One thought on “Before We Go Extinct”

1. As far as YA books on grief go, I would say this is better than The Fault in Our Stars, better than The Lovely Bones JC known as Sharky because of his shark obsession has recently experienced the death of his best friend, and has stopped speaking His mom doesn t know what to do with him so ships him off to his father, who is living on an isolated island JC tries to process how he feels through texts and photos to his best friend s phone, emails he erases to their mutual friend Daff, etc It felt [...]

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2. At first glance, BEFORE WE GO EXTINCT by Karen Rivers appeared to be the familiar story of grief and tragedy that has become quite popular in young adult novels But, upon experiencing the fluidity and realism that the book offers, it became quite clear to me that BEFORE WE GO EXTINCT was something special.Karen Rivers is an incredibly prolific author who has published a plethora of novels for middle grade readers, young adults and adults alike, as well as two anthologies I was delighted to disco [...]

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3. After his best friend, The King, falls from the forty second floor of his father s skyscraper while the two are climbing, JC is traumatized and chooses not to speak The friendship between the boys is highly unusual since The King s father is wealthy and he can have his choice of any of the girls in their school while JC also known as Sharky and Sharkboy because of his passion for the species is deemed odd for his singular obsession with the environment and lack of social graces It is not unexpec [...]

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4. This is a book about grief I mean, there s to it, yesbut essentially it s a book about grief After watching his best friend fall jump to his death, JC Sharky simply doesn t know what to think, what to do, how to cope.This book is beautiful There s not a lot of action There s not a lot of conflict There s emotion and confusion and a teenage boy trying to come to terms with death and how everything can change in an instant I normally like a little development from side characters, but I found my [...]

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5. Disclaimer I m usually not a YA reader I find it hard to connect with YA narrators, so I tend to avoid them That said, I loved this book Sharky s character was written like a true teenaged boy funny, disgruntled, frustrating, confused When you consider that he just lost his best friend, his feelings are understandable, and you can t help but want to fix him The last few pages had me catching my breath and frantically rushing to finish I was surprised, and yet satisfied, with how the entire story [...]

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6. When his best friend dies, Sharky has a lot of things to work through Mom needs to work, so she sends him to stay with his dad, where he finds refuge in nature and to his surprise, nurture With the help of dad s new girlfriend and her two kids, Sharky learns to deal with the difficult issues of life Thanks Netgalley for sharing his story with us.

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7. Loved this so much You can read my review on my blog lunainthestacks.wordpress

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8. I picked this book up on a whim one day while I was at the library, because the description sounded promising and I think the cover is spectacular And I am so glad that I did This book deals with teenage grief in a way that I haven t seen before Karen Rivers use of voice in the novel was really what brought everything together, making this a spectacular novel.JC, who commonly goes by Sharky due to his love of sharks, has been struggling ever since the death of his best friend, The King With the [...]

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9. This is the third book I ve read by YA writer Karen Rivers, and she continues her tradition of writing strong and introspective characters The main character, JC, also known as Sharky, is obsessed with saving the sharks, despite living in New York City, where the only sharks work on Wall Street He is grieving over the death of his best friend, The King Sharky imagines that King can still read his texts, and even blames himself for the accident that caused the death Visiting his father on an isol [...]

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10. Sharkey JC has stopped speaking since the death of his best friend The King The King jumped fell from the 42nd story of an unfinished building in Manhattan where they were doing parkour His mother sends him to a back woods area of a Canadian island to live with his father Here, with the help of Kelby, daughter of his father s romantic interest, he begins to speak again, and to love again He spends lots of time composing e mails to The King and not sending most of them and to Daff, the 3rd member [...]

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11. BEFORE WE GO EXTINCT is in large part a grief story JC a.k.a Sharky goes to spend the summer with his dad on a tiny island in Canada as he attempts to process the death of his best friend, the King There are a lot of YA books out there about teens grieving the death of a best friend or sibling, but this one still manages to feel fresh, mostly because of Sharky s raw, darkly humorous voice Sharky copes with the trauma he s enduring by going silent, sending texts to his dead best friend, writing m [...]

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12. I purchased this book several months ago on book outlet After it arrived, I promptly shelved and forgot about it in favor of all the exciting new releases that were coming out Yesterday, I was looking for a book to start near the end of the night I picked this up because it was short and the title was intriguing I had absolutely no recollection of what the book what actually about This led to one of the bigger surprises I ve had in quite awhile Before We Go Extinct will not be for everyone I tot [...]

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13. High School Level Great book for boys Death takes a toll on both the dead and the living The trick is to survive death.

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14. 1.What is your character main conflict Do they overcome this and how My character main conflict is that his best friend died in front of him so he spent countless hours holed up in his room watching documentaries about sharks and texting his dead friend So his mom mom sends him with his dad to a island in Canada and there he meets a girl and fells in love with her and that s how he overcome the problem of losing his friend.6.How did the main character change over time what did he or she learn ab [...]

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15. JC, a 17 year old boy, also called Sharkboy, has been trying to cope with his best friend s death, without much success The King as JC calls him , falls off a 42 story building, and JC is convinced that it was an accident His mother and father are divorced, so JC s mother sends him to live with his father in Canada, for a change in scenery JC hasn t talked in months, yet when he meets Kelby and her younger brother Charlie, JC is compelled to talk to them Of course, JC falls in love with Kelby, w [...]

