This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: Contemporary YA Lit
Students have returned from winter break and are assembled in the auditorium to hear a welcome back speech. As students are dismissed, they find they cannot leave. The doors are locked. Moments later shots ring out. The entire student body is trapped in the same room as the shooter, an enraged former student looking for payback. Told through four different points of view, This Is Where It Ends tells the almost minute by minute events that take place during this school shooting.
I picked up this book because I am slightly obsessed with this topic: school shootings. Having written my own novel about a school shooting called I’m Sorry for Doing Nothing (in the beginning stages of trying to get it published), I am always curious to see another person’s take on this subject. Also, being a teacher at a middle school makes this subject very relevant to my everyday life.
With that being said, I liked the concept of the book, but at times it was hard to understand the connections between people. I think that is what the author was going for: to slowly reveal how these separate people were all in some way connected to each other. I liked the idea of going almost minute by minute for this book and slowly showing how the school shooting evolved. The author does a good job of showing the anger and destruction of the shooter; the lack of caring for others and disregard for human life.
Overall, a good quick read but not a “must read” in my opinion.
J.L. Bartley 