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This Is Where It Ends

Marieke Nijkamp (Goodreads Author)

3.67 · Rating details · 50,610 ratings · 7,997 reviews

One of Paste Magazine's Best Books of the Decade

The #1 New York Times Bestseller, now in paperback, with special bonus content!

Everyone has a reason to fear the boy with the gun...

10:00 a.m.: The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.
10:02 a.m.: ...more

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Paperback, 336 pages

Published May 7th 2019 by Sourcebooks Fire (first published January 5th 2016)

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Nov 02, 2015 Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies rated it did not like it · review of another edition

This book is a travesty. This book is, quite frankly, an insult to all the victims, direct and indirect, of school shootings. School shootings are a fairly new epidemic, one of the most well-known being Columbine. It is also a morbidly intriguing one; the psychology of the people that committed said acts are deeply complex, and not to be taken lightly in exploration.

And yet that's what this foolish, belittling, dare I say, stupid little book does. It boils down the intricate psychology behind ...more

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Jul 10, 2015 Emily May rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: coverly-love, arc, young-adult, contemporary, 2015

We're not just fighting for survival - we're fighting for hope and a thousand tomorrows.

I am so disappointed. So so disappointed. This Is Where It Ends promises a look at a frightening and very real problem in the U.S. - school shootings - written by a We Need Diverse Books member. It should have been amazing. It could have been amazing if it wasn't dampened by cheap, sensational writing and a black and white sense of victims and villains.

School shootings are horrific things that open up so ...more

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May 18, 2018 Jesse (JesseTheReader) added it · review of another edition

Hm... I'm going to need to think this one over before I share my thoughts.

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May 26, 2015 Rose rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: arc-or-galley, crime, young-adult, realistic-fiction, great-premise-lacking-execution, quick-read, drama, pretty-cover, netgalley, contemporary

Initial reaction: I think my reaction to this book can be best summed up in something that I said in the context of the discussion I had with a few of my readerly friends:

"I think this might be a classic case of an author who tries to write a story that's bigger than their ability to tell and trying to incorporate too much without any rhyme or reason to it."

But I will say this very clearly:

This is NOT a fair portrait of a tragedy befalling its cast.

This is NOT a good psychological portrayal of ...more

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Oct 14, 2017 Hailey (Hailey in Bookland) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

The Short
Actual rating: 2.5*
Trigger warning: mass shooting, specifically in a school setting, (view spoiler)

For fans of: The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis, Exit, Pursued by Bear by E.K. Johnston, Tease by Amanda Maciel (comps for this are admittedly hard to find as not many books tackle such an intense subject matter, so I included books that also tackle important issues.

Writing: 2.5 stars
Characters: 2 stars
...more

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Apr 22, 2017 Emma Giordano rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

This is a really hard one to review because on one hand, I think it is a fantastically written book that deserves all the praise, but on the other, it wasn't really for me and I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. So I'm settling in the middle with a good 4 star rating (5 for overall great writing, 3 for my personal reading experience) and hopefully I won't fail at explaining why I appreciate the genius of this book, but why it also wasn't that enjoyable for me.

Unfortunately, I This is a really hard one to review because on one hand, I think it is a fantastically written book that deserves all the praise, but on the other, it wasn't really for me and I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. So I'm settling in the middle with a good 4 star rating (5 for overall great writing, 3 for my personal reading experience) and hopefully I won't fail at explaining why I appreciate the genius of this book, but why it also wasn't that enjoyable for me.

Unfortunately, I believe I placed too many personal expectations on this book, thinking it would be a high-intensity suspense novel, but I got an entirely different reading experience than anticipated. My own personal hype is absolutely a huge reason as to why I don't think I enjoyed this book to it's full potential. I think, had I been more aware of the actual plot of the book as opposed to just knowing "it's about a school shooting," I probably would have been more prepared to read it with an unbiased mind.

It seemed that the majority of this story actually occurs through flashbacks (which is another personal book pet-peeve of mine), and the present plot was fairly static, in my opinion, until about 70-80% of the way through the book. The course of the story is essentially that someone starts shooting, there's multiple multiple flashbacks, a scene in the present every so often that is focused on mostly dialogue between characters, more flashbacks, and then the climax/falling action/ending. I'm in no way suggesting that this format suggests a "bad book", it's just the polar opposite of what I like to read.

