We have seen many iterations of what would happen if teenagers were left to govern themselves, though At the End of Everything has the added difficulty of a plague. The teens are left in a facility to die but have to work together to stay alive. There were a couple characters at the beginning of the book that I thought were going to play a larger role but they mainly just vanished. I really liked the beginning of the book, the setup was done phenomenally, and the development of the characters, especially Logan. Also, for once in a book with multiple POVs, I liked all of the narrators so I didn't have to slog through chapters I didn’t care about. The ending left me a little unsatisfied, I think because it was essentially a COVID book, I wanted there to be some sort of resolution or distinct ending. The ending just left too many loose ends. For me, this was a 3.5/5.

If you like multiple POVs with very distinct characters, dystopian reads, or delinquent teens, this is the one for you.

I received a digital copy of this book free from Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Sourcefire Books and Netgalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

A deeply profound novel, Nijkamp brings us through how to process isolation, a pandemic and our own emotions in the face of adversity. A thrilling contemporary suspense novel, you really get sucked into the world of the Hope Juvenile Center and won't want to leave until you reach the conclusion.

This novel is fully engrossing. You want to find out why each character is at the center, get the information of why they're all there. Once you do, you get attached to them quickly. While I wasn't in the mood for a novel centered around a pandemic/plague, there is so much more too this than that. It's deeply eye-opening and at times heartbreaking. You learn about what they're feeling, and you feel that despair with them as they try to grapple with the events of the book.

I was quickly attached to Emerson. Their character resonated with me the most. Their need to strive to find themselves and to come to terms with why they were at Hope was a beautiful journey to watch. Despite the heartbreak enwrapped in it.

If you are looking for something that can relate to what we're going through with this pandemic, or you're a fan of underdog stories, this one is a great pick!

I requested this book because both of the other books I’ve read by Marieke Nijkamp (THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS and BEFORE I LET GO) have been powerfully told stories and really well written– and this one is no exception. I wish I had been in a different place when I picked up this book to read it. Like, I loved the characters, and it’s such a heart-wrenching story. I wish I’d had more emotional bandwidth as I was reading the book, which isn’t the author’s fault at all. I think I just happened to read it when my emotional gas tank was almost empty.

But. All that aside.

So the story follows three points of view: Logan, who communicates via a sign language she and her twin sister developed between them; Emerson, a new resident of Hope who’s also nonbinary; and Grace, a girl with some big anger issues who winds up reluctantly in charge of the group.

I loved the balance of those three points of view. They all have different feelings and ideas about what’s happening and how to go forward in the best way. Each of them contribute critical things to the survival of the group, but in really different ways. I think the whole story could have been told from any one of those perspectives, but I think having all three added so much to the depth and breadth of the book.

The plot is pretty simple– a deadly plague disrupts every aspect of life as they know it– but it brings really high stakes. The characters literally face life and death decisions at every turn. I read this book in two days, and I couldn’t not do that. I was absolutely drawn into the story and what would happen to each of the characters in it.

Something about the book reminded me of AWAY WAY WE GO by Emile Ostrovski. It’s a bit darker than that one is, but I guess it has a similar feel in terms of this small, collapsing world inside a culture faced with a global pandemic. I think fans of edgy fiction will like AT THE END OF EVERYTHING.

I did not enjoy this book- but still hear it was really good. I ended up getting rid of it prior to finishing just because I could not get into it!

At the End of Everything is equally heartbreaking and uplifting. It tells the story of a group of juvenile offenders who are literally left alone to deal with an outbreak of the plague.

These are the kids that no one wanted to help, which means that there's a lot of representation. From the autistic girl who makes great plans (but can't speak) to the non-binary character who has been longing to belong, they make their way anyway they can.

Some of them don't make it, but all of those who do are forever changed. The cool thing is that by banding together to survive, they all learn much more about themselves and what they want out of the future.

I loved this book!

Another great YA thriller from Marieke Nijkamp! I'd never read a book with a cast of "delinquent" teens, but it made for such a unique and interesting read. Nijkamp gets better and better with every release!

I found this YA book set in a fictional time and place about incarceration and plaque to be a little too realistic for comfort. But that is the point. The story went along and was captivating and in the end, incredibly hopeful. If we could all just remember that we’re all in this together for good times and bad times and treat each other as we’d like to be treated things will be okay. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for #attheendofeverything to read and review

I didn't particularly enjoy this one as much. It felt a little too unrealistic for me and I just couldn't relate to any of the characters.

New to me author but definitely won't be last. Thoroughly enjoyed this story. Thanks Netgalley and to the publisher for letting me read this advance copy.

This was a "Did Not Finish" for me. I had a really difficult time with the writing style of this story. I also didn't enjoy the characters. I appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC!

I give this 3.5 stars.

