Blog Contributor: Rhiana Boutot
This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp is a story of every public school's worst nightmare: a school shooting. The book takes place over a suspenseful 54 minutes full of terror, grief, and acceptance, and is told from the perspective of four students all connected by this traumatic event.
I know personally, being in a mass shooting is my worst-case scenario; I've had nightmares of shootings and I'm all around terrified of living through a mass shooting. However, since schools all around the country experience a shooting almost every week it seems, society as a whole has become desensitized to this violence. This shouldn't be the norm, but here we are. This book is so interesting because it showcases what it actually is like to be in the center of a school shooting and helps shed light to the problem our country has with not only gun control, but also mental health services. The story was extremely surreal and eye-opening.
Not only was the depiction of the scenario so realistic, but the characters' relationship and arcs were realistic as well. Nijkamp does a wonderful job building such complex characters. The diversity in the book was refreshing also. There were people of color, lgbtq+ characters, characters with mental and physical disabilities, single parents, so on and so forth. The four narrators didn't fit the "normal" YA character, A.K.A. a white, cis-het male. It was nice to see representation for everybody. Also, these characters weren't perfect people; the characters in this story HAD problems and they weren't "good vs. evil". Anyone reading this book can find someone to relate to, which makes the book that much more terrifying.
I would recommend this book to everybody. Seriously. It tackles serious topics that are relevant to our society today, all while staying interesting and fun to read. It also helps to diversify the YA novel industry, which is much needed. I really feel that every high school student should read this once, because this really could happen to any one of us.