The writing was also really well done. The story was very vivid, especially regarding characters. The prose was eloquent, but not distracting and absolutely fueled the story in a positive way. The book itself is really interesting to me because the entirety of the story takes place over the span of less than an hour, which is pretty unheard of for the novels I read. At points, it was difficult to keep up because you have four perspectives occurring at the same time, so it often felt like you had to rewind time a bit and replay the last few minutes for someone else to fully grasp the other point of views. It is definitely something that I feel would be hard to accomplish and although it wasn't my favorite method of storytelling, I think it came across well in the end.

I say in a lot of my reviews that I am a plot-based reader. I don't need to fall head over heels in love with characters as long as there is something big driving the story. So I prematurely imagined this book would be a really elaborate, action filled novel, when it is, in my opinion, ENTIRELY character based. If you are a character-based reader where the peak of your reading pleasure comes from complex characters with intricate back stories, please read this book . It's the book for you, I promise. The characters are really the driving action of the story. I honestly can't recall better written characters. They are all individual, unique, with clear cut past experiences, current motivations, and future hopes. There's also a great load of diversity in this novel as well, with 2 LGBT+ main characters as well as 2 Latinx main characters (one being LGBT+) and more. I will say that I personally am not emotionally invested in this particular set of characters. Again, it could be because I didn't go into this story with the intention of being attached to them, but I can completely understand why so many readers are emotional over these characters. They're flawlessly constructed, really well written, and are the types of individuals who should represent a story like this.

While plot based novels are my niche, I think the fact that this story is focused on the victims and survivors of such a tragedy was the better direction for this story. It was heartbreaking to see what these characters experienced, what they lost, and what they cannot regain. This story shows school shootings for what they are; a horrific, traumatizing experience. No character leaves this story unscathed and the images/messages that will be received from this story are the ones that deserve the spotlight. Though I was hoping for a loaded plot, I feel it would have overshadowed the real meaning of the story and shifted the focus in a negative way. But I can say with sincerity that all the decisions the author made regarding this novel were the right ones, even if it wasn't what I wanted from the book at first.

So ultimately, I don't think I enjoyed this book to my full potential, but I can still appreciate the art of it's construction! It is a book I would recommend to others, and I will definitely be reading from this author in the future. ...more

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Jul 16, 2015 Kelly (and the Book Boar) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: pretty-on-the-outside, read-in-2015, arcs

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

Here’s another book I read nearly a month ago and never reviewed. This time it wasn’t because I’m lazy ~~even though I am~~, it’s because I feel bad giving this one a negative review. But a negative review is what I must give when I read a book about a “Columbine” type school shooting and . . . .

This Is Where It Ends was easily my most anticipated YA contained in the BuzzBooks sneak preview. I requested it immediately and was thrilled to ...more

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Jan 16, 2015 Marieke added it · (Review from the author) · review of another edition

Shelves: i-wrote-this

TIWIE has a lot of things I'm very excited about, like queer girl main characters. And PoC main characters. And tragedy. And courage. And hope. And at least one wholly unintended Les Misérables reference.

I'll share more information when I can, but feel free to ask me any questions. And thank you for sharing my excitement! <3

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Apr 23, 2017 Erin Clemence rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

