Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The End

by Nora Olsen (Goodreads Author)

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 30 ratings · 7 reviews

When World War Three breaks out, seventeen-year-old Julia is on a school trip to Amsterdam, while fourteen-year-old Marly is trapped in a prison for delinquent girls. They both discover magical amulets, and try their best to save themselves and those around them. But it looks like their best will not be enough, as nuclear war threatens the survival of the human race.On her...more

Paperback, 270 pages

Published December 15th 2010 by Prizm

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Booklist for Trans Youth

46th out of 52 books — 87 voters

YA fantasy/sf novels with major LGBTQ Characters

64th out of 95 books — 19 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 278)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Sep 16, 2012 Rachel Brown rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, lgbtq, fantasy

Five queer kids save the world after an apocalypse!

With that premise, I expected to enjoy the book a lot more than I actually did. It’s largely a comedy, with the apocalypse caused by Muldoona, a Goddess lurking in her Fortress of Despair and eating peeled grapes. Humor is the most subjective of forms, and others might well find this book funnier than I did. I mostly found it totally unfunny.

The first chapter introduces Skilly, a bisexual 5000-year-old caveman in a 17-year-old body, due to hav...more

like 1 like · see review

Aug 16, 2012 Sasha Kay Riley rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-12

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

like · see review

Feb 16, 2013 Samantha Boyette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

This was one of those books that once I started it I could barely put it down. I was immediately pulled into the story and concerned for all the characters. I'm not sure what it was that made me like all of them so quickly, but I did.

The beginning nicely sets up a world at the very end of its rope. Nuclear war has begun at the urging of an irate god. Now, this whole bit of the plot is a little weak, but I'll ignore it because I loved the rest so much.

What about the rest did I love? The relatio...more

like · see review

Jul 08, 2012 Nina at Death Books and Tea rated it 3 of 5 stars

Review:Skilly is sailing, Ginger and Julia are on a school trip, Marly is in prison and Vikki is out of rehab for bulimia when nuclear war looms. Fate brings them together, these teenagers (aside from Skilly, who’s thousands of years old) who have amulets blessing them with various powers. Romances quickly form, but they have other problems- an ancient goddess is rather upset with her husband and is hellbent on destroying the earth.
It’s really nice seeing books with LGBT characters in which the...more
Review:Skilly is sailing, Ginger and Julia are on a school trip, Marly is in prison and Vikki is out of rehab for bulimia when nuclear war looms. Fate brings them together, these teenagers (aside from Skilly, who’s thousands of years old) who have amulets blessing them with various powers. Romances quickly form, but they have other problems- an ancient goddess is rather upset with her husband and is hellbent on destroying the earth.
It’s really nice seeing books with LGBT characters in which the main focus isn’t their sexuality/gender. We do have another plot, underneath the tangle of romances, of Muldoona plotting her destruction and our heroes trying to stop her. It’s nice also seeing a genderqueer character-the T part of LGBT is hardly ever represented. Marly becoming comfortable with sometimes not feeling like a girl, not always feeling like a boy, and sometimes feeling like “a gender free mutant with magic powers” is a development that you could easily see coming and felt natural.
In terms of sexual orientation and gender, we have a diverse range of characters. But on other counts we have a lot of variation too. Age wise, personality wise, and species wise –we have a random selection of deities from multiple cultures. Vikki I found a little boring, as she seemed a bit stereotypical and she didn’t do that much, but the others were good. Ginger is my favourite, Marly is independent and Skilly is nice in that he’ll try things out for the rest of the team, even if it extends to living out a month again because his time travel theory wasn’t quite right.
That whole time travel thing was a little bit hard to get my head around. Not because it was time travel (I do quite well in understanding it, unless you mess it up like Stephen Moffat does in Doctor Who), but because all characters revert to the bodies that they had. In this case, our five main characters become four years younger. Leaving Marly age ten. It’s hard getting used to a ten year old heroine, when, from many books and this book too, you get used to them being a bit older. Still, ten year old Marly is a good character, even though it does take a little bit of time getting used to them.
This whole timeskip does lead to some rather awkward situations too. We have Ginger lamenting not being able to carry on a relationship with Skilly because she is now in the body of a thirteen year old, while (with his immortality amulet) he is in one of a seventeen (I think) year old. And, before the timeskip, we have a fourteen year old asking an eighteen year old really bluntly “Do you want to have sex now?” I get that they’re in a post apocalyptic environment, but they’ve only known each other two months and I don’t know what fourteen year olds Nora knows but most of us don’t want sex at our age.... I don’t like young (under sixteens) people in sexual situations. That’s something that bugs me. Aside from that, the romance is good and built up nicely.

