becka with her.

3. We Don’t Inherit The Earth

André, teenage son of the above-mentioned tennis star, Anders, has been living on a boat with his dad during their yearly “boys week”. André eventually ditches his dad, and finds group of activists who he connects with.

4. Everyone You Meet

This one is about a young woman we soon find out is Vilja from the first story. She’s still looking for her family, and eventually finds her mother. She also finds Martin in the hospital, and then the family is reunited in the end.

This was incredibly disjointed and I felt nothing for any of the characters (it didn’t help that there was almost no closure for any of them). The story wasn’t compelling; I really wanted to read this for the climate change angle, but this focused more on the people than the earth.

The stories were also vague about exactly when in the future this is, as they keep talking about the Covid pandemic just being over, but many cities have already collapsed due to the climate crisis. The world is divided into people fighting to save earth from humanity, and the deniers who refuse electric cars and still eat meat.

I don’t know if this was all lost in the translation, or if it just wasn’t my type of book, but I can’t give this anything more than two stars. It was tedious, scattered and had very little development of any character or plot point.

(Thank you to Gallery/Scout Press, Jens Liljestrand, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

We have recently seen many fiction books enacting the dangers of climate change, from those discussing possible solutions to the many presenting outright catastrophes in our future. Liljestrand’s story is original because it confronts the fundamental human problem underlying addressing our future … we mostly care only about ourselves.

The story starts with plenty of disasters—in this case, fires out of control in Sweden—and shows with cinematic intensity how our way of life could quickly fall apart. We see up close the disintegration of families and the violence that we will unavoidably show each other in a collapsing society. But the darker part of this book, which is a series of interconnected personal stories about a few people trying to survive amid chaos, is how the characters try to continue with their personal goals, shielding themselves from—or using for their own benefit—the dystopian reality that’s engulfing their world.

The book is surprisingly entertaining and absorbing, considering the subject matter. Some readers, hoping to read yet another story of climate disaster that guilt us page after page, might be disappointed when the troubles recede to the background. However, that is when the irony of the book’s title becomes apparent.

Overall, this is a novel way to address our greatest global problem. It avoids the cliché that’s turning climate change and our possible extinction into a version of noir Science Fiction, a sub-genre that incorporates climate disaster as those books setting crime novels in space or adding time travel. And it makes us reflect on the part of this huge problem that’s not changing: our lack of concern for others

Climate change and satire are layered on top of a tale of an unhappy family of generally unlikable people. Didrik, his wife Carola, Vilja, Zack, and baby Becka as well as Didrik's former lover Melissa, and Andre the son of a tennis legend all must cope with the effects of a giant forest fire, There's a lot going on and yet not much happens. It was interesting to read a Swedish entry into the genre of climate apocalypse but otherwise it did not grab me. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I absolutely hate our homeboy. He was awful. He wanted credit and thanks for doing whatever hyped up male crap he does. He is a loser and a neglectful father. He is also a horrid husband who manipulates the women around him to serve his own self interests. He won't relinquish the baby to a stable caregiver or go find his son or anything else.
Then we have his girlfriend and she is so much worse! All she cares about is herself. She doesn't want his babies or him in his natural real state, I mean I wouldn't either, but she can't just say it. She wants him when he's all romantic. I kind of felt for her though. I mean she's young and trying to be optimistic but then she ate that eel and I was like "okay no. Maybe care a little."
Now I likely would have sent my boy away with a ride if I felt that was his only chance to get away but I would be handing him my phone or something. Or a note with a safe place for him to go.
Maybe. Like I know really.
I loved the shifting perspectives of this book. I could not do a whole book with just the first two.
I absolutely loved the ending.

Much like the climate crisis we're facing, Even If Everything Ends gets in your face and stays there, pushing you to be confronted with the uncomfortable. I haven't read anything that quite captures internal dialogue like this in such an honest and unapologetic way. The characters were so nuanced and true to reality in a way that you hated them one second but rooted for them all within the same breath. This book made me want to laugh, cry, scream, and possibly become a doomsday prepper.