HOLY. COW.
I am at a loss for words with this novel. It literally took me three hours to read, because it was so gripping and suspenseful, I did not want to stop reading it, not even once.
(Before you ask- how can you possibly read novels on school shootings? Don’t you work in a high school? People who read about murders and murderers know there is danger in the world- it is your opinion if you want to be prepared for it and understand it (as best you can) or if you want to be surprised by it HOLY. COW.
I am at a loss for words with this novel. It literally took me three hours to read, because it was so gripping and suspenseful, I did not want to stop reading it, not even once.
(Before you ask- how can you possibly read novels on school shootings? Don’t you work in a high school? People who read about murders and murderers know there is danger in the world- it is your opinion if you want to be prepared for it and understand it (as best you can) or if you want to be surprised by it and dwell in ignorance for as long as possible. That is my opinion).
“This is Where It Ends” is the debut young adult novel by author Marieke Nijkamp. It highlights one day in the life of a public high school where students, having just finished listening to a speech by the principal, get up to leave the auditorium. Soon, students and teachers alike are scrambling- the doors are locked from the outside and everyone is trapped. Then, shots are fired and a student walks into the auditorium with a gun, demanding his peers “finally listen to him”…and the shots keep coming.
This story has a lot of characters acting as protagonists, as Nijkamp does her best to show the effect of that day on as many students as possible. Although this is initially confusing, the characters very quickly develop into real people and a relationship with the reader is formed. The chapters are short (switching from one teens’ perspective to another), which helps make this book a super quick read (another contributing factor- each short chapter ends with a gripping cliff hanger). The characters are strong and developed, and I love how Nijkamp spends a bit of time focusing on the shooter as well and the choices that brought him to the auditorium that day. The story is a non-stop, gripping thrill ride that I did not want to end.
The ending, of course, was bittersweet and not-entirely happy, but it played out as realistically as one can imagine (frighteningly). I do not have enough positive adjectives to describe my love for this book. Not since “Ninteen Minutes” (Jodi Picoult, of course), has a book on a school shooting touched me to my core. Nijkamp tells one hell of a story- a never ending thrill ride from beginning to end. I ran the gamut of emotions- from a desire to comfort the students, a paralyzing fear for them at the thought of losing their young lives, and of course both sadness and relief when the event had come to a fatal close.
A touching, paralyzing, suspenseful tale of bravery, cowardice, love and hate and how we all come together in crises to help those around us.
...more

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Aug 18, 2016 Whitney Atkinson rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbtqiap, read-in-2016, sent-from-pub

3.5 stars

This book is simply unforgetable. It's the first book I've read about a school shooting, and it was just as horrifying and jarring as you would expect. I'm very glad i'm not in high school anymore, because for the rest of my life I'm going to be a little bit startled walking into an auditorium. Sadly, I think this book's only selling point is the subject matter, however. It was gripping and tragic, but the characters, writing, and structure didn't support that very well. I liked how ...more

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Jun 16, 2018 Debra rated it liked it · review of another edition

Although this book is a very reverent and timely one, it fell a little flat for me. This book is told from the perspectives of four of the characters (Claire, Tomas, Sylvia, Autumn) in this book, spanning a 54-minute period after shots ring out at their school.

Even though, we are shown the characters, I do not feel as if I was given enough information so that I cared for these characters, the characters all felt flat to me. Perhaps it was the way in which the story was written. While reading Although this book is a very reverent and timely one, it fell a little flat for me. This book is told from the perspectives of four of the characters (Claire, Tomas, Sylvia, Autumn) in this book, spanning a 54-minute period after shots ring out at their school.

Even though, we are shown the characters, I do not feel as if I was given enough information so that I cared for these characters, the characters all felt flat to me. Perhaps it was the way in which the story was written. While reading this book, I wondered if it would work better as - now I am showing my age - an after-school special. Anyone remember them? I would come home from school and these shows would be on television to warn teens against bullying, teenage pregnancy, abuse, dangers of underage drinking/drug use, or showed positive things such as being a good friend, volunteering etc. I don’t know, perhaps a movie of the week or a series on Netflix would portray this book better.

Many of the scenes just felt cold to me. There was something lacking for me when I read this. For instance, toward the end of the book there was a scene (and I am paraphrasing) where a character opens a door and sees (a character I wont name) lying on the floor. It was as if they did not know each other. I would have expected more of a reaction - shock, anger, fear, sadness, etc. Perhaps, the person was supposed to be in shock and that is why there was no big reaction. Then at least tell us the character is in shock and feeling detached from what is happening in his/her surroundings. Then the scene would make perfect sense.

The Author does have a diverse group of students from varying races, religious backgrounds and has a closeted lesbian and another character who does not want to show their true self. These characters also have home issues, school issues and relationship issues they are dealing with. I just wish we were given more on each character so that I felt connected more to the characters.

Shootings, any shooting whether they take place in a school, a nightclub, a shopping center, etc. are extremely frightening and horrific. My son participated in three drills this last school year, so the students would be prepared IF a shooting took place in their school. It's scary stuff. A book about school shootings should evoke emotions and evoke fear. Unfortunately, I have not felt any of these emotions while reading. I have read various books that have gotten my heart pouncing, made me anxious, and evoked feelings of dread and apprehension. I would have thought this book would have had the same effect on me and sadly it did not.

