ARC Review: This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

This Is Where It Ends
by Marieke Nijkamp
Published by Sourcebooks Fire
Ebook (received from publisher via NetGalley)
YA, contemporary, realistic fiction

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.

10:03The auditorium doors won't open. 

10:05Someone starts shooting.

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.

This Is Where It Ends takes place in small American town for a duration of 55 minutes when there's a school shooting. It's an important theme and I was intrigued of the concept, especially when it was said almost from the beginning that the shooter, Tyler, was one of the more popular kids. However, while the writing was good, I felt that the story lacked some and only a few characters were intriguing. There was multiple point of views, four to be exact, and some of them sounded almost the same which caused a confusion at times. Tomás was the most clear narrator, and I rooted for him and his friend Fareed. They were the only heroes of this story, the only one who actually did something for the situation, who kept doing anything they could do. Everyone else basically just cried for the injustice of the situation and how they didn't notice how Tyler had changed. The other narrators, Claire (who was outside of the school, waiting for the news), Sylvia (Tomás sister, Autumn's girlfriend), and Autumn (the shooter's sister) were not as clear or interesting as characters. All of them mostly cried for injustice or Autumn's case, could not believe how his brother could do something like that (even though it was quite clear that Tyler was not the most stable person during the events before the actual shooting).

Mostly I had two problems with the story. One, it painted Tyler as an evil and disturbed person and did not give any depth for him. He simply was the popular kid, who wasn't as nice as people thought, and eventually everyone realized just how evil he was. I felt that the author should have given Tyler more depth, and should have explained things better. The other problem I had was the main romantic relationship of the story: Sylvia and Autumn's. Did not feel Sylvia's and Autumn's relationship. It mostly seemed that Sylvia was there for Autumn at all times, but Autumn only cared about herself and getting out of the town. For fox's sake, Autumn's brother did some horrible things to Sylvia, and Autumn didn't notice? I think this subplot was poorly developed.

Overall the story was fast-paced and I read it within few days. It was not bad but it lacked a lot of depth and the characters were quite one dimensional, and the only ones I was able to identify with were Tomás and Fareed. With more editing and focusing on some aspects as well as deepening the characters, this book could have been fantastic.

3 of 5 stars.

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Thank you, Sourcebooks Fire, for giving me a chance to read and review This Is Where It Ends!

(A copy of this ebook was provided in return for an honest review.)