Imagine being in a juvenile treatment center... Now imagine being left behind to fend for yourselves, with no idea what’s going but all you know is that something isn’t right.

This story follows a group of teens who are in Hope Juvenile center for a number of things, that’s not really important, what is important is one day they wake up and all the guards are gone. They’ve been left to their own devices. They have no idea why or when they’ll be back but they immediately know something is off. Something must be going on in the outside world. When they finally leave Hope House, they discover what’s left in the “real world” is even worse. The world has been hit with a deadly plague and they have been left for dead. No one is coming for them. This group of teenagers must figure out how to survive with no one but each other.

I have hard avoided reading anything even slightly covid related and even though this isn’t exactly covid related it’s BASICALLY covid related. They are figuring out how to survive in a world where a highly contagious respiratory “plague” is hitting the nation. We have a pandemic; they have a plague. So, if you are not interested in reading covidish related stuff this is NOT for you. I THOROUGHLY enjoyed this book regardless of how I felt about reading about virus related topics.

Each of the teenagers have their own stories and own backgrounds to go through. Somehow, they are able to build a family when it seems like giving up and leaving is the easier option. Overall, this was a 4/5 stars for me. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I wanted to know what was going to happen to every character. I wanted to know how they were going to get food and how they would make it through another day. Definitely get this book unless you don’t want to read about any more sickness because of current events then maybe skip this one. It’s definitely a hard book but sooo good.

At the End of Everything started out as a very slow book, but by about half way through it picked up and I found myself beginning to enjoy it a little more. While it is not marketed as a book about Covid, that's basically what it felt like. A story about what is going on in the world at this time and the struggles. I found some of the characters likeable, but then there was no closure on some of the others so it left me with mixed reactions. I will say that towards the last 60 pages or so, I finally felt connected to the characters and stories and the last few chapters brought me to tears. My suggestion would be if you pick up this book to go into it knowing that it's pretty much about covid, but if you hang in there to the end you will be pleasantly surprised by where the author starts and ends.

At The End Of Everything is a young adult contemporary novel about a group of teens stuck in a juvenile treatment center during an outbreak of a deadly disease.

This novel is told in alternating POVs between several of the inmates of the Arkansas “Hope Juvenile Center” which was meant to be a place of rehabilitation and turns into a nightmare as the guards and staff leave and never return. The inmates quickly discover that the world is in the middle of a deadly and highly contagious plague and they’ve been left to fend for themselves. As the group of teens try to contact the outside world, gather their dwindling food supplies and treat the sick they reflect on the various circumstances that got them where they were. These aren’t inherently bad kids but smart and sensitive children abandoned by their families and then once again by a system paid to care for them.

Although the author made attempts to give each character their own voice (Emerson the religious non-binary musician, Logan the twin with mutism, Grace the former foster youth that dreams of finding her biological father) I still struggled identifying each one as I read. And what should have been a gripping and tense read sometimes fell flat with a lot of details about finding food, digging graves and inner dialogue. It also could have used a little more zing with more action and snappier dialogue. Every student is just so earnest and woebegone the the injection of a little “gallows humor” could have gone a long way.

Overall this was a thoughtful read and many readers will recognize similarities to the Covid crisis but I needed a little more oomph.

3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

At the End of Everything follows a group of teens at Hope Juvenile Detention Center who are suddenly abandoned by the guards. They venture outside to find out why and discover that a plague is sweeping the nation. Returning to Hope, they have to find a way to survive in their own even as some of them start getting sick.

I'm not quite sure what to think about this book. I was expecting an apocalypse story, not a story that is basically the early days of the pandemic, except it's the plague instead (like the black plague). It wasn't bad, just felt incredibly real and almost too soon. But it was a good look at the early stages of society breaking down during a pandemic, and a good yet terrible look at teens in a juvenile detention center and how they are treated.

I became emotionally connected in all of the characters and was cheering for them all. I couldn't put this novel down since it tugged at my emotions and heartstrings. 4 Stars

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.