My review most likely makes it sound as if I didn't like this book. I just had higher expectations given the subject matter. There were good parts of this book and I appreciated the diverseness of the characters, I just felt it was lacking in character development, and wanted more. ...more

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Sep 30, 2015 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, library-book

It took me awhile to decide how to rate this book. I didn't connect with all of the characters but I still enjoyed the story. Although, in this case, I'm not sure enjoy is the right word.

The story is told through several different POV. They were friends, brothers and sisters all living in Opportunity, AL going to Opportunity High School. And they all had one very, very bad day!

The story starts out with the shooter almost right off the bat. There are a few little things going on with the POV's ...more

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Nov 03, 2016 Rachel Reads Ravenously rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, hardcover, library-checkout

DNF about 1/3 of the way through.

This book is just..... shallow. Superficial. Not once did I connect to a single character. They all felt like caricatures of real people instead of relatable.

I can see what the author was trying to do with the subject and having a more diverse character base, but it just didn't work.

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Jul 21, 2015 Mary rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I'm numb.
I can’t even begin to describe the whirlwind that is in my head and heart after finishing this book. A complete and utter silence descended upon me the second I finished it. I was numb. I was speechless. I was heartbroken. I was angry. I was relieved that I was never forced to live a tragedy like the one described in this book.

It’s the start of a new semester at Opportunity High School in Alabama, and the entire student body is assembled in the auditorium, to listen to the I'm numb.
I can’t even begin to describe the whirlwind that is in my head and heart after finishing this book. A complete and utter silence descended upon me the second I finished it. I was numb. I was speechless. I was heartbroken. I was angry. I was relieved that I was never forced to live a tragedy like the one described in this book.

It’s the start of a new semester at Opportunity High School in Alabama, and the entire student body is assembled in the auditorium, to listen to the start-of-semester speech from the principal. When the assembly ends, they figure out that the doors are closed and cannot be opened. Then, someone starts shooting. The story is told from the perspective of four different people, all connected to each other and to the shooter. I found it to be a very emotional and personal book, a very fast read, because once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down. It’s a very conflicting feeling: wanting to read, but fearing what you’ll find written on the next page.

I think it’s so incredibly difficult to write about a tragedy like this. It’s very difficult to “get it right”. It’s why this is a you-either-love-it-or-hate-it book. But it hit the mark with me. I loved how it was written, I loved the characters and I think the author did a wonderful job developing them (given the fact that everything takes place in less than an hour, although we get a lot of flashbacks as well), I felt connected to them and to their story. Marieke tackles a myriad of difficult subjects and, while it would have been great for her to explore them more, I think she does them justice. The cast is diverse (POC and queer characters) and that was refreshing to see. The writing is gripping and poignant and terrifying. It transmits such an intense sense of dread to the reader, that it makes it difficult to continue reading at times. You feel how scared everyone is, how helpless and overwhelmed they are. It’s horrifying.

The thing that I loved the most, probably, is that it’s a story about the victims and the survivors. Not about the shooter. It doesn’t explore the “why did this happen” angle, because in situations like this one, we never get a straight answer. We never learn the why. Instead, it focuses on friendship and courage and love, it’s emotional and moving. Humanity permeates its pages. And there’s a tiny sliver of hope hidden in there.

Favourite quotes:

“We’re more than our mistakes. We’re more than what people expect of us.”

“You can’t always keep your loved ones with you. You can’t always settle your life in one place. The world was made to change. But as long as you cherish the memories and make new ones along on the way, no matter where you are, you’ll always be at home.”

“Grief is one big, gaping hole, isn’t it?“ I say quietly I don’t even know if he hears me, but my words are as much for myself as for him. "It’s everywhere and all consuming. Some days you think you can’t go on because the only thing waiting for you is more despair. Some days you don’t want to go on because it’s easier to give up than to get hurt again.”

★★★★★

To everyone who got this far, thank you for reading and have a wonderful day! Also, feel free to share your thoughts, comment or tell me anything :) ...more

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Jul 23, 2015 Dana Kenedy (Dana and the Books) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2016, 2016-release, young-adult

So good. Many feels happening right now.

