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Summary
Summary
The reviews are in! This Is Where It Ends, the #1 New York Times bestseller and one of the Best Books of the Decade (Buzzfeed, Paste Magazine, BookRiot), "could break you." "I am speechless." "The saddest book I have ever read." "Literally tore my heart out."
Go inside a heartbreaking fictional school shooting, minute-by-terrifying-minute. 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.: The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.
10:03 a.m.: The auditorium doors won't open.
10:05 a.m.: Someone starts shooting.
Over the course of 54 minutes, four students must confront their greatest hopes, and darkest fears, as they come face-to-face with the boy with the gun. In a world where violence in schools is at an all-time high and school shootings are a horrifyingly common reality for teenagers, This Is Where It Ends is a rallying cry to end the gun violence epidemic for good.
Praise for This Is Where It Ends:
A Buzzfeed Best Young Adult Book of the Decade
A Paste Magazine Best Teen Book of the Decade
A Book Riot Biggest YA Book of the Decade
A Professional Book Nerds Best Book of the Decade
A Bustle.com Most-Anticipated YA Novel
A Goodreads YA Best Books Pick
A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist for Young Adult Fiction
Kids Indie Next List Pick
"Marieke Nijkamp's brutal, powerful fictional account of a school shooting is important in its timeliness." --Bustle.com
"A gritty, emotional, and suspenseful read and although fictionalized, it reflects on a problematic and harrowing issue across the nation." --Buzzfeed
"A compelling, brutal story of an unfortunately all-too familiar situation: a school shooting. Nijkamp portrays the events thoughtfully, recounting fifty-four intense minutes of bravery, love, and loss." --BookRiot
Author Notes
Marieke Nijkamp is the Young Adult writer of the New York Times bestseller of This is where it ends.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Sometimes the most terrifying horrors are not those involving monsters out of fantasy but those taken straight from today's headlines. Nijkamp's debut follows four high school students on their first day of the spring semester in Opportunity, Ala. Over the course of 54 minutes-the amount of time a gunman holds their school hostage-their lives collide. Each of the four has an intimate connection to the shooter, and all must find a way to face the unfolding tragedy. While Claire views the event from outside the school, Autumn, Sylv, and Tomás are on the front lines. Love, loyalty, bravery, and loss meld into a chaotic, heart-wrenching mélange of issues that unite some and divide others. A highly diverse cast of characters, paired with vivid imagery and close attention to detail, set the stage for an engrossing, unrelenting tale. The starkly chilling realism and themes of abuse, death, and assault, among others, may prove too much for younger or sensitive readers, but the story unquestionably leaves an indelible mark. Ages 14-up. Agent: Jennifer Udden, Donald Maass Literary Agency. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
It is the first day of the spring semester at Alabamas Opportunity High, and for those locked inside its auditorium, it is the darkest day of their lives. Four different students give their accounts of a harrowing fifty-four minutes as former student Tyler opens fire on the morning assembly with an executioners intent and a hunters precision. Autumn, Tylers sister, has dreamed of nothing but dance and escape from Opportunity since their mothers death; her girlfriend Sylv, previously a victim of Tylers rage, has been feeling helpless as her own home life falls apart. Both watch horrified as Tyler indicts the entire school and picks off their classmates and teachers one by one. Outside, Sylvs twin brother Toms desperately tries to free the trapped students, terrified that he will, once again, fail to protect his sister from Tyler; and Claire, Tylers ex-girlfriend, having heard the gunshots from track practice, agonizes over her role in fueling Tylers hate. With narration firmly rooted in the moment and smooth transitions in and out of flashbacks, each first-person account reveals an intricate web of betrayal and pain that connects the four to Tyler and to the horror he has unleashed. Although the alternation among four perspectives can be disorienting, such disorientation is entirely appropriate amidst the novels brutality and heartbreak. anastasia m. collins (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Nijkamp's debut adds to the growing list of novels about school shootings. As Opportunity, Alabama, high-schoolers are welcomed in for a new school year, an armed male student locks the student body inside the auditorium, and then the carnage begins. The subsequent 54 minutes unfold with breathless pacing in the alternating voices of characters who know the shooter: Claire, the track star and former girlfriend of the shooter, who's outside when the shooting begins; Tomás, a troublemaker who rises to the occasion; Autumn, a promising dancer and the shooter's sister; and Sylv, a straight-A student, who is Autumn's closeted girlfriend and Tomás' twin sister. Although the shooter's motivation could have been more developed and the slow response times of authorities require a suspension of disbelief, Nijkamp's story sadly reflects a very real concern in contemporary America. Strong characterizations capture diversity in gender, race, ability, and sexuality. Even reluctant readers will anxiously pursue the ending, unable to turn away from the tragedy and in desperate hope for a resolution, knowing there cannot be a happy ending.