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

5.0

GOD DID I GOBBLE THIS BOOK UP.
i debated giving this 4 stars instead of 5, but i literally spent every waking moment wanting to read this.
now, the one thing that made me possibly want to make this 4 stars is the sheer disbelief you have to suspend to read this story.
Spoilerlike ok.... tyler managed to kill 39 people in ~40 mins? him not finding sylv? the principal doing the same mf speech every year with like 3 exits? like who in the education system thought that far into it. also like how tf did nobody say anything about this boy? like i get that in good ol murica school shooters go under the radar because nobody gives a fuck, but like....... the entire town knew he was fucked in the head. how did nobody think to do a welfare check or sm.......

also, the sheer amount of characters gave me an aneurysm for the first 100 pages. for the life of me, i could not remember who was who's sibling or who was dating who. i got over that by about page 90 tho, so that's such a minor nit pick from me.
NOW, ONTO THE GOOD SHIT!!!!
first off........ SAPPHIC GIRLIE POPS AS MAIN CHARACTERS!!!!!!!!!!!
this was a re-read for me; ive only read this once waaayy back in 2018, but i fully forgot everything except that it was a school shooting book so like. this was a fresh read for my noggin. and i will say i loved sylv <3 shes wifey idc idc idc
the pacing ate so hard, i had minor gripes with like major tension scenes getting cut with some random ass backstory, but that was just me hungry to read more so technically that's a positive
claire was lowkey an unnecessary inclusion to me, like i actually did not care about her or her story at all! i would've loved to see a teacher perspective instead but.
this book was scrumptious. it had all the things i wanted in a book. thrilling scenes, drama, romance, gore, adrenaline-pumping events, and THE GAYS!
i literally would've read this in one sitting last night if i didn't have to go to uni today. that's how yummy this book was. oh my god.
especially in the political climate of good ol freedom land rn, i would highly recommend this book. and not even for its politics and view. its just a fire ass book.
14-year-old me did truly have superior taste.