If you are having PTSD from covid, I wouldn't recommend this book.

This is a very real and close to home view of what happens when the Plague hits the world and has a lot of similarities to what has happened during covid. We follow a group of teens from a youth detention center as they are left to fend for themselves and figure out what is going on when all the adults leave and don't come back.

Received an ARC in exchange for my review.
“At the End of Everything” is a YA contemporary/ dystopian novel following a group of teens in a juvenile facility as they attempt to survive a plague overtaking the world.
I forgot I’d requested this book and honestly had no idea what it was about. I just liked the title. But wow, what a book! So relevant to today and beautifully written. The cast of characters all face their own challenges and have different reasons for being in the this facility in the first place. So many great themes are explored. It took me a little bit to get through this one because life just got crazy but I knew it was one I needed to finish.

This is the second covid-inspired book I've read. As much as it is interesting to see how authors incorporate a pandemic plot, it can be difficult to read. So many people have lost friends and family to covid, and experiencing it through this fictionalized account makes some of this book feel too real.

In "At the End of Everything," the pandemic the world faces is much more severe than covid. Rather than focusing on the general population though, the story focuses on a group of teens that have been sent to a correctional facility. When the pandemic hits, they are left to fend for themselves. They are not told of their situation, not told if they will be getting any aid-- they are completely ghosted by all adults.

There is a message of hope to this book (the correctional facility is named "Hope Juvenile Treatment Center), but this isn't a happy book.  This is a book I would have enjoyed more a few years from now. I prefer to read fiction as an escape from reality, but this book brought a lot of aspects of our current reality into something even worse than what the world has already been facing.

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire, Inc for an advanced e-book copy of this book. Let's hope that the world that we live in doesn't end up like the world in this book, so that we can enjoy it for the fiction that it is.

3.75 stars rounded up to 4 stars.

This isn’t really a “Covid book” but it’s a Covid book. The events occur during a pandemic - although in this one it’s the actual plague. Despite the different illness, it was easy enough to imagine these events occurring in real life under the current craziness we live in these days.

With that said, this book follows the story of a group of juvenile offenders being held in a juvenile treatment center. We find out what some of the characters did to land there, but not all of them. With the outbreak of the plague, society basically breaks down. Government shut downs, need for masks, social distancing, public hysteria around the illness and food scarcity…sound somewhat familiar?

The kids in the facility get abandoned when the staff just leaves. The story deals with trust, found family, and what we would do to survive. I enjoyed the story, which is told through multiple points of view. It really makes you think about what could happen to people in jails, hospitals, residential facilities, nursing homes etc - if the world as we knew it changed as quickly as it did with Covid, just imagine if a more deadly disease was on the rampage. Will we really just forget about these people? I don’t want to believe it but I can’t definitively say this story could never happen - in fact, I fear it could so easily happen.

There are secondary characters of various racial backgrounds but the MCs are white (one is also non-binary so that was a nice representation to see). The MCs acknowledged that unfair treatment for racial minorities happened but didn’t explore the topic any further than said acknowledgement. There was an endnote by the author which explained that while there are huge disparities in criminal treatment/sentences based on race, she didn’t want to speak directly to that as she didn’t want to be disingenuous.

While I understand the author’s concerns, I think it’s important to highlight these things. Since the author felt so strongly about acknowledging the impact of racism in our criminal justice system by adding the endnote, I think she could’ve done a bit more in the actual story itself with this one. Even with white MCs, the characters could have explained a bit more of what discrimination they saw or even how they felt about it. It was clear the characters were not ok with the racism, and I think it’s important for people/characters of all races to speak out about these issues.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire, Net Galley and the author for a copy of the e-ARC of this in exchange for my honest opinion.

I found that I wasn't really interested in the story, or the characters. The premise was very interesting, but I found myself feeling forced to keep reading, and I decided to stop at 20%.

This story brought me to tears as facilities like that actually are around and how parents are so cruel. That they would throw their won flesh and blood onto the streets without a single thought about it. Or the ones that have to run away cause of abuse and the state child protective service have failed to save them. But the virus that is going around forcing them to stay inside makes it even sadder. But nother the less I highly enjoyed this read and want to add it to my shelf or books. I highly recommend this to everyone cause everyone should give each and ever book a chance.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced e-arc of this book, here is my honest review.

It is with sadness that I gave this book a low rating. I loved the synopsis of this book. It drew me in immediately and this is an author I have read from before.

We follow a group of teens that are basically disregarded by society and are living at Hope Juvenile Detention Center. That alone breaks my heart. Then there is a pandemic that leaves them stranded. Everyone who was supposed to be taking care of their basic needs vanishes, leaving them to fend for themselves. This is what drew me in. It is hard to imagine, and yet we know it happens, that people can be looked at as less than.
These kids who find themselves without anyone to care for them, start to realize they can care for one another. It is beautiful when you see it like that. I had hoped for a lot more though.