--Barnes, Jennifer Copyright 2015 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-Opportunity High School takes pride in leading its students to greatness. After all, its motto is We Shape the Future. However, not all students agree. Outcast Tyler Browne has returned with a vengeance and with his own motto: "I will make sure you remember me." And so begin 54 minutes of hell on earth for students and staff as Tyler holds his audience captive inside a locked auditorium, killing whomever he pleases and offering heartless grace to others. Told from four student perspectives, each with their own frayed relationship to "the shooter," this compelling tale echoes current events. The full-cast narration includes top-of-their-game performances from Nick Podehl, Amy McFadden, Kate Rudd, Whitney Dykhouse, Lauren Ezzo, and Scott Merriman. VERDICT A gripping tale from start to finish. ["With a thrilling narrative, topical subject matter, and diverse characters, this is a first purchase for libraries serving teens": SLJ 11/15 review of the Sourcebooks Fire book.]-Cheryl Preisendorfer, Twinsburg City Schools, OH © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A minute-by-minute account of mass murder at a high school by a former student. Four students from a range of different backgrounds at Alabama's Opportunity High, all of whom have a history with Tyler, the gunman, take turns telling this harrowing story in the first person. They include his sister, Autumn, and her clandestine girlfriend, Sylv, who have only each other for solace as the home lives of both are in upheaval. Toms, Sylv's brother, recounts his and his friend Fareed's desperate efforts to help from outside the school's auditorium, where their fellow students and teachers are locked in with Tyler as he picks them off one by one. Finally, Claire, Tyler's ex-girlfriend, realistically agonizes over what to do when she and a few others outside running track realize that the gunshots they hear are coming from inside the school. Grounded in the present, the story makes effective use of flashbacks that lay bare the pain and deception that have led up to the day's horror. The language can occasionally feel a bit melodramatic, with lines like "we're fighting for hope and a thousand tomorrows," but this is a minor side note to this compelling story of terror, betrayal, and heroism. This brutal, emotionally charged novel will grip readers and leave them brokenhearted. (Fiction. 14-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Chapter One 10:01Â-10:02 A.M. CLAIRE The starter gun shatters the silence, releasing the runners from their blocks. Track season starts in a couple weeks, but no one has told Coach Lindt about winter. He's convinced that the only way to get us into shape is to practice-even when my breath freezes right in front of me. This is Opportunity, Alabama. Sane people don't leave their homes when it's white and frosty outside. We stock up on canned food, drink hot chocolate until we succumb to sugar comas, and pray to be saved from the cold. Still, Coach Lindt's start-of-season training beats Principal Trenton's long and arduous start-of-semester speech-virtue, hard work, and the proper behavior of young ladies and gentlemen. After almost four years at Opportunity High, I can recite her words from memory, which is exactly what I did for Matt at breakfast this morning-responsibility, opportunity ("no pun intended"), and her favorite, our school motto: We Shape the Future. It sounds glorious, but with months left until graduation, I have no clue what the future looks like. If Opportunity shaped me, I didn't notice. Running, I know. This track, I know. One step after another after another. It doesn't matter what comes next as long as I keep moving forward. My foot slips, and I stumble. From his position on the field, Coach curses. "Claire, attention! One misstep's the difference between success and failure." Straightening, I refocus. A familiar laugh colors the still morning. "Did you freeze up over holiday break, Sarge? A snail could catch up with you floundering like that." On the straightaway of the track, Chris falls into step with me. I suck in a breath before I answer him. "Oh, shut up." My best friend only laughs louder. The even rhythm of his footsteps and his breathing challenge me to find my pace. His presence steadies me like it always does. At six-foot-five and with sun-touched hair and blue eyes, Chris is not just our best runner but also Opportunity's poster-boy athlete. On uniform days, the freshman girls fawn over him. With Chris by my side, my stride shortens. The other two runners on our varsity team are far behind us, on the other side of the field. Chris and I move in perfect synchrony, and the very air parts before us. Nothing can touch us. Not snow. Not even time. * * * TOMÁS Time's up. The small clock on the bookshelf strikes ten with an annoying little tune, and I thumb through the tabs in front of me at supersonic speed. C'mon, c'mon, c'mon. It only took superglue-strategically squirted on the desk drawers of my favorite Spanish teacher, Mr. Look-At-Me-Strutting-My-Stuff-Like-A-Walking-Midlife-Crisis-for