This book was crazy emotional. It wasn't really about Covid . . . and yet, it could be about Covid. There is a mysterious plague (i.e. respiratory illness) that is crazy contagious and fatal. The kids at Hope Juvenile Detention Center don't know what's happening until the guards and warden and every single worker basically leaves and abandons them. So these kids, who society already basically gave up on them once, are forced to fend for themselves in terms of food and medicine. These kids grow up quickly and watching the survive was so heartbreaking. The main issue I had though was that there were so many characters that it was hard to really feel connected to the. I loved Grace and the way she tried to take care of everyone. I do wish we had gotten Casey's POV since he was the one taking care of the sick. The ending made me cry, but it was also fitting for the story. Great read.

I thought I was ready for this book but I wasn't. While the summary suggests that there will certainly be parallels to our current reality, or more accurately the reality of Spring of 2020 when it all started, I didn't expect it to be so dead on. At the End of Everything is a Covid story without calling it one. It continually mentioned and brought to mind what we've all experienced and as a result nothing felt new. We've all lived the fear and uncertainty at the start of the pandemic; the overprotective washing of everything, the intense stigma of a cough, the spectrum of reactions from complete paranoia to calling it a hoax. Yes, to an extent it was heighted in this story but it all felt too soon and too unsurprising. I wish their plague was more of the setting rather than the entire story.

I also found it difficult to believe that a group of teenagers would inherently know to wear masks, socially distance, and wipe down "groceries"... all things that may feel intuitive now but initially felt like ridiculous advice to me as an adult because it was so foreign to our normal life, yet these teenagers were supposed to think of them on their own?

I did like the use of multiple types of storytelling, including snippets of phone calls, newspaper articles, etc. I also could appreciate that the plague's ability to make us feel alone was heightened to an extreme by making the cast teenagers in a rehabilitation facility left without aide. That we wouldn't help our own children but they'll help each other was a powerful message.

Perhaps I'd enjoy this more years down the road or in a pre-pandemic world but it wasn't for me at this time.

This is my first book by Nijkamp but it won't be my last! This book takes off from the start and you know you are in for a dark mystery. Kids fighting for survival, not knowing who to trust and in a prison setting. There's SO much more than that wrapped up in this dark twisty ride of a book! I don't want to give anything away but I will say that I loved this book and will be picking up more books by this author.

They won't be forgotten...

Life is anything but hopeful for the teens at Hope Juvenile Treatment Center. The guards are rough and callous, and one day, they all start acting very strange. When they don't show up the next day, and the door is slightly cracked open, the teens think they may have a chance at escaping and making new lives for themselves. The group of soldiers at a nearby roadblock shut them down, telling them that a a highly infectious disease is spreading like wildfire and no one can leave their homes. The kids realize they have been left to fend for themselves and that no one cares. They are determined to survive, despite limited resources and tensions between them. Can they work together and keep each other safe? And what happens when someone starts coughing?
This was the most terrifying book I have read in a while. I was glued to each page, desperate to know what was going to happen to the Hope teens. This novel was heavy with survival, grief, friendship, sacrifice, and desperation. I was blown away by each of the characters and was very emotional about their situation. This book was really beautifully written and I cannot wait to read more of Marieke Nijkamp's work. I recommend this to anyone who loves YA thrillers.

There is a content warning at the beginning of the book for anyone who may be triggered by certain topics.

This book will be enjoyable to some, so this review should be taken with a grain of salt. Personally, I felt it lacked originality. It was essentially a post-apocalyptic spin on a COVID-19- like pandemic involving wayward, institutionalized teens. I recently read another pandemic book and felt the same way, so it is possible I am not ready for pandemic fiction that so closely resembles the one we are living through. If you are not like me in this regard, you may enjoy the suspense and character development attempted by this author. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is not a happy book with a fairytale ending, so if that is what you are looking for, you should read something else.
This book is real and filled with raw emotions.

I was really looking forward to this one since I absolutely loved This Is Where It Ends, but unfortunelty, I just wasn’t invested in the story or in the characters. I think my students would really enjoy this but I was just bored.

Thank you to the author, SOURCEBOOKS Fire and NetGalley for allowing me to review this ARC with honesty.

So this story is essentially where the world is sort of going into the proverbial toilet. Kids are basically treated like nobodies in a facility that boasts about Hope and Futures for these kids. But if you ask the kids, it's just another prison. And that's just regular, every day life for these kids. Then something strange happens...one night the guards disappear and the facility is left unsupervised. What happens next is will be more than any of these kids ever imagined. Some want to riot, to escape and take freedom while they can while the others feel safer decide to hunker down and figure out a way to survive whatever this is...

But what they find...

