Cover Image: The End of the World is Bigger Than Love

The End of the World is Bigger Than Love

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Member Reviews

Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me. I couldn’t get into it at all :(

I don’t think that it’s fair to give a low rating though so giving it a 3

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I'm gonna have to read this one through my library-it's wonderfully well written and I felt like I was unraveling a mystery slowly

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Somewhere at the edge of the world, two girls are finding their way after the rest of civilization has crumbled. Inseparable twins Summer and Winter are as opposite as two people can be: Summer is verbose and chatty, while Winter is carefully poetic and methodical. A series of cataclysmic events has led them to their current existence, protected by a stockpile of food left behind by their father. Not everything is as it seems, however, and as the truth begins to unfold, reality itself is called into question.

The premise of this book is unusual and intriguing, featuring two unreliable narrators and a plot that unveils information in intentionally anachronistic pieces. Fleeing from a wave of global destruction, the girls divulge the story as if the reader already knows things that have happened, from the flattening of great cities to the demise of world leaders. As the girls’ connection to their current predicament becomes clearer, readers begin piecing together clues from the narrative to understand exactly what is taking place.

Alternating from Summer to Winter throughout the story, the two voices sometimes describe the same event from differing perspectives while other times are completely separate in their storytelling. While this can be confusing at times, readers will begin to understand the general scope of the story and piece the puzzle together along the way. Summer’s run-on sentences and quirky, accessible speech are juxtaposed against Winter’s more concise, poetic phrasing to build a complex narrative. Though the story itself is interesting, the unusual structure and presentation can prevent readers from engaging enough to arrive at the story’s conclusion.

It can sometimes feel like the end of the world is on the horizon, and this book investigates possibilities of how and when that day might come. Deep emotions of love and jealousy abound, often blinding the characters to what is truly before them. However, despite the engaging writing, the story itself can be challenging to follow and readers are left with more questions than answers at the book’s conclusion. This is an original and unique story that is worth consideration by readers who are determined to see it through to the end.

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Love this author but have not had the chance to read this yet, will definitely be keeping it on my to read list

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An alternative, post-apocalyptic novel told from the two perspectives of twin sisters Winter & Summer. Our narrators go back and forth describing their life in an abandoned church on a remote island, where they are sheltering with canned delicacies and their mother's entire collection of classic novels. It soon becomes obvious that all is not as it seems, and their unreliable account of the events leading to their abandonment on the island by their parents leaves the reader wondering.

The world they build is rich in detail, emotion and tension - I felt swept along with the girls as their relationship became more and more complex, and was threatened by the unavoidable truth. At times I was left very confused and had to read, and re-read certain passages very carefully. After the shockingly vague ending, and turned back a few chapters to try and work out what had happened!

I enjoyed this different style of dystopian YA, however it is heavier on the cerebral content rather than mindless survival action scenes that the genre often champions.

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