This Is Where It Ends
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4.4 • 23 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The reviews are in! This Is Where It Ends, the #1 New York Times bestseller and one of the Best Books of the Decade (Buzzfeed, Paste Magazine, BookRiot), "could break you." "I am speechless." "The saddest book I have ever read." "Literally tore my heart out."
Go inside a heartbreaking fictional school shooting, minute-by-terrifying-minute. Everyone has a reason to fear the boy with the gun...
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 a.m.: The auditorium doors won't open.
10:05 a.m.: Someone starts shooting.
Over the course of 54 minutes, four students must confront their greatest hopes, and darkest fears, as they come face-to-face with the boy with the gun. In a world where violence in schools is at an all-time high and school shootings are a horrifyingly common reality for teenagers, This Is Where It Ends is a rallying cry to end the gun violence epidemic for good.
Praise for This Is Where It Ends:
• A Buzzfeed Best Young Adult Book of the Decade
• A Paste Magazine Best Teen Book of the Decade
• A Book Riot Biggest YA Book of the Decade
• A Professional Book Nerds Best Book of the Decade
• A Bustle.com Most-Anticipated YA Novel
• A Goodreads YA Best Books Pick
• A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist for Young Adult Fiction
• Kids Indie Next List Pick
"Marieke Nijkamp's brutal, powerful fictional account of a school shooting is important in its timeliness." —Bustle.com
"A gritty, emotional, and suspenseful read and although fictionalized, it reflects on a problematic and harrowing issue across the nation." —Buzzfeed
"A compelling, brutal story of an unfortunately all-too familiar situation: a school shooting. Nijkamp portrays the events thoughtfully, recounting fifty-four intense minutes of bravery, love, and loss." —BookRiot
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Whenever we hear about mass shootings, it can be hard to get beyond the bare, horrifying facts. With This Is Where It Ends, Marieke Nijkamp takes us inside a school where an armed student has hijacked an assembly; the action is narrated from the perspectives of four students who each have a unique connection to the shooter. Through internal narratives and flashbacks, Nijkamp’s characters grapple with the unthinkable while also trying to answer a devastating question: How could a boy they’ve known for years do something like this?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sometimes the most terrifying horrors are not those involving monsters out of fantasy but those taken straight from today's headlines. Nijkamp's debut follows four high school students on their first day of the spring semester in Opportunity, Ala. Over the course of 54 minutes the amount of time a gunman holds their school hostage their lives collide. Each of the four has an intimate connection to the shooter, and all must find a way to face the unfolding tragedy. While Claire views the event from outside the school, Autumn, Sylv, and Tom s are on the front lines. Love, loyalty, bravery, and loss meld into a chaotic, heart-wrenching m lange of issues that unite some and divide others. A highly diverse cast of characters, paired with vivid imagery and close attention to detail, set the stage for an engrossing, unrelenting tale. The starkly chilling realism and themes of abuse, death, and assault, among others, may prove too much for younger or sensitive readers, but the story unquestionably leaves an indelible mark. Ages 14 up.
Customer Reviews
Marieke at the top of their game
The synopsis may make some question the book at first, but dive in and you’ll find some of the most beautiful, heart-wrenching characterization in a prose that works perfectly. Every character is so deeply interesting and the events so well broken down the only times I put this book down was to move from place to place reading. I cannot recommend this novel more.
Amazing
Would read again