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Feb 22, 2018 BernLuvsBooks (Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-books, 2018

I wasn't sure how I wanted to rate this book. For such a strong, emotional topic - the book was very shallow in my opinion. It lacked depth and I had a hard time connecting to the characters.

With my own community suffering through a devastating school shooting it just seemed like there was so much more that could have been done in this book. Simply, put it was disappointing. In a time when this is unfortunately a very real issue - this book seemed to trivialize. There was just no depth to it ...more

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Jun 04, 2015 Sue (Hollywood News Source) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: diverse-books, contemporary, alert-the-authorities-i-ship-it, girls-like-girls, young-adult, lgbtqiap, netgallery-arc, characters-of-color, interracial-romance

This is going to be a controversial book.

A teenager with a gun, shoots up a school filled with students.

A terrorist.

Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.

I was initially skeptical of the premise of This Is Where It Ends, books with multiple POVs usually doesn’t work well for me. Like I always say incorporating a handful of POVs is tricky. The author is juggling too ...more

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Jul 14, 2015 Melanie rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: e-arc, young-adult, contemporary, death, omg-the-cover-people, f-a-i-l, romance, books-i-own, could-have-been-so-much-better, to-review

Disappointment after disappointment, it seems these days. An incredibly unfair, black and white portrayal of a school shooting. Had so much potential *sighs*

Full review to come.

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May 10, 2018 sue rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, net-galley, warning-approach-with-caution, police-procedures-detectives

This is definitely not a book for everyone.

Its a subject matter that is 'real' and will effect you emotionally due to children being shot and killed.

I knew I would have to put on my big girl panties to read this, which I did, however it still it was poignant, heartbreaking and sometimes came over as cold.

There were many POV to this story and each portrayed what they saw or experienced with many social media activities going on.
Its just that there was something that bothered me, that was the ...more

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Nov 30, 2015 Cora Tea Party Princess rated it it was ok · review of another edition

5 Words: Not my cup of tea.

I had really been looking forward to this one. There was so much hype, I was seeing it everywhere, I'd heard good things...

But.

I knew it wasn't looking so good when I was ready to DNF by the second chapter. Up until then it was just dull and confusing. But then it picked up a little, started to get more interesting... And quickly trailed back to just dull and confusing.

I found the characters to be pretty one-dimensional. I couldn't even tell them apart, never mind ...more

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Jan 17, 2015 Kaye rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: oh-snap-it-s-contemporary, reads-young-adult, tear-jerkers, advanced-copy, book-expo-2016, dive-into-diversity-2015, friend-books, representation-muslim, diversity-young-adult, 2015-reads

[This review is not final. Quotes removed for reposting here, but you can find them in my blog post.]

My knee-jerk, first things first thought on closing This Is Where It Ends could be summed up in three words.

"I'm not okay."

And that, I think, is okay. Because this is a book that ends on a note that you should absolutely, 100% not be okay with.

This Is Where It Ends is deeply, darkly visceral and gripping. It takes you by the throat and tugs you downward into emotional compromise and utter panic. ...more

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Dec 19, 2015 Jen Ryland rated it liked it · review of another edition

I read dark-themed realistic fiction for the emotional punch it packs, and in that regard this book fell short for me. My biggest problems with the book were narrative choices that prevented me from getting to know and care about the book's characters/potential victims.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not generally a fan of more than two first person POVs and I struggled to keep all the characters straight. There were four different alternating first person narrators. All of these I read dark-themed realistic fiction for the emotional punch it packs, and in that regard this book fell short for me. My biggest problems with the book were narrative choices that prevented me from getting to know and care about the book's characters/potential victims.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm not generally a fan of more than two first person POVs and I struggled to keep all the characters straight. There were four different alternating first person narrators. All of these characters had similar narrative voices (except the one who sprinkled in some Spanish) and all had friends and siblings and love interests and ex-love interests and all of the relationships stayed pretty jumbled in my mind. Every narrative choice made by an author has its pros and cons. I can understand the decision behind this POV choice -- during the incident, some of the characters are in different locations within the school -- but to me all the POV switching was distracting and confusing. I know I'm not really connecting with characters when I start giving them shorthand labels to keep them straight in my mind (runner, dancer, dancer's girlfriend, runner's boyfriend, boy on crutches) and I never really understand much more about them than that.

I also had some issues with the fact that this book was narrated in real time ... except when it wasn't. Real-time narration can be very gripping (it's why I loved the show 24) and might seem a natural choice for a book like this, except that it typically results in a story that's all adrenaline and action. The book did incorporate some flashbacks, reflection, etc. but I thought those threw the real-time pacing off. I thought there was another downside to the fact that book takes place over the span of less than an hour and that the reader is constantly reminded how many minutes have elapsed. Every page or two, I kept thinking: where the &%$@ are the police? The shooting starts at 10:05. A full twenty minutes later, the SWAT team is in the parking lot "setting up"(?!?) and ten minutes after that they still haven't gone in. While we haven't made much progress in the US in preventing mass shootings, maybe we've learned something about how to react to them. Just a cursory Google search reveals that at Columbine in 1999, police waited outside for 45 minutes until a SWAT team arrived but that in the years since, American police changed their active shooter protocols to immediately send a team in to stop the shooter at all costs. I'm by no means an expert on any of this, but thinking about it as I read was distracting.

I know that senseless tragedies are easier to describe than explain, but again, I want fiction that delves a little deeper. I think that, given the POV choice, the shooter might have been included as one of the narrators so we'd get to know a little more about him and his motivations, which ended up seeming pretty cookie-cutter. The end of the book featured a quick conversation between characters: ("Could we have stopped him?") and another half-paragraph of some hand-wringing ("How could it happen here? Why couldn't we stop it?") But to me that felt just thrown in and the shooter came off as a cartoonish villain. (view spoiler)

In the end, while this book definitely had its gripping moments, I was hoping for more -- a deeper connection with these characters and a story with moral, psychological, and emotional complexity.

Read more of my reviews on YA Romantics or follow me on Bloglovin

Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review! ...more

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Nov 22, 2016 Stacey rated it liked it · review of another edition

I love, love, love this cover! Every time I see it I have to pause and look at it.

School shootings, unfortunately, have become all too familiar. A little piece of my heart breaks off each time I hear about another one. This is a good moment by moment account told by four narrators. The relationship between the shooter and his sister was especially good and suspenseful.

Thank you Marieke Nijkamp for taking on a harrowing subject. It will resonate with the YA audience.

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Mar 24, 2016 Jenna Major rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: EVERYONE

Shelves: 2016-reads, contemporary-reads, 5-star-books, best-2016-reads

5/5 STARS!!!

What it is about!
This book is a take on real-life school shootings. It follows different point of views of students, an alumni, texts and even twitter while it moves through the short period it takes to have such a traumatic event. This book is gut wrenching and raw and I doubt you will finish reading it without a few tears.

My Review:
This book is a very fast-read because you just cannot put it down. You need to know what happens next and who survives. It is a light read and can lack ...more

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Jan 10, 2018 ❤️ Book Diva ❤️ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Although I did find the book very good, I found that the ending ended very quickly. Without giving anything away, it was a book that was hard to put down and an exciting read where you wanted to know "What's going to happen next!"

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Aug 20, 2015 joey (thoughts and afterthoughts) rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook-arc, netgalley, arc-review

Are the contents of this book important? Yeah.

Was it executed in a way that, for me, showcased this importance? Errrrrguhhhhhmmm...can't say.
-- Full review pending.

Edited Jan 8, 2016:

[See the full review at thoughts and afterthoughts.]

Rating: 1.5/5
Should this book be picked up? the tl;dr review:
– A timely novel giving life to social circles shared by school shooters. However, the shooter isn’t given a voice
– Multi POV narrative; uses twitter, blog posts, flashblacks
– Set in Alabama and raises ...more

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Jul 01, 2015 Sarah rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: death, 2015-new-years-resolutions-challeng, contemporary, read-2015, netgalley-edelweiss, male-pov, multiple-pov, mystery, r2r-read, young-adult

(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Fire and NetGalley.)

“If you cooperate, some of you might go home today. All you have to do is listen carefully to what I’m saying. No screaming, no running, no phones, and certainly no attempting to disarm me. Today, you’ll all listen.”

This book was pretty shocking, mainly because this sort of thing happens in real life to real people.

I had a bit of a hard time keeping track of the ...more

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Jul 18, 2015 Jeannette Nikolova rated it it was ok · review of another edition

*** GIVEAWAY: You have the opportunity to win "This Is Where It Ends" if you enter the giveaway in the next 8 days! To learn more, click here. ***

Read on the WondrousBooks blog.

I'm really sad to write this review. Out of all of the books that I've ever requested on NetGalley, Everything, Everything and This Is Where It Ends were the two I was most hopeful about. I was honestly so excited to receive this book and I went through quite the disappointment reading it.

The theme of the book, although *** GIVEAWAY: You have the opportunity to win "This Is Where It Ends" if you enter the giveaway in the next 8 days! To learn more, click here. ***

Read on the WondrousBooks blog.

I'm really sad to write this review. Out of all of the books that I've ever requested on NetGalley, Everything, Everything and This Is Where It Ends were the two I was most hopeful about. I was honestly so excited to receive this book and I went through quite the disappointment reading it.

The theme of the book, although not a novel one, is one which, sad as it is, has become a part and certainly a problem of our society. It's entirely too often that we hear about school shootings and it won't ever become less of a tragedy.

What put me off the most about This Is Where It Ends is that the author, realizing that the theme of the book is going to touch the readers deeply, is reaching out in a very unpleasant way. I don't know about you but I really dislike writers who intentionally make themselves quotable. If your thoughts are interesting enough, the readers are going to quote them anyway. But there were too many paragraphs, especially at the end of each chapter, which felt like shameless self-promotion.

Other than that, I couldn't really feel a connection to the characters. Again, there was the intentional victimization in order to make them more likable, but it just made them annoying to me. All of them would constantly whine about their sad lives way before the shooting. I especially disliked Sylv and Autumn.

On the other hand we didn't really learn all that much about the characters' actual motivation. Yes, sure, we were able to read their thoughts, but WHY? Why did Tyler decide to shoot all of these people? I know that he felt alone, yadda-yadda, but what made him snap? What made him the way he was even before? Why did he start treating Autumn differently? How did he decide that this was the right thing to do for him? I didn't get any real insight into this. Everything is neatly answered, but all of the answers just seemed shallow and unrealistic.

I feel like many people are afraid of giving this book its actual rating lest it be considered insensitive to all of the victims of actual school shootings. Because I sure don't think that the book was as deep and insightful as everyone makes it out to be. ...more

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Aug 26, 2015 Diane S ☔ rated it liked it · review of another edition

So many school shootings, one after another, so this book is a timely one. I cared very much about these high school kids, wanted to get an understanding and wondered how the author would portray the shooter and the motivations of said perpetrator. For the most part I thought she did this very well. Narrated by four different students, inside and outside the school, aided by twitter feeds and flashbacks, we get a varied perspective as well as each of their stories. A bit overly dramatic but who ...more

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Dec 17, 2016 ambsreads rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, young-adult

2.5 Stars

Wow. I can't even formulate how I feel about this. I'm distressed. I'm disturbed. I'm also crying. I haven't cried while reading a book in a while, but here I am. A full review for this bio is impossible to write due to the fact it would be completely spoiler filled.

This book, however, is a journey that has you in the edge of your seat and praying for all the characters involved. There are some missing elements to it, but for the most part it's an amazing book and I highly recommend ...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
YA Buddy Readers'...: This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp - Restarting April 20th 2019	86	217	Apr 30, 2019 02:01PM
Gun Control doesn't work or solve the issue	6	30	Feb 23, 2019 04:27PM
Multiple Perspectives Mysteries	1	7	Oct 18, 2018 03:10PM
Tyler rapes Sylv	7	200	Jun 11, 2018 05:52PM

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About Marieke Nijkamp

Marieke Nijkamp

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Marieke Nijkamp a storyteller, dreamer, globe-trotter, geek. She's the author of THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS and the forthcoming BEFORE I LET GO.

Her short stories can be found in: PILGRIM PLAYWRIGHT GENIE GUARD, FERAL YOUTH, and THE RADICAL ELEMENT.

***

Please note I don't respond to friend requests or messages on GR, but you're always welcome to tweet or email me. :)

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“We're more than our mistakes. We're more than what people expect of us.” — 127 likes

“You can't always keep your loved ones with you. You can't always settle your life in one place. The world was made to change. But as long as you cherish the memories and make new ones along on the way, no matter where you are, you'll always be at home.” — 107 likes

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