This is Where it Ends review

(Taken directly from my #substack review)

📚The plot

This story is told from the POV of four different students in attendance at Opportunity High School (the name is kind of punny and it’s actually the name of the town) over the span of 54 minutes. The edition I got was cool because there were a couple of bonus chapters at the end, one of which was *super* sad to read after finishing the book.

Our cast includes Autumn Browne, sister of Tyler Browne and secret girlfriend of Sylv Morales. Autumn is busting her butt to get to Julliard and follow in the footsteps of her dancer mother, whom she currently mourns the death of. Sylv, again Autumn’s secret girlfriend (who is terrified of and hates Ty/Tyler) and twin sister of Tomas Morales. Tomas has a strained relationship with his twin at the moment and is the class clown with his best friend Fareed. Finally, Claire, the fourth character we get to know is working hard in track and hopes to go to military school like her sister Tracey has, but she’s afraid to leave their sick brother Matt behind who just started high school and is having a blast (they worried he would hate it). Claire is also the ex-girlfriend of Tyler Browne and has a best friend on the track team named Chris.

Each person tells a different piece of the story, which follows the 54 minute span of an angry student’s school shooting spree. Each year the principal holds an assembly to boast school pride and this year when it ends, students can’t seem to get out of the auditorium (a state of the art sound proof auditorium that was just built with the brand new school for the entire county). After a bit of confusion, a student comes in with a lock and forces a girl to lock the door he entered for him, before his vicious, abusive, heinous act begins.

📚My thoughts on this book

One thought I had was that the book felt a bit surface level, like there wasn’t enough depth to the characters and/or the story.

HOWEVER I have not read a YA book in so long I very easily could be failing to see that the issue is me expecting more from a book that just isn’t made for my age bracket. Therefore that did not go into my 4/5 star rating on Good Reads.

I loved how the story played out, and that we were reading it minute by minute from start to finish. I had grown to love many of the characters by the end, so the way it ended slightly broke my heart and also made me angry. Again, in a good way because let’s be honest how would anyone else feel about a school shooting?

📚Final thoughts

This book came out in 2016 (I think I bought it around 2020 but only recently got around to reading it) and the fact that school shootings are even MORE common is horrific.

I hope this book continues to reach the right people.

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