Date Finished: February 1, 2018
Page Count: 282
Genre: Realistic Fiction
This
is Where It Ends? More like, “this belongs
in a trash bin!” Wahahahahahaha, ah, sorry, not sorry Marieke Nijkamp but I had
to do that. But hey, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure so don’t think
this book isn’t worth reading just because I say so. Let me give you a couple
reasons on why not to read this book from inside my shoes, and then you can
gently set this book in trash can for someone who might like this kind of story
to find. Yeah, I’m not going to say this book sucked primarily because the
characters sucked, but because I think I’m not a part of the target audience. I
know, a shame. You think a book with such a seemingly symbolic cover would have
more depth to it.
Disclaimer
though, school shooting, or any shooting really, are a serious thing here in
the states. I may make some jokes on this post here and there and treat the
context of the book like it’s nothing and belongs in a garbage bin, but I am (大概)
far less callous when that happens in real life. I mean no disrespect with my
attitude towards the contents of this book, as I simply see it as fiction and
thus not real. Alright, now on to the actual review!
Going into
this book, I should have known it wouldn’t satisfy my taste immediately after
reading inside the book jacket, “told… over the span of fifty-four harrowing minutes.”
It’s kinda hard to learn a lot about a character in merely fifty-four minutes
which sucks, because I read for the characters in most situations and putting
it in real time made the book feel more real (not that I wanted it to be, or
felt much sadness over any of the character’s deaths or whatever), which was
cool but sadly overshadowed due to how poor the characters were. Out of Claire,
Tomás, Autumn, and Sylv(ia), the four characters who narrated the story I only
cared about the one that died! That’s right! Tomás done went and killed himself
(you’re welcome)! Claire seemed too detached from the events for me to really
pay much attention to (although it was nice to have the story told form the
perspective of someone who wasn’t inside the school when the shooting happened),
Autumn was pity party No.1 and wouldn’t shut up about her love for Tyler (the
shooter) or Sylv (her sorta-secret girlfriend), and Sylv was pity party No.2
and wouldn’t shut up about wanting to protect her brother (Tomás, which she
failed at) and Autumn (her sorta-secret girlfriend, which she also sorta failed
at). The other characters I actually cared (一点儿， 好啊？)
for were Fareed, Tomás’ partner in crime who actually survives, and Matt,
Claire’s crippled younger brother who dies (so stop hoping he’ll survive guys).
If either of them were narrators though, I don’t think I’d like them as much
though since they function better as side characters. So don’t read this for
the characters as you don’t see much out of them other than fear, hope, all
those stuff that comes along with tragedy, and although I will admit you learn
a ton about these guys for 54 minutes/281 pages thanks to flashbacks it’s still
not enough for those who depend heavily on good characters to like a book if
you ask me.
I also didn’t
like the idea of a school shooting being the should focus of the book (with
flashbacks for seasoning of course).
But M******, why did you read the book then
since you knew that was what it was about?
Because I
though a school shooting would be a cool book topic.
???
Sadly, I
was wrong though, as it was just A World
of Nightmares Never Seen Before ….
My god, did you just sneak in a Touhou
reference?
*Gaps* how
dare you accuse me of such a thing!
How is that even a bad thing?
You think
just because I like different things from everyone else, I’m a weirdo with
nothing in common with you and therefore can’t relate to you in any way. For
shame reader who is actually myself and yeah, why am I’m doing this again? Seriously
I need to stop going on tangents like this.
But you don’t want to, this blog would be so
stale if it were too normal.
Shut it me!
Wait, I’m not even talking. *sits blankly listening to music for a bit* Right,
this book sucked! Go listen to A World of
Nightmares Never Seen Before instead of bothering to finish the review
since it’s leaving such a bad taste in your head! It’s an awesome song from an awesome
game with an awesome OST that I’m assuming most Americans (my audience) have
been missing out on! Go on, scat!
Lol, I was joking k? I still got some
garbage I want to put with this book before I leave it in the trash bin for
good. So, I didn’t like the idea of a school shooting being the focus of a book
yet, I thought it would be a cool topic? The heck? Don’t worry, I have an explanation:
I simply though it’d be a good idea in theory, but how Nijkamp executed it like
she executed thirty-nine of the people, Haha! wasn’t good. Only two or so
chapters took place before the actually shooting started so the situation got
hellish pretty quick. I wish Nijkamp gave us some time to see this characters
more before the shooting since it would have presented them in a different life
and give the chance for us to see how big the impact of the shooting was on
them. It would then also give more time for background information to be told
and ties to the characters to be developed. I could have actually been super
concerned about the fate of my favorite characters and speed through this book
in a day or two to make sure they lived.
You also have Tyler, the killer who
is slightly whack in a bad way. I get it, he was screwed after his mom died and
his father turned into an alcoholic and his girlfriend (Claire) dumped him and
he found out his sister was dating Sylv (he didn’t approve since he thought she
would steal Autumn from him and maybe because she was a girl? I’m not sure
about the last part) and everyone at school hated him and pushed him away. I
get that he wanted to kill the loved one’s of the people who hated him as that
would be worse than killing them, and by shooting Autumn in the knee he’d most
likely take away her chances of doing what she loved (dance), and then rubbed
salt in the wound by killing what she loved (himself). That’s the smart thing
to do if you truly hate someone and I should applaud Nijkamp for her genius
decisions to really hit it out of the ball park with how much collateral damage
Ty was able to do. And yet somehow I’m still disappointed in him. I think it
had something to do with Nijkamp leading me to believe there was more to Ty
than meet the eye, like a good side to him, yet I didn’t see that very well
with the limited about of flashback of him, not to mention most of them were
bad memories of him. Don’t try to make me feel one way about something Nijkamp
and then not give me enough reason to keep feeling that way! You should only
ever do that with wise old “sages” and whatnot who aren’t meant to be
understood in fantasy novels or the Zorro/antihero characters. I don’t care
that Ty was the villain, you tried to humanize him at one point so finish what
you started!
But I digress, that’s all I really found
trashy about the book that convinced me to open my review in such a way. I’m
sure Nijkamp is a fabulous author who takes worthwhile risks with her
characters, but This is Where It Ends
was not one of those times in my opinion and I found the book to be terribly
mood dampening, a poor thriller, and not worth recommending to people even if I
think they’d enjoy it. Who knows, maybe I’m just jaded thanks to watching too
much Attack on Titan and growing up
in such a violent country, so someone with a stronger emotion connection would
be shot in the feels about now and typing a review about how much they enjoyed
the book. But since I’m not that person, don’t read this book for the
characters, or the plot. Only read if you have a sick fascination interest
with books on school shooting since I doubt many books are about that and this
can probably be a really compelling thriller if you’re into that sort of thing.
Alright, go listen to A World of
Nightmares Never Seen Before and don’t read this book if you can help it
and I’ll catch you readers later.
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