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Summary
Summary
Can a friendship last forever? Emmy would like to think so. But even though she and her late best friend, Kim, planned every detail in advance, from when and where to meet to what snacks to bring, Kim has yet to make an appearance from the afterlife. Which is making Emmy wonder if what happened right before Kim died changed everything. Alternating between the past and the present and between the heartbreaking and the truly hilarious, Ann Dee Ellis's latest novel is an achingly authentic take on friendship, family, and what it means to let go and truly live. 'The End or Something Like That dares you to suspend all disbelief and look at loss, and life itself, in an entirely new way. This is a hilarious and awesomely weird ode to friendship and youth - with the kind of stellar prose that won't let you look away.' John Corey Whaley, Printz Award-winning author of Where Things Come Back 'The End or Something Like That breaks your heart and mends it back together with hope an humor. After reading this book, I believe.' Ally Condie, author of the #1 New York Times Bestselling Matched Trilogy 'Incredibly funny, sad, magical, and real all at the same time. Count me as a major fan.' Holly Goldberg Sloan, New York Times Bestselling author of Counting by 7s 'Ann Dee Ellis is my own personal J. D. Salinger. Sometimes haunted, sometimes haunting, but always achingly human, she finds truth in a burrito and a pizza boy, a fistful of gummy bears, and a dead science teacher. You will truly love this book.' Margaret Stohl, New York Times Bestselling co-author of The Beautiful Creatures series 'Ann Dee Ellis has one of the most interesting voices I know. I love the humor, honesty, and restraint with which she explores Emmy's complicated relationship with the past, the present, and herself.' Sara Zarr, National Book Award Finalist for Story of a Girl
Author Notes
Authors Bio, not available
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
"When your best friend dies, things happen. You lie under your bed. You plan spiritual visitations. You watch a lot of TV. You eat turkey burgers." Writing in clipped, emotionally deadened prose that carries the weight of grief, Ellis (Everything Is Fine) catalogues 15-year-old Emmy's struggle with her friend's sudden death. Alternating chapters take readers between the present, with the one-year anniversary of Kim's death approaching, and flashbacks to the preceding months. Following Kim's collapse in the cafeteria, Emmy is mired in her pain, but when she starts seeing and interacting with her newly deceased earth science teacher, Emmy dares to hope a "visitation" from Kim might be possible. A consult with Ted Farnsworth, a dubious medium whose seminar Emmy and Kim had attended, builds confidence in the likelihood of it happening. The Las Vegas setting powerfully contrasts the absurdity of life against the separation of death, and several truly uncomfortable scenes involving Emmy's classmates lays bare just how ill-equipped many people are to handle death. A hard-hitting story about remembering the dead while not forgetting the living. Ages 12-up. Agent: Edward Necarsulmer IV, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Emmy has put her life on hold, waiting for her dead best friend to "cross the veil" and visit, as Kim had promised; Emmy does see ghosts, but not Kim's. Told in brief, tantalizing chapters interspersed with longer flashbacks, the plot unfolds in a satisfyingly deliberate pace. Deceptively simple language helps untangle themes of friendship, jealousy, guilt, and grief. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Fragile, insecure Emmy has been in a free fall since her best friend Kim's death from a congenital heart defect. Not that Kim was sickly or spent her life in hospitals; she was, rather, a lively, fun type who lit up Emmy's life. Quirky, adventurous Kim even investigated a huckster's program that promises the terminally ill the ability to set up a visitation path and come back after death. The story hurtles through the one-year anniversary of Kim's death, as Emmy desperately plans and hopes for that visitation. Interspersed between the real-time chapters of the anniversary day are flashback chapters from when Kim was alive, enabling the reader to savor the full context of the girls' friendship. Meanwhile, Emmy sees other deceased folks in her quest to find the returning Kim or does she imagine them? The sudden death of a science teacher at school errs on the crude side in its depiction, but the choppy, edgy tone of Ellis' dialogue illuminates Emmy's longing for her old friend. She practically burns with intensity, even as she gradually begins to move on.--O'Malley, Anne Copyright 2014 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-10-It is the one-year anniversary of her best friend Kim's death, and Emmy is still reeling from the loss. Emmy made a promise to Kim that, once she died, Emmy would contact her ghost, but as it turns out, "I suck at talking to dead people." When Emmy attends the funeral of her science teacher, however, she is shocked to be visited by Ms. Homeyer's spirit. If she can see Ms. Homeyer's ghost, why hasn't she been able to see Kim? As Emmy sees more and more dead people-everyone but Kim-she begins to explore her complicated emotions and relationships. Told in parallel time lines, Emmy describes the months leading up to Kim's death, including a major betrayal and strong skepticism about the possibility of an afterlife; she also tells her story in real time, one year after Kim's death. For a significant portion of the story, Emmy is not an easy character to love; she's prickly, self-centered, and emotionally closed-off from those around her. As the story progresses, though, she opens herself up to others: her mother, her brother, and Skeeter, the sweet boy who has adored her all along. Just as she did in This Is What I Did (Little, Brown, 2007), Ellis skillfully captures what it's like to be a kid who flies beneath the radar and is afraid to speak up. The story's ending, though too-quickly resolved, is still lovely; readers will realize that it's not about trying to find a ghost. It's about trying to find oneself.-Laura Lutz, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