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16. In the Young Adult Fiction book, Before We Go Extinct, by Karen Rivers, the main character, JC, a.k.a Sharkboy, is deeply saddened by his best friend s recent death that may or may not have been an act of suicide His mother, not fully knowing what to do with her newly mute son, ships JC out to his father on a remote island in Canada It is here that JC meets Kelby and her family, and they help JC cope with his grief I highly recommend this book and I really hope that the author makes a sequel It [...]

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17. I really enjoyed this book The only thing I didn t like was that The king could have got help ,he could have just tried Overall I recommend this book especially for teens and other ppl struggling with mental health Just please promise me not to give up ur life, just get help ask around, call the suicide hotline you have a lot to live for, for real life is not a utopia, you were put out here for a reason.

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18. I didn t like this book, but I didn t necessarily dislike it either I also totally saw that plot twist way before it happened Maybe I just couldn t relate to it, but I didn t enjoy it.

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19. Review to come

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20. Sharky saw his friend die in front of him and the question that haunts him is accident or suicide After retreating into his room obsessing over the sharks he loves so much, and refusing to talk, he is sent to spend the summer with his father, who lives off the grid on an island in Canada Here, with the help of his father s new family, and a girl, Sharky comes to terms with his grief There is nothing particularly new here, but Sharky s voice and his honest grappling with not only his friend s dea [...]

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21. My fault was when I was intrigued by the opening paragraph What quickly followed was not very good At all.Before We Go Extinct follows a boy named J.C who actually goes by Sharky Just like the main character in the previous book I read, Thanks for the Trouble, our main character doesn t speak This time around, it doesn t execute well at all In the silence, we follow someone who is filled with hate, blame, and judgmental feelings No, characters in books don t need to be likable, but he just wasn [...]

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22. BEFORE WE GO EXTINCT plumbs the complicated depths of love and friendship, grief and guilt JC is an intelligent, smart mouthed, shark loving outsider When his best friend, The King, falls or jumps off a 42 storey building, JC tries to avoid dealing with it by going mute and avoiding the girl who came between them, Daff After The King s death, JC feels betrayed because Daff remakes herself in a radical change and finds fame online her popular new look her red lips puffed up like shiny new Volkswa [...]

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23. Did not finish this I just couldn t get into the main character Maybe it was my mood, but I found him irritating and didn t care to find out how he changes

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24. My Globe and Mail review Grief is one of those things that is easy to feel and tough to explain Karen Rivers relies on metaphor to tell the story of how JC nicknamed Sharky for his shark obsession goes on after watching his friend fall, either accidentally or intentionally, from a 42nd floor window When Sharky s mom gets called to work abroad, he is forced to spend the summer with his father on a sparsely populated island in British Columbia This may seem like a pat set up for some superficial s [...]

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25. I wish we had the option of giving 3.5 stars because that s exactly where this book falls for me The main character and his struggles are worth a 5 along with his quirky dad, his new friend, his shark obsession, and the idyllic scenery But alas, the writer s talents flounder in shallow water when it comes to other characters in the novel who are left as extreme stereotypes with no depth or meaning at all and threaten to turn drama into parody.Of course, if I was 20 years closer to the intended a [...]

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26. I rate this book a 2 5 star rating I was never pulled into the book like I wished too After Sharky has had a rough time getting over the tragedy of his friend dying, his mom sends him to visit his dad Sharky meets a girl that he becomes in love with, which distracts him from the situation I think adding the love story was a little extra I didn t think that the author should ve made part of the book a depressing, long recovery journey, and then another part a happy love story I think the author s [...]

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27. It took me a while to get into this one, but I didn t abandon it and that s saying something The main character is dealing with the suicide of his best friend, which is complicated for him as he was there to witness it and it may or may not have been related to a love triangle of sorts between him and his two best friends The ending eventually explains some things, and the shark metaphor comes full circle too I don t think this would work for classroom instruction, or even a read aloud in high s [...]

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28. A story about dealing with unwanted, tragic events I liked Kelby s take on how life happens in seasons, and what happens, happens And the letter at the endwhile surprising, was not enough to up the book s rating There was an attempt made to connect the shark motif to our main character s healing process but it came across as jumbled ideas But as a whole, it s a solid entry and I m happy to support Canadian authors.

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29. I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of this book and am so glad I did Karen Rivers captures the essence of what I imagine is a typical teen boy s psyche Faced with tragedy, Sharky embarks on a journey that will come to be as life altering as the situation that brought him to his current state Rivers weaves a vivid and detailed picture in the readers minds as she carries us along with Sharky from NYC to a remote island in Canada where he learns to live and breathe again.

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30. I could not get very far in this I tried, but the descriptions of the friend s death were so graphic that I had to put the book down I picked it up again only to have descriptions I m not faint of heart generally, but I would be very careful about handing this to a middle school student It was perhaps the most traumatizing thing I ve read This reaction could be biased by my own personal experiences, so take a look at this book yourself before purchasing it for a school library.

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