This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
Product Details
Web ID: 9092796Cheesy
This book was…cheesy. That’s the best way to describe it. The way it is written seems juvenile. It just feels like it’s missing something and the character development is very lacking. I will say that I did find myself wanting to know what happened in the end, so it did keep my interest.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Favorite book of all time.
This book shook me to my core. The whole plot takes place over the course of only 52 minutes. BEWARE OF TRIGGER WARNINGS!!!!!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Amazing!
This book really confronts the reality that we as teens can face in our school. It vividly displays the horrors that have been faced in this society. Readers feels present.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Scrumptiously fantastic!!
Writing about tragedies and gruesome topics is difficult to put into words, yet Marieke Nijkamp can beautifully describe one hour of a scene in vivid detail in one book. In This is Where it Ends, students come to school expecting a normal day, just to be faced with a gun pointed in their faces. This story captures the emotions of the characters in such a realistic way that you can feel the anxiety and fear coming off the pages. Starting with the characters, each person portrayed a different perspective of what was happening during that hour. From those perspectives, the reader gains knowledge about what is going on, who the shooter is, and how they are all connected. All of the characters had one thing in common: each character was linked to the other and provided background knowledge and conclusions about what the shooter was like to each person and how they affected the storyline. At first, it was hard to keep up with who was who and the changing scenes, but as the storyline went on it became easier to piece together and understand the plot. How each character told the story added more of a mysterious atmosphere, as some were completely unaware of what horrors the others were facing. The most satisfying part is when the puzzle starts to click together, and how it leads to the next event. For a fiction book, it sure likes to use real-life experiences that people go through. Neglect, abuse, and many more dark subjects are in this book. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, for it raises awareness about what goes on behind closed doors. The shooter felt neglected and isolated after his mother’s death, and since everyone he had loved started turning their backs on him. It presents situations in people's lives that happen in real life. The splash of reality is refreshing in the book, especially how Nijkamp goes further down into the shooter's backstory and history. Usually, the villain is portrayed as out of touch and downright evil. However, the author's interpretation of someone classified as a villain is a person who isn’t understood and needs help, and most of the time it's help they don’t receive that causes tragedies such as the one in this book. On top of real-world situations, this book is also queer-friendly. It has two main characters who are gay and dating. In addition to that, the author, Nijkamp, is trans and queer themselves. They added additional touches to make the book more relatable for teens who can relate to themselves. The inclusiveness that comes with the book and the welcoming community are something that readers should enjoy. This book is alluring with the way it can talk about the different experiences between 4 characters and explains the plot at the same time. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone who likes an action-paced, drama-filled, inclusive story to read.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Loved it totally recommend!!
"Grief is one big, gaping hole, isn't it? It's everywhere and all-consuming." Wonderfully heartbreaking and powerful. This book realistically depicts the events of a school shooting in a high school in Alabama. Although the changing perspectives told by 4 students made it slightly confusing sometimes, it made character development easier to see and let the reader see the story from different angles. This is a tale spun with grief, death, and deep-hitting questions about school shootings. It hit even harder for me because you realize that this could happen in your state, in your city, to you. It also includes blog posts, tweets, and messages between chapters. This book absorbed me, I could not put it down until it was finished. The way all the characters deal with the deaths is also accurate, and reading this book it's clear the author put plenty of time into doing research about school shootings. The fear you can feel throughout the book is very real. The way that lethal acts of violence are not random acts of opportunity, but instead calculated cruelty. The antagonist’s disposition, mannerisms, and everything are so simple yet frightening. How does such a man, such a child, commit grievous crimes with a smile? Marieke Nijkamp is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of novels, graphic novels, and comics. She has received mounds of praise from different reviewers for her boldness to dive into under-visited topics such as school shootings and disability. I heavily admire the way the author shows multiple perspectives of the shooting, drawing us into the intertwining stories of a diverse group of students undergoing a terrifying ordeal. Sometimes it's through straightforward narration, although the previously mentioned tweets, texts, and blog posts are more challenging. Hard to read, but rewarding in its reaffirmation of the humanity that ties us all together. The book also included representations of many minorities such as LGBT people and other diverse ethnicities. The ideas this book conveys are also critical. How did it happen /here/, is a question many characters in the book ask. Could anyone have done anything to stop it? What brings a person to kill, so mercilessly and cold-hearted? If they had treated the shooter better, would he have not done this? Or was the empty hole that allowed the darkness to seep into his heart always there? This is a story that is very well told and gives different views from different students and how they manage to both deal with what is going on and their fight to survive. It pulls the reader in as they read what is happening minute by minute. This is a story that will stay with readers long after they finish the book because of the impact it makes on them. It will also have readers wanting to read more from this author. This story has some unforgettable characters in it.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Amazing and Fearful!
I have to start out by saying I was not expecting this book to go the way it did. Don't get me wrong, it has become one of my all-time favorites, but I had difficulty reading through a few disturbing parts. I don't think there was a moment where my heart wasn't pounding out of my chest. Nijkamp did amazing with not only having an interesting beginning and a successful end to the book, but how descriptive the actual shooting was. In addition, the multiple narrators throughout the book emphasized how each character not only partook the shooting differently, but how their background contributed to their survival mode. This book did develop some fear in me, but it has become one of my absolute favorites.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
So so good
This book was so realistic. I finished it in less than a day. Super quick read and it’s written VERY well. Definitely super sad, but you won’t be able to put it down.Check TW!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Wonderful!!
Was intense and realistic that I had to put it down a few times to take a break. Such a tear jearker. Loved the different perspectives and insight each went through in the end
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com