This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
Release Date: January 5, 2016
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary, Thriller, Mental Illness, LGBT
ISBN: 978-1492622468
Source: Advanced Reader Copy
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10:00 a.m.
The principal of Opportunity, Alabama’s high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.
10:02 a.m.
The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.
10:03
The auditorium doors won’t open.
10:05
Someone starts shooting.
Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student’s calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.
Wow. What do you say when you’re left speechless after you finish reading a book? What do you say?
One. You should read this book. Two. This Is Where It Ends is dark and disturbing and unapologetic in its honesty. What terrifies me the most is how realistic this book is in this day and age. This is fiction but it fits into reality seamlessly.
Even more fascinating is that this story is told over the span of 54 minutes. Through time stamps, we follow four characters, the killer’s sister, Autumn, Autumn’s secret girlfriend, Sylv, Sylv’s twin brother, Tomás, and the killer’s ex girlfriend, Claire as they find themselves at Opportunity High in Alabama on a day unlike any other. I was blown away by the very distinct voices and journeys of the four POVs (often times including brief memories as each character looks back on standout moments in their lives) as well as the tales of minor characters, seldom shown through text messages, tweets, and blog posts, all in real time. This story was so well crafted, all I can say is, again, wow.
Bravo for creating such a diverse cast of characters which crossed the spectrum in race, religion, sexual orientation, and health (mental and physical). It’s probably one of the most diverse casts you’ll read in 2016 so if you’re looking for a phenomenal book that reflects the people who walk in the world we live in today, this is it. That said, I’m shocked that this book didn’t take the opportunity to dig deeper into the psychology of a killer. A young killer. And really explore the killer’s mental illness more. We know that ***POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT his mother’s death END OF THE SPOILER ALERT*** changed him greatly but there’s so much more to share here and I wish we had gotten more depth here.
Overall though, whether major or minor, I felt for these characters. You feel the tension, the anger, the fear, the loneliness, the shock, the survival instincts kicking in…you feel just about every disturbing thing there is to feel while reading this book. Everyone reacts differently to tragedy and seeing many different reactions among this cast of characters in the midst of this tragedy playing out couldn’t have been easy to execute so job well done.
I love character driven stories and this one really did a number on me. It’s alarming. It’s unsettling. It’s heartbreaking. And in all of this, it’s an opportunity to remind us to love and live and to have the courage to thrive in loving and living. This Is Where It Ends is one of the most gripping novels you will read all year. So if you think that you can handle this very chilling tale, be sure to get your copy this January.
This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp releases January 5, 2016.