We Are Inevitable

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

They say it took the dinosaurs thirty-­three thousand years to die. Thirty-­three millennia from the moment the asteroid slammed into the Yucatán Peninsula to the day that the last dinosaur keeled over, starving, freezing, poisoned by toxic gases.

Now, from a universal perspective, thirty-­three thousand years is not much. Barely a blink of an eye. But it s still thirty-­three thousand years. Almost two million Mondays. It s not nothing.

The thing I keep coming back to is: Did they know? Did some poor T-­rex feel the impact of the asteroid shake the earth, look up, and go,Oh, shit, that s curtains for me? Did the camarasaurus living thousands of miles from the impact zone notice the sun darkening from all that ash and understand its days were numbered? Did the triceratops wonder why the air suddenly smelled so different without knowing it was the poison gases released by a blast that was equivalent to ten billion atomic bombs (not that atomic bombs had been invented yet)? How far into that thirty-­three-­thousand-­year stretch did they go before they understood that their extinction was not looming ­it had already happened?

The book I m reading, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte, which I discovered mis-­shelved with atlases a few months back, has a lot to say on what life was like for dinosaurs.But it doesn t really delve into what they were thinking toward the end. There s only so much, I guess, you can conjecture about creatures that lived sixty million years ago. Their thoughts on their own extinction, like so many other mysteries, they took with them.

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Fact: Dinosaurs still exist. Here s what they look like. A father and son in a failing used bookstore, spending long, aimless days consuming words no one around here buys anymore. The father, Ira, sits reading in his usual spot, a ripped upholstered chair, dented from years of use, in the maps section, next

Gayle Forman is an award-winning, internationally bestselling author and journalist. She is the author of Just One Day and Just One Year, and the companion e-novella Just One Night, as well as the New York Times bestsellers If I Stay and Where She Went. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and daughters.

"No one writes about love like Gayle Forman. Lose yourself in her passionate mash note to rock music, indie bookstores and best of all, the miracles that can happen when you take chances on other people." E. Lockhart, #1 New York Times bestselling author of We Were Liars and Again Again
 
"The fastest way to a girl s heart is a novel set in a bookstore. I loved We Are Inevitable and its cast of characters (slightly damaged, a little shopworn, but never bargain-basement.) The only flaw: that Bluebird Books doesn t exist in real life, and I can t go there to browse." Kelly Link, author of Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, Pretty Monsters, and Get in Trouble and owner of Book Moon bookstore
 
"We Are Inevitable is one of those magical books that reads almost like a modern day fable. I found myself falling in love with the entire cast of characters, and rooting for Aaron all the way through. At its heart, this is a beautifully rendered reminder of the importance of community at a time when we need it most."  Len Vlahos, Author of Hard Wired and The Scar Boys and owner of Tattered Cover
 
"A masterfully layered story about friendship, family, and acceptance with brilliant bursts of Seinfeldian humor zinging throughout. I could ve stayed up in the Cascades with Aaron and friends for a whole nother book! David Yoon, New York Times bestselling author of Frankly in Love and Super Fake Love Song

 
"This story hits hard, right in the book lover feels! We Are Inevitable is full of endearing characters, witty dialogue, and a heart-wrenching, thought-provoking plot that will leave readers inspired and itching to get back to the bookstore. I loved it." -- Christine Riccio, New York Times Bestselling author of Again, but Better
 
We Are Inevitable is a love letter to bookstores, and a bow to the importance of community.  It is an understanding of the complexity