My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor Random House Publishing for an advance copy of this book that looks at what we think about when we fear the end of the world is coming, the art that comes from it, the thoughts that effect the world, and the many ways we imagine things how the end will come.

There is a lot of nostalgia around now, with many people thinking about the good days, and how things were so great. I grew up in the eighties, a time that is shown on a lot of television shows currently. One of the biggest shows a miniseries was called The Day After which showed the effects of a small nuclear war on a small town in the midwest. The show was so horrifying, even after the military begged ABC to change much of the story, that schools had to address the fear that is caused for almost a week. Nothing like seeing teachers who grew up in the Duck And Cover era of surviving a thermonuclear war facing the fact they were lied to and nuclear war is not a good thing. Add to the fact we had a President who told the news that this could be the generation that sees the Biblical Armageddon, and in a joke on radio declared Russia an outlaw state and we would start bombing them. In five minutes. So the specter of war was always there. And it showed in our shows, our movies and our books. Today we face an end from all sorts of places. AI, climate, pandemic, our voting for incompetence, and more. The doomsday clock is close to midnight. And yet, we are still here. This is not the first time that things have looked bleak. Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World by writer and journalist Dorian Lynskey is a look at apocalypse fever, how it entertains us, changes policies, changes lives, and why we also expect things to go bad.

The book begins with a look at Armageddon fever from the beginning, the Deluge that happened that was included in the Bible, the idea of the gods getting tired with humans so easily, that wiping them out seemed to be the only solution. Revelation the book of the Bible that deals with end times is of course covered, and Lynskey looks at how this section, with its dark writings and almost dreamlike imagery became such a big part of people's lives, influencing countless works from fiction to philosophy. There is a brief history on numerology and who people began to try figuring out when the world would come, and the rise of cults that were so sure, they burned their belongings, killed the nonbelivers and stood waiting for the end. From there Lynskey looks at the different ways the end might come, the usual pestilence, war, climate change, even fun ones like zombies. Each section has examples from movies, books, art, even scientific papers. All show the feeling that some people only seem happy when it rains. That many people seem to want the end, for a variety of reasons.

Lynskey covers a lot of subjects in his book. Art, culture, politics, science, religion, psychology and philosophy. And of course the different ways the world can end. Too much heat, too cold, war, and a whole lot more. The book should be grim, but it is fascinating to see how many times people thought it was the end, volcanos causing the weather to go weird, super cold winters due to the fact the planet might be tilting a little much every 10,000 years. And again, we are still here. Lynskey has done a lot of research, finding quotes, breaking down novels and movies, and making everything not only interesting, but not that depressing. Though if one is a downer there is a lot of fuel for that fire. There is quite a lot to choose from and I did keep a list, as there is a lot of books I seem to have missed, that sound quite good.

This is the second book by Lynskey I have read and I enjoyed it quite a bit. As a loving uncle of two wonderful nephews, I hope that my thoughts about the end coming soon, are wrong, for ther sakes, and for others too. There is a lot to scare readers in this book. However there is a lot to feel hopeful for, also. My generation made it through parachute pants in the 80's. Maybe we can make it a little bit longer.

My attempt to write this review in the style of R.E.M.'s "The End of the World" was unsuccessful.

The book is a catalog of the ways that everyone dies. Not in a Tibetan Book of the Dead sense, but in a Rocks Fall sense. It is grouped in that way, by theme of how everyone died, or almost everyone usually, which leads to a sort of rough chronological presentation as different scientific ideas or faddish preoccupations arise.

If you are looking for book recommendations, the author has your back. The book focuses on fictional presentations, but the fiction often arises out of specific anxieties brought on by an event or a scientific discovery, so it necessarily covers actual theory and prediction as well. The range of works - different media, different eras, different degrees of popularity or contemporary traction - is impressive. The more obscure works, or forgotten, sometimes rightfully, are the most entertaining of the entries. This is a topic that has been under discussion for a while with wide ranging variation in its observations and applications.

The best section is the closing, which has a more contemplative tone. How do we live while under the threat of extinction, specifically now as relates to global warming? Can we make our fears matter? The weakest section is on technology (robot takeover and AI), where the catastrophe of the matter feels absent as opposed to a sort of general reportage. Or perhaps it is that the fears here are highly relevant to today's politics, even if not realistic, and so the lack of critical discussion is a missed opportunity. There is also the odd choice to end on two discredited theories (overpopulation and global freeze). The relevance of them as they connect with the threat of climate change is poignant. (This operates in a functional sense of what the fears were looking at as more about climate change, and in an ideological one, in how climate deniers will use them as evidence. That, of course, is the point of the juxtaposition, which is made clear by the text, but someone is going to get the wrong impression.))

The obvious complaint is things are a mile wide and an inch deep, where there is a lot more to be written about, but I have to point to the rule of fun at some point, and note that this is neither a dreary meditation nor scoff-fest, but a game of hopscotch in the ruins.

My thanks to the author, Dorian Lynskey, for writing the book, and to the publisher, Pantheon, for making the ARC available to me.

Reading this book during a time that feels rather apocalyptic in its own way was a strange comfort--we have been here before, over and over and over. Lynskey's background is in the realm of entertainment and politics, so it makes sense that there is such an emphasis on the sheer number of cultural references within this book that reference the end times. As humans we know we're hurtling toward death and of course we're going to be obsessed with how that might happen before we're ready. This is a fascinating, engaging and comprehensive guide to everything apocalyptic. Long before I finished it, I was telling everyone I know to add it to their reading list.

Thanks NetGalley and Picador for the early read!

Everything Must Go is a fantastic book looking at the fascination humans have with the end of the world and the ways we ponder and react to it from movies, TV, Folklore and even religion. Dorian Lynskey writes a phenomenal and funny book that made me both ponder and laugh out loud.

I like the concept of this book looking at the various ways humans have imagined the end of the world throughout history. However, at many points it just felt like a list of various apocalyptic medias without a lot of analysis on why those ideas were most popular at the time. I would have enjoyed a more streamlined version of this book that relied more on analysis and less on just giving me quotes and facts about these different types of media.

I very much enjoyed this book and will be recommending it to everyone that I know, it's a must read!

A funny and poignant work on the End of the World. Very timely. Will order for my library. Thanks!

This book at times felt more like an archive of references, sources, stories, myths, of all the ways humans have narrated the end of the world, versus an analysis/insight into why humans are so obsessed with the end of the world. Nonetheless, it was very interesting and I recommend; however, I was expecting more of an in-depth sociological/psychological/anthropological/cultural analysis with maybe more chapters focused on this aspect of the collective unconscious and more theoretical discussion.

It's a very informative book, thoroughly researched and dense with a lot of information! Thank you NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, and Vintage catalog for this ARC!