Image Credit: goodreads.com

“You can’t always keep your loved ones with you. You can’t always settle your life in one place. The world was made to change. But as long as you cherish the memories and make new ones along on the way, no matter where you are, you’ll always be at home.”
― Marieke Nijkamp, This Is Where It Ends

This is the second book from my 2016 Reading Challenge!

• A book published this year: This Is Where It Ends, Marieke Nijkamp

Back in early January, when I decided to embark on the reading challenge, I was immediately drawn toward this book. I remember reading the description on Goodreads, and then seconds later, heading for Amazon to order it.

It took me until the middle of June to finish it, but oh well!

I think my expectations were a bit high with this book. I admire what Nijkamp has attempted to accomplish here. But, considering I was wrapping up this book just days after the terrible massacre in Orlando, Florida, I felt a bit desensitized. To me, it felt like Columbine, but “updated” for 2016.

Also, this book is told from four different perspectives. I took that as a challenge when I decided to buy this book. If you remember my review of the Divergent trilogy, I have struggled with multi-perspective novels.

I’ve always had a strange fascination with crime and investigations and forensics. I’ve watched every episode of Cold Case and Forensic Files. This book took a high school shooting in a small Alabama town, and tried to put a modern spin on it. I appreciated Nijkamp’s attention to certain details, in particular, incorporating social media aspects.

But the multiple perspectives, once again, tripped me up. I really wanted to like it and make it work with my brain. However, since I wasn’t able to finish the book in quick succession, I had to backtrack a couple of times to find my place before I could forage ahead. That really bothered me.

On a more positive note, I liked the characters, and how they were all connected, in some way, to the shooter. Nijkamp was really invested in these characters and I could tell that she wanted to explore every detail possible, in the limited time frame that the book was set. Seeing the connections really made me want to finish the book, to see what the outcome was.

The ending was a bit of a letdown, and it was unsettling. But, as I was explaining these feelings to my husband, Al, he brought up a good point. The plot centers around a high school shooting, and the real-life massacre in Orlando had just happened. What more was I expecting?

I wondered that, too.

4 out of 5 stars.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