REVIEW: THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS BY MARIEKE NIJKAMP.

Title: This is Where it Ends
Author: Marieke Nijkamp
Series: Standalone
Edition: Paperback
Publication: January 5, 2016 by Sourcebooks
Source: ARC provided by the publisher
Pages: 285
Genre: Realistic Fiction, LGBT, Contemporary

Synopsis:

10:00 a.m.
The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.

10:02 a.m.
The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.

10:03
The auditorium doors won't open.

10:05
Someone starts shooting.

Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.

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When I learned that this book is about a school shooting, I know it is going to be a tough read (emotionally). I've wanted a galley of this one for ages but just can't get a finished copy come release date. When Sourcebooks sent me a galley, I immediately tore through its pages. And it blew my mind away and in one way or another, marked my soul.

I don't even know how to review this because I feel like this is such a critical topic to touch base with but I loved everything. The author was able to expound the connection of each POV and I am truly heartbroken by Tyler. Not only with the lives he took (OMG) but how broken he absolutely was. This has been said over and over everywhere, mental illness should not be taken lightly. This story didn't only show us in words how this kind of tragedy is terribly real but also demonstrates how lives can be taken that easily. I could say so much about how the government should do this and that, but it won't just make the cut at this point. The school shootings I've seen on the news these past couple of years just blasted every bit of my heart to pieces, there are just no words to describe the horror, pain and every terrible things these crimes inflicted to everyone's lives. To the heroes, thank you for your courage and selflessness.

LGBT was represented in this novel unbiased and the normal day-to-day rivalry relationship of siblings. There are characters here that I fell deeply in love with along the way that I kept holding the book tighter and tighter as if it would save them. It was just so SO painful to see a lot of characters go and watch their loved ones break apart.

This is Where it Ends is a novel that is irrevocably haunting. This novel, if anything, is composed of hope and bravery that in our darkest moments, only the truest kind of love can shine the brightest.

Thank you so much Sourcebooks for sending in the ARC!

"We're more than our mistakes. We're more than what people expect of us."

"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."

"Dad always told me there are more stories in the universe than stars in the sky. And in every story, there's the light of hope. That's why the seniors sent lanterns up to the sky-to make sure the darkness is never absolute."

"Together we could be so strong, but the gun has made us individuals."