Overall: Strength 3 tea to a LGBT novel with a lot of action, romance, and cuteness.(less)

like · see review

Apr 05, 2013 Jazmin Rivas rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was such a fantastic book. It was totally fun to read about queer kids. I could barely put it down! It starts out interesting with a Nuclear war. But a little bit of the plot was weak, but i still loved it. The most I loved was that the kid's friendship was so realistic. Each of the queer kid's story was so fantastic! I would highly recommend this book.

like · see review

Sep 22, 2011 Read for your future! rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed-by-fhs

Read Ethans review at:
http://readforyourfuture.blogspot.com...

like · see review

May 19, 2012 Leisa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Creative and fun. A fast read for a rain evening.

like · see review

May 05, 2013 Liz Day marked it as to-read

May 05, 2013 Notinfrontoftheklingons marked it as to-read

Apr 30, 2013 Grendel marked it as to-read

Apr 25, 2013 digitalpenNibs marked it as to-read

Apr 23, 2013 Jeanette marked it as to-read

Apr 21, 2013 Aren Nova marked it as to-read

Shelves: fantasy, coming-of-age, romance, adventure

Apr 09, 2013 S. Link D marked it as to-read

Apr 07, 2013 Thapelo Sebolai marked it as to-read

Apr 01, 2013 humanalias marked it as to-read

Mar 24, 2013 Max Gordon marked it as to-read

Mar 22, 2013 Caitlyn marked it as to-read

Mar 20, 2013 Logan marked it as to-read

Mar 09, 2013 Talia rated it 2 of 5 stars

Mar 06, 2013 Travis marked it as to-read

Feb 22, 2013 Rosa Lina marked it as to-read

Shelves: to-read-lgbt, lgbt

Feb 18, 2013 Jesse Ello' marked it as to-read

Shelves: birthday-books, queer-lit

Feb 17, 2013 Erikka marked it as to-read

Feb 14, 2013 Tyne marked it as to-read

Feb 11, 2013 Kim DeCina marked it as to-read

Feb 07, 2013 Lirael marked it as to-read

Feb 03, 2013 James marked it as to-read

Feb 02, 2013 Kels marked it as to-read

Feb 01, 2013 Bee marked it as to-read

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Making Connection...: ARR # 166 - THE END: FIVE QUEER KIDS SAVE THE WORLD by Nora Olsen	15	62	Apr 06, 2013 03:46pm

combine
Other Editions (1)

Genres

Young Adult

10 users

Glbt

5 users

Fantasy

3 users

Glbt > Queer

3 users

Glbt > Lesbian

2 users

See top shelves...

About Nora Olsen

Nora Olsen's debut novel, The End: Five Queer Kids Save The World, was published by Prizm Books in December 2010. It's the story of five LGBT teens who must travel through time to avert a nuclear war. Her next YA novel, SWANS & KLONS, is forthcoming from Bold Strokes Books' Soliloquy imprint.

More about Nora Olsen...

Books by Nora Olsen

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The End

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: The End
avg rating	preview: The End Goodreads rating: 3.83 (30 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10264376-the-end?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347487885l/10264376.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10264376-the-end?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The End by Nora Olsen[/url]

The End

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

combineOther Editions (1)

Genres

About Nora Olsen

Books by Nora Olsen

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About The End

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (1)