Title: This Is Where It Ends
Author: Marieke Nijkamp
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: January 5th, 2016
Page Count: 292 pages
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
Summary:
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.
*The Reader’s Review*
My rating: 4/5 stars
This Is Where It Ends was my first read of 2016. I won’t lie and say that I don’t regret making this book my first read of the year since I was actually planning and hoping for a bright, heart-swelling story to star off with the right foot, but one thing for sure I don’t regret about is reading it. This book… it made my heart feel heavy. It made me more aware of my surroundings. It made me wish once again for a better world.
Imagine the panic, the hurt, the terror of being locked inside a place with a shooter? Of not knowing if you’ll be able to get away? One moment being okay and the next… not. Because of revenge. Because of being in the wrong place at the wrong time or just because we live in madder world day by day. (And as I’m writing this review I can clearly listen to bullets disturb the quiet night *sigh*)
This debut book doesn’t shy away from our harsh reality, of what used to be something unheard of and now something that is happening frequently. How social media lets us know what is happening around the world no matter how far we are. How lack of love and dreams can even shatter the brightest of minds. And how no matter how hard we try to understand or reach out, it may be too late to fix things up, if there were ever things to fix.
There’s hardly anything to love about the main theme in This Is Where It Ends, but it is a well written book and one that stays on your mind (and keeps you awake at night). It’s characters are diverse and while some POVs were better than the others, they all provided a front-row ticket towards every facet of the nightmare. I recommend it if you want something disturbingly real. Don’t expect a love story or a HEA commonly found in YA contemporaries. This is just a raw and grim reality that happens in the course of 54 eternal minutes.
The fact that this seems like a harsh read appeals to me but I'v never been one for the whole high school shooting thing. Not to sound cruel, but they never capture me. I'm not sure. Nice review, Melissa. Glad your first read was a good one!
I'm glad to see that you liked this one. I liked it too but it was hard to get through at times because it was such a scary situation! I ended up reading it rather quickly.
Krystianna @ Downright Dystopian
I have this one already, but I didn't know it was this good. I never read something like this, so I want to give it a try soon.
Great review!