A review by anna_hepworth
This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I listened to Nijkamp talk about their books some years ago, and put them on my list of authors to follow up. This is the only book of their's that my local library has in their ebook collection, so I borrowed it knowing pretty much nothing. It might have helped if I'd known the bare bones of what the book is about, but as it was it was incredibly confronting. 

I think this is probably the most tense book I've read. It has such a narrow focus, across multiple viewpoint characters, that at no point during this incredibly awful hour that the book covers is there any narrative breathing room. 

The rapid shift between the four viewpoint characters, plus the extra perspective that comes from a handful of tweets and/or short blog posts that end each chapter, makes it a maelstrom of 'what is happening'. Particularly because the distress of those inside the situation and the distress of those outside trying to work out what is going on are both conflicting and enmeshed in a way that is disorienting in a way that brings the immediacy of the traumatic even that the book portrays. 
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