Far and me to find our way to the administrative office. But it took both our student IDs before we managed to jiggle the lock on Principal Trenton's door. And it'll all be for nothing if I can't find the file I'm looking for. I scan the folders in the filing cabinet. When an elbow pokes my side, I startle. "Dammit, Far. What the hell?" Fareed rolls his eyes and gestures for me to keep quiet. Someone's in the hallway, he mouths. He tiptoes back to the door. Crap. How do I explain this? "No, ma'am, I'm not doing anything, just breaking into school records"? Whatever. I'm sure I have a legal right to see my own permanent record, so I can always use that as my excuse. The fact that these folders just happened to be "Last Names, AÂ-C" instead of "Last Names, MÂ-N" is nothing more than a coincidence. No one knows whose file I'm looking for, except Far. And even he doesn't know the whole reason. If anything, I can always "find" Al-Sahar, Fareed as a cover. The school administration can't even file his name right. Still. A door opens and closes. A lock clicks. Footsteps squeak on the linoleum outside the administrative office. Footsteps that pause before the principal's door-our door. I quietly push the file drawer shut. Better not to stir up trouble-more trouble-if I get caught red-handed. Far and I both hold our breath. After what feels like forever, the footsteps move on. Whomever it was, they're not out to get us. Not today. * * * AUTUMN "...it's all a matter of the decisions you make, today and every day. Your behavior reflects not only on yourself but also on your parents, your family, and your school. "Here at Opportunity, we pride ourselves on shaping the doctors, lawyers, and politicians of tomorrow. And it's the choices you make now that will determine your future. You have to ask yourself how you can become the best you can be. Ask not what your school can do for you but what you can do for you." Trenton holds the microphone loosely while she scans the crowd, as if memorizing every single face. So many students come and go, leaving nothing but the faintest impression, names scratched into desks and graffitied onto bathroom stalls, yet she knows us all. All our hopes. All our heartbreaks. All our sleepless nights. Her eyes linger on me, and my neck burns. I reach for the chair to my right, but it remains as it was when the assembly started. Empty. To my left, Sylv groans. "After all these years, you'd think she'd come up with something more original." "Don't you want to be the best you can be?" The words come out harsher than I intend. She grumbles. In truth, Sylv will have plenty of colleges to choose from. She's a shoo-in for all her dream schools. And I should be happy for her. I am happy for her. But for me, college is the only way out of this misery, and Dad sure as hell isn't going to pay my ride. Not to study dance. "Look what happened to your mother," he'd say, as if I haven't counted the days, hours, minutes since Mom's accident. "Dance took everything from her. No daughter of mine is going into that business. Not if I can stop it." So he tries to stop me-every day. And with Mom gone, there's no one to stop him. Not from drinking. Not from hitting me. There's no one to keep our family from falling apart. I grip my crumpled coffee cup, grab the threadbare denim messenger bag from under my seat, and block out Ty's voice in the back of my mind. My brother would tell me that Principal Trenton's words are truer than I think, that the world is at my fingertips and it's up to me to make my future the best it can be. I tried that and I lost. Now I'd rather escape. * * * SYLV I sink deep into my seat and glance at the empty place next to Autumn. He's not coming after all. He'd have been here by now. He won't come. I'm safe here. He won't come. The knot in my stomach unfurls and recoils with every twist and turn of my mind. I could ask Autumn about Tyler, but she's lost in memories. Today is two years since the accident. She refuses to share her grief with me-or anyone. Even when she smiles, she isn't the girl she used to be. And I miss her. Some days, when she thinks no one is watching, she still moves across the floor as if she's flying. La golondrina, Mamá used to call her. The swallow. All grace and beauty. When Autumn dances, all her worry falls away and she shines. I wish she could dance forever. Madre de Dios, how I wish I could watch her dance forever. Instead, it is another Monday. Life goes on. The assembly is over, and Autumn holds herself ramrod straight. I'm the only one who knows she'll fly out of this cage and leave us all behind as soon as she can. Meanwhile, next period is the last review for my AP U.S. History midterm, and I haven't even touched my books. Mamá had another one of her bad spells over break. We were supposed to go into town together last Saturday, but when Abuelo brought the car around, she barely recognized him. She didn't want to leave the house. She didn't understand where we were going. I sat with her for hours, talked to her-listen, Mamá-told her the stories that wove our family around her. She was disoriented for days afterward, and I can't shake the feeling that with every day that passes, she slips away like starlight at dawn. At least history suits me. You already know if those stories will end happily. Excerpted from This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
