At the End of Everything

1.5 stars*
This book could have been great, but it feels rushed and messy in its execution. If another year or even a few more months were taken to tighten the plot, adequately develop the characters, and enhance the flow, I think this book could've had potential, but I am too caught up in the messiness to be able to rate it any higher than 1.5 (.5 for potential).

The Hope Juvenile Detention Center is a place where troubled teens are sent after all other options are seemingly spent. It's not a very hopeful place and troubled or not these kids deserve better. Just like many places like this, there are cliques and certain people who rule over others especially when the guards aren't looking (some of who aren't any better than the bullies). What if one day the guards stop coming around? What if you find out there is a plague going on in the outside world and maybe you and your new found group of friends are left to basically fend for themselves because who is going to come for kids that everyone already gave up on?

What I liked the most was the character development. You have different types of kids banding together to survive in a world that doesn't want them to the point that they just locked them away somewhere. Which made for a very heartbreaking but hopeful story.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for a digital arc of this book!

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to hear Nijkamp speak about their work, and I actually appreciated it way more after hearing their thoughts. Honestly I think they're a great person and I will be on the look out for future titles. That being said, this was not the story for me. I think that probably had more to do with not being in the mood for a “pandemic story”. I lost track of some of the characters, even though I liked the fact there were multiple mcs/narrators. Would definitely still recommend this to teens.

At the End of Everything, Marieke Nijkamp
Apocalyptic fiction, young adult
400 pages, published January 25th, 2022

I love love LOVED “Even if We Break” by Marieke Nijkamp so I was VERY excited to receive AT THE END OF EVERYTHING from NetGalley at no cost which thus resulted in this review. I downloaded this the instant I got it, read a few chapters, took a break to have dinner and hang out with my roommates, and then it was 3am and I was finishing it. It follows the pattern of one of my other favorite books, LIFE AS WE KNEW IT by Susan Beth Pfeffer, where a huge event happens (in that book, when an asteroid hits the moon and the tides change completely) and it changes everything, and the government isn't doing anything so it's up to the characters to continue to figure out how to live. It's basically LIFE AS WE KNEW IT smash cut with THE SOCIETY, but it takes place at a juvenile detention center, and the huge event that happens is a pandemic that's much worse than the one we are currently living through. The feeling of dread that surrounds the entire book reminds me of WILDER GIRLS, which is also about girls surviving in a remote location while terrible things happen.

This story is told through first-person narration of three main characters interspersed with phone conversation transcripts. It's extremely effective and evocative, especially as more of the characters and residents of the facility succumb to the pandemic. I loved all three of the main characters in this book: Grace, a headstrong girl who just wants a future, Emerson, a nonbinary teen who plays violin, and Logan, who is a nonverbal autistic character, something that I have literally never seen in a book.

Was it rough reading this book during a pandemic, as cases are getting worse and worse? Yeah, a little. But it's worth it. This ranks as one of my favorite books this year. Five stars.