I finished A Beginning At The End in one sitting & It. Was. Amazing. A breathtakingly beautiful story; seamlessly interwoven plotlines; and characters you root for, faults and all. I loved everything about it. Mike Chen truly has a gift for words!

Well paced, futuristic tale about four strangers whose lives merge. The story starts after an epidemic wipes out much of the population and people are starting to re-build. There are issues with too much government control and the usual resistors.
The main characters are trying to go through life, but "normal" issues arise - moving on after death, looking for the perfect job, just trying to get through the day.
An interesting look at what kind of society we would create if we had to start over.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts were not affected by the free copy.

Before I get into this, I want to make it clear I did like this book. It was well-written and the main characters were fleshed out to where they felt like real people. I liked the plot for what it was and the story was paced nicely. The thing is that this entire story could have taken place without it being in a post-apocalyptic scenario. There were also some bits before each chapter that, while interesting, didn't feel like they had anything to do with the main story and only existed as background information.

I understand what the author was trying to do with this story: craft a less bleak and depressing post-apocalypse. I have no problem with that, except it just never felt like one to me. Maybe it's my fault for thinking of post-apocalypse in the more immediate sense where society is still trying to rebuild itself; this one has already done that and people are more or less going about their daily lives. This felt more like an alternate future with a dash of dystopia. I did get some sense of how life has been altered because of PASD and people being overly careful about germs, but I just never felt like the "end of the world" was as impactful as it should've been. I don't know, maybe more writers need to do true post-apocalypse stories for me to get used to it.

It was also hard for me to understand why some of these new society measures happened. For example, the biggest conflict in the story is due to this world's Social Services cracking down on Rob for how he's raising Sunny. There's this big drive to be "socially normal" but... who decided what was considered "socially normal"? And how is it that these authority figures constantly ignored how Rob was jumping through their hoops, fighting tooth and nail to keep his daughter? It didn't make sense. And since that threat was such a huge build-up and child concern seemed the number one priority, the climax really doesn't make any sense. It was like all the stuff that was built up was forgotten because the climax needed to happen.

The good stuff is with the characters. All of them are written strongly-- they have unique personalities, are fleshed out beautifully to where all their actions and attitudes make sense based on their backstories, and seeing them all grow throughout the course of the book was really nice. The one critique I have is that more focus could have been on Sunny, especially in one crucial moment. I would've loved reading that from her perspective. Overall, though, I liked all of them and how their stories were built up. Plus, I'm a huge sucker for found family stuff, so those parts were heartwarming to read.

Would this story work without the post-apocalyptic scenario? Absolutely. I dare even say some parts of it would've made more sense. But it was still good and may get more writers to tackle post-apocalypses that aren't so bleak and hopeless.

This is the first book by Mike Chen that I have read and it was quite good. The story has three primary characters and they are so thoughtfully developed you really start to sympathize with their issues and how they are trying to rebuild their lives. It's not a scary look at the end of the world but a softer look at how we might survive.

A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen has Society rebuilding after a flu epidemic that killed billions of people. The struggle to rebuild and to return to normal is depicted rather than turbulent repercussions of the pandemic. Characters are relatable with interesting backgrounds and personalities. A story of finding hope in the darkness of tragedy.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

I loved this book!
Mike Chen seamlessly merges a deeply personal, character-driven story with a fast-paced, real-stakes plot. This post-pandemic book focuses not on the chaotic aftermath of global tragedy, but on regrowth and the very human struggle to return to normalcy. The refreshing and relatable take on post-apocalyptic sci-fi builds hope for humanity and keeps you rooting for the characters throughout the entire book. I highly recommend it!

I thoroughly enjoyed Mike Chen's A Beginning at the End.

The pandemic premise is juicy, but unlike so many books I've read that are all premise and fall off quickly after the grabby set-up, his characters are fully-developed and I rooted for all three of them from scene 1. The pacing is excellent, the writing is crisp and intelligent, Chen's world-building is expert, and the resolution is highly satisfying.

Highly recommend!

Loved this book! A spectacular follow up to Mike Chen's Here And Now And Then. I loved the concept from the moment I heard it, and the author didn't disappoint. The characters are fantastic and the tension keeps you turning pages long after you told yourself you were going to stop. Definitely recommend (and if you haven't already, seek out Here And Now And Then).

As in his debut novel, Here and Now and Then, Mike Chen brings a refreshing new emotionalism to science fiction with his latest work, A Beginning at the End. This is a refreshing take on post-apocalyptic sci-fi. A flu pandemic devastates the world population—and takes with it the world economy and infrastructure—bringing an end to the world as we know it. As a physician, I found that aspect both realistic and terrifying. Chen does a great job in his near-future world-building, showing the after-effects of such a pandemic. He weaves together the lives of Rob (who lost his wife not to the flu but to the mob-mentality afterward); Krista (a survivor of childhood physical and emotional abuse from her alcoholic mother); Moira, a former child musical prodigy and pop star running from an abusive father; and Sunny (Rob’s daughter who, despite the new world order, is a refreshingly outspoken and slightly precocious child). These characters read as real—flawed, but surviving. They search for normality in an abnormal world, living with the accumulated trauma of this post-apocalyptic world while staring at a new pandemic. They grapple with questions of identity, the new vs the old morality, how to become a family related, if not by blood, then by choice. Like Here and Now and Then, A Beginning at the End is a kinder, gentler look at post-apocalyptic science fiction and well worth the read.