The story kept me engaged, the POV changes weren't too hard to follow. Sometimes I would lose track of which character was who but I can't really say why. Overall, I did find this book interesting.

My Rating: 4 🌟🌟🌟🌟

I would like to thank Netgalley and the Publisher for allowing me to read this book. At The End Of Everything is an emotional and heartbreak book. We follow 3 juvenile delinquent teenagers points of view which are: Logan, Emerson and Sofia. These teenagers are dealing with an infectious disease and are stuck in the juvenile treatment center with no help or anyone from the outside. These teenagers has to take care of their own and deal with this harsh world that is left to them. While reading this book I would like another point of view of the other group who decide to leave the center. Overall, I did enjoy this book.

I saw some descriptions of this book as science fiction, dystopian, or apocalyptic, but my interpretation of this novel was a an all-to0-real description of how society and the justice system might respond to a horrible pandemic - maybe that dystopian or apocalyptic, but perhaps not.

Our protagonists are a group of teenagers in a youth detention center. When all of the adults leave without an explanation, the kids are left to fend for themselves. They work together to determine what is happening, and to survive illness, hunger, and isolation.

Several different attitudes and issues are represented, with non-binary and autistic POV characters.

I admire what the author did, and I think she accomplished her goals well. I also think it was courageous to write something so close to what is happening with Covid-19, while the pandemic is still going on. I will be thinking about this for awhile. Thanks to netgalley for letting me read an ARD of this book.

Teenagers at a juvenile treatment center are abandoned when the guards and all caretakers learn of a pandemic sweeping across the world.

While some choose to leave in an attempt to survive and be free, others remain at the center and must decide how to stay healthy while still helping the group as a whole.

It does not take long for supplies to begin dwindling down and outbreaks to happen in the center. Will these teens make it on their own?

Loved that this was a story told from multiple viewpoints as this was the perfect piece for a variety of voices. I also really appreciated that this author created a fictional piece very much like what we are all experiencing at the current moment during the still ongoing pandemic.

Intriguing, thought-provoking and an overall clever idea!

This book for sure needs a pandemic trigger warning.
It was glaringly realistic, and after living through the last three years, I found it more than plausible.
Three teens abandoned to the juvenile detention system are at first elated when no one shows up, and the lights go out but soon realize that they have many challenges ahead of them.
It's pretty much a nightmare scenario as the plague runs through the kids, and these already troubled people have to divvy up supplies and decide who to trust.

Excellent book. This is a story about a group of delinquent children who try to escape the juvenile treatment centre they’re in, not realising there’s an infectious disease outside, which means they’re stuck. This was so action packed and interesting to see how this group of teens deal with the situation.

This author is just absolutely amazing. They’ve made me cry, and laugh, and view the world differently. I was so happy to get the ark of this novel, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve told my friends to purchase it. It’s very interesting seeing the story from the point of view of a child being left behind in a juvenile prison during what seems to be the end of the world. You can’t predict the story as it folds out in front of you, which keeps the reader hooked until the very end.

Unfortunately I struggled with this book and found myself skimming to the end. This book sadly just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This book was a harder one for me to read but I think that has to do with the subject matter in relation to the pandemic. You have teens at a detention center ,basically cast off from society and forgotten who have to survive together when the outside world is affected by a plague. I found myself rooting for these kids. Each one has their own story about why they are there, what they are struggling with and they are what keep you engaged in this story.

This book was a interesting concept, but i think when reading it it still felt a little too close to home for me, hence i haven't finished reading it. I think one day i will really enjoy this one, i found the first 1/3 of the book interesting concept and the characters seemed to be growing in depth. I just personally cannot read a book about a pandemic when i thought i would find it refreshing to have a different take on it! Clever concept, just not for me

This was such a heavy and yet captivating book. This group of kids struggles before the plague and still had to fight for just the basics to survive. The whole story kept me reading and I finished the book in just a few hours. While it was such a heavy and intense read, it was also captivating and powerful. I definitely enjoyed the writing and also enjoyed the “file” information that was added as well.

Thinking about being trapped in a juvenile detention center is a scary thought, this book makes it even scarier than I could have imagined. This is a YA dystopian/apocalypse thriller that I truly couldn't put down. I don't read a lot of YA, but I took a chance on this one and it paid off!

𝘉𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘢𝘭, 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨!

An action-packed and thrilling story that explores sensitive topics like mental health, racism and transphobia. This beautifully written story about love, loss and bravery gripped me from start to finish.

Thank you Sourcebooks and NetGalley for this gifted copy.

At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp releases tomorrow January 25, 2022.

𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦: 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘈𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘵, 𝘋𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘢, 𝘔𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘺, 𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘚𝘶𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦, 𝘓𝘎𝘉𝘛𝘘, 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘍𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

https://www.instagram.com/booksandcoffeemx/