Thanks to netgalley for the ARC! I had a hard time with this one as I think I basically hated everyone in it until the teenage daughter. The only real redeeming point was the climate change thing in general, which was fascinating and realistic and the way it all came together in the end with the characters. I couldn’t get into it until at least halfway because it was hard to see where it was going (& hard to get past the first character who is a super douche, pardon my language). I guess if you want to see all the flaws in people in modern society, you’ll like it more than me; I just had to force myself to finish it to see what character was next and where this was going. FYI profanity, sexual talk more than situations, and despicable people

3.5 stars.
I received a free copy of this book through Netgalley. This seems like a timely book regarding climate change. Those who have been personally affected by wildfires and the like are stronger believers than the ones who think it's made up. This book is set in Stockholm, Sweden. It centers on a family's life that is disrupted by wildfires, but also has a few other POV. I think this book would be improved by having the POV narrater's name at the start of those chapters because it took me a page or so to figure out whose viewpoint we were on every time it switched between characters. This book is a call for help for the Earth and for people who want to make a change.

What an engaging and sobering read. It is very topical and very, very real. I don't like summarizing books, but I will say that every character in "Even If Everything Ends" seemed very complex and real to me--human, if you like. No one is perfect, and I enjoyed the dichotomy between the characters who were despairing over the state of what we've done to our planet compared to those who think of climate activists as nothing more than prophets of doom.

I also think Liljestrand did a particularly good job of portraying everyone from a 14-year-old girl to a 19-year-old-more-boy-than-man to a mostly selfish influencer to a middle-aged man. Even the aging tennis pro struck the right chord.

Definitely worth reading!

⭐️Rating: 2/5
✍🏼Author: Jens Liljestrand



::My thoughts: This was a struggle for me and it was very confusing with the multiple POV. If you're interested in learning more about climate change.. this is the book for you, but it just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me a copy of this book in return for my honest opinions.

Thie book was so confusing for me as it was told from multiple points of view and very hard to follow who was talking. It took me forever to figure out and I was lost.

The books main focus was climate change and it's affects on our lives. I think it was talking about the future affects, but it was not clear, perhaps both present and future.

The books seemed very biased and just wasn't one I would pick up and read.

Maybe a good choice for others who have a high interest in this topic, but warning very biased and opinionated.

DNF @ 51%. When I started this I enjoyed it - I thought it was a good, thought provoking book about climate change and the future impact while following a dysfunctional family caught in the middle of it. Then it came to the next chapter/part where the story was told from a different POV (and every chapter felt the same…) and before I gave up it switched to another POV that I didn’t really understand the point of. I would’ve liked the book if it stuck with the original story, but where I am right now, I don’t understand what’s going on and don’t care to read on and finding out.

I really liked this book. Most of the characters were horrible, except the children.

I just reviewed Even If Everything Ends by Jens Liljestrand. #NetGalley

This is an UNFORGETTABLE Story for anyone interested in Swedish life, climate crisis or natural disasters. It took my breath away and I am still reeling thinking about it.

Didrik is an everyday Swedish professional man who has strayed from his marriage and is working to rebuild trust. When a true disaster hits, he seizes the opportunity to become a hero to his family. A series of bad choices cause things go awry. As we move through the disaster we come in contact with three other interesting characters who share their story and it is revealed that they are interlocking.

This is a kind of story I have never read before and I urge you to read it! It's entertaining, exciting, a treatise on consumerism, capitalism and climate change and a thriller to boot.

If you love thrillers, natural disasters, flawed characters or just want to stay up all night, Even if Everything Ends is for You!
#Gallery #EvenIfEverythingEnds #JensLiljestrand

A very detailed take on the climate apocalypse and how three people navigate it, Gets into the nitty-gritty of what day-to-day life will look like as people struggle to live normal lives in abnormal times. The characters are almost too human - absolutely sympathetic but also reprehensible. It made me really question - "what would *I* do?" A nice combination of horror, family drama, and absurdism - I couldn't put this one down. . This is going directly on my "employee favorites" shelf and I'll 100% hand sell it.

I wanted to enjoy this but overall found the story, characters, and plot to be something not what I was longing for or one that I would pick back up.