Here is how it felt to me as a reader. I felt like every identifier that could be thrown into this mix was. We have POC, nonbinary, disability rep, etc. So much so that I never felt like I got to really know and relate to any of these kids. I only saw them by an identifier. This made it very difficult and disjointed to read. The prose did not flow well. It was choppy and the sentence structure at times was really off. It was done so for a purpose but as a reader it just took me out of the story.
There is a character that I was introduced to in the very beginning that made it sound like she was dangerous and scary and then for the rest of the book I did not see that side of her at all. If that was intended to be character arc, it was lost on me because it just felt like to different characters entirely.
In addition to this, or maybe because of this, I was bored. I wasn't invested in the characters enough to care by the end. It read like most YA dystopian books. I was hoping for something more. I didn't feel like it wrapped up well. For the most part the kids are still left on their own. It just was sad in a million ways.

This is a dystopian YA about juveniles left abandoned and forgotten at a detention center in the midst of a pandemic.

While the sickness is a major part of the storyline, I found that the focus seemed to be centered more on the human reaction to the sickness and the difficulties of a world plunged in chaos and uncertainty.

I liked the use of multiple POVs but there were times when it was difficult to remember whose POV I was currently reading.

I appreciated the author's efforts of inclusivity but rather than feeling organic, it at times felt forced.

Overall I enjoyed the read but expected more of a thriller.

Thanks to NetGalley, MariekeNijkamp, and Sourcebooks Fire for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The teenagers at Hope Juvenile Treatment Center feel like the world has abandoned them. After committing crimes that may or may not have been dangerous, dozens were sent to Hope at the edge of the Ozarks in Arkansas, to change their behavior. There is a psychologist there to help them, but the guards and the warden just want to keep order. And the school is a joke, with a handful of battered textbooks.

Emerson is new to Hope. They are still learning the rules, both the written ones and the unwritten ones. When Grace stands up for them to the guards, for misgendering Emerson, Grace gets sent to the warden’s office. But when she’s there, the warden doesn’t give her the usual speech. It’s a shortened version, as he’s tossing files into his briefcase. The warden tells her that she is responsible for the choices that got her here. Then he sent her back to her cell.

Later that night, Emerson and Grace cross paths again. Emerson is on her way to meet with Hunter, the de facto leader among the teenagers, for her unofficial introduction to Hope. Grace has snuck out to see what’s going on. That meeting earlier with the warden didn’t sit right with her, like something was wrong, and she wanted to know what it was. She walks around waiting for the guards to catch her out. But none of them show. She gets to the guard room and sees that not only are there no guards, all the screens are dark. No one is watching them.

The next day, the teens try to figure out what is going on. They find out that there is a plague that has taken over the world, and the parent company of Hope has sent all the adults away. They are there alone. It is up to the teens to survive. But they can’t agree on what to do. Some want to leave Hope, and others feel it’s safer to stay. Hunter decides to lead a group up the road to the closest small town, but as they get close to the town, they come up against a roadblock with soldiers who are holding guns.

They end up turning back and going back to Hope, but not without consequences. One of the boys gets shot, and not long after they get back to Hope, one of the twin sisters starts coughing up blood. The plague made its way back with them.

With no adults around to help them, and no one able to get to them, Grace takes over the leadership at Hope. They set up an infirmary and start an inventory of what’s in the kitchen. As they divide up the tasks to do what they need to, more of the teens get sick, and many of them decide to leave. Hunter wants to go back up the road and find away around the National Guard to get to the town. But many stay behind and try to figure out what they can do.

Isaiah takes over the computers, trying to find as much information as he can to help them. Many of them call family or friends, to see how they’re doing out in the world. A couple take over in the kitchen, and some start a garden. Casey stays in the infirmary to take care of the sick, and when they lose their first friend to the plague, Emerson takes it on themself to dig the grave.

As the days slip by, the teens are faced with more challenges. They figure out how to hunt and fish, how to ration their food and medicine, how to distance from each other but stay connected, and they also spend a lot of time thinking about the circumstances that brought them to Hope in the first place. Emerson has to dig more graves. Casey has to care for more patients. Grace has to make difficult choices. And they all have to come to terms with the fact that all the adults let them down, they left them there to die.

Instead, those who can, choose to survive.

At the End of Everything is not an easy book to read. As we are all sill facing a pandemic (though not nearly as bad as the plague in this book), there is still a lot of fear and uncertainty in the world. This book did not help me feel better about that. But it’s honest about the struggle to survive, and it’s fascinating to watch these characters, the way you watch the characters in a horror film or on The Walking Dead. You have to be okay with the knowledge that you could lose your favorite character at any moment.

Author Marieke Nijