The Prince & the Apocalypse

by Kara McDowell

She tilts her head, surprised that I don’t already know. “The end of the world.”

This story came to me during the pandemic, when it felt like the end of the world every time I looked at the news. I wanted to replicate those high stakes feelings but make it FUN and ROMANTIC instead of SCARY and MISERABLE! One of my favorite things about writing YA is that first love and heartbreak often FEELS like the end of the world, and this book makes that metaphor real. Media I was inspired by while writing include the classic Elijah Wood movie Deep Impact (I used to sob to this movie in junior high), and the British-American miniseries You, Me, and the Apocalypse, which proved the end of the world can be hilarious, actually.