The Night of Many Endings

3.5 Stars

⭐⭐⭐ – Love the cover on this one!

I wanted to enjoy this one more than I did. I mean, a book about being trapped in a library during a snow store. Seemed right up this bibliophiles alley. Alas, I just never connected fully with the story or the characters. There are a lot of heavy topics (addiction, sickness, death, loss of parents, homelessness), but they are never given the weight such topics deserve. The same with the characters. They are all just kind of one dimensional. In fact, I think “one dimensional” sums up my overall feelings for this book. It had tons of potential, but just skated along the top and never delved deeper to flesh out the story or the characters.

Adult Breakfast Club During A Disaster. Ok, so I love me a good disaster movie, and The Breakfast Club (look it up, kiddos) is one of the most iconic movies Hollywood has ever produced, at least for those of us who were anywhere from young kids (and mostly learning of its amazingness a few years after it released) to young adults (who were actively living it) in that era. Here, Payne manages to hit both notes while admittedly not having quite the same tear-jerking punches of both of her prior novels. The front part of the book sets up the disaster, and actually does nearly as good a job as the Tommy Lee Jones movie Volcano in showing just how “normal” the day of the disaster is. Then the disaster strikes and our more Breakfast Club mode kicks in. Here, our cast isn't trapped by an overbearing Principal in detention, but in a life and death struggle to stay alive and stay warm during a brutal snowstorm - but the ultimate tones and themes are very similar, up to and including various relevant tragic backstories. (Note that only the currently-relevant-backstories-at-time-of-publication part is similar between the two. The actual backstories are actually wildly divergent and yet great looks into under-told stories of each type of person.) And yet - get ready for yet another movie reference - the ending drags on a bit similar to The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King. Ok, the “coronation” has finally happened. We don't need half the tale being what happens after! (Note, nowhere near that bad here - more like the back 20% ish of the tale.)

Still, the writing is as beautiful and poignant as ever, the overall backstories are inventive in their rarity in literature, and ultimately this is a really strong book that everyone should read. Very much recommended.