Marieke Nijkamp is from The Netherlands. She is the founder of DiversifYA. Her debut novel, This Is Where It Ends hits shelves January 5th.
This Is Where It Ends is told by four different characters, over the course of 54 minutes. It is a tale of love, of family, of friends, and of violence. It is the story of a school shooting, something horrifically more common today than ever before.
When the semester starts in Opportunity, Alabama, everyone is gathered in the school auditorium to listen to the principal’s beginning-of-semester speech. That is the last normal thing they experience that day. When they get up to leave, the doors won’t open. And someone starts shooting.
The author weaves together the viewpoints of four different characters, telling a tale that is sadly familiar to today’s society. It is a story of a small town ripped apart by violence, and by people forever scarred by the actions of one person.
(Galley provided by Sourcebooks Fire via NetGalley.)
This was not an easy book to read. It’s a hard topic, but one that is far too common today. The characters are diverse and vividly-imagined. The setting feels familiar. The details bring the story to life.
Side note: I knew going in what this story was all about. I was also clear that this story was told from multiple POVs. Which is why, for the life of me, I cannot figure out why someone on Goodreads gave this one star, and listed their reasons, starting with 1) “I really, really hate violence.” And, 2) “I hate multiple POV books.”
Um, okay. So you requested this book, when it was clear it was about violence and told from multiple characters’ viewpoints, which you hate, but you gave it a bad review for these reasons? Hmmm….sounds like the problem is with you and not with the book. I’m just saying: if the book is about something you hate, why even read it? More importantly, why give it a bad review, when it’s your fault you didn’t like it, not the author’s?
