‘How to Survive Everything’ tells the story of a post-covid world from the perspective of a teenage girl, Haley. Around her, she is dealing with the passive aggressiveness of her divorced parents, the pains and struggles of going from teenager to an adult, and of course, a global pandemic.
Set after the current pandemic, it raises the questions ‘what next?’ and how do we, as a society, recover from such a devastating loss of human life alongside terrible world leadership. The book reads like a warning of what could happen if we ignore the mistakes of the past and go back to our self-indulgent ways. Ewan’s book is an incredible dissection of humanity and the fragility of life in these catastrophic global situations. The use of a teenage girl as the narrator is crucial in telling this story as the reader sees the world from Haley’s positive, anxious, curios and cautious eyes. The emotional journey Haley goes through reflects all of our collective thoughts throughout this current pandemic, the hopelessness, the optimism, the scepticism and of course, adjusting to a new world and a new way of life.
The book is also written like a survival guide. Giving the reader genuinely good advice on how to survive an apocalyptic pandemic, whilst also letting the reader know that the most important part of survival is about cherishing those close to you. Despite the overarching theme being a pandemic, it is a great topical read that I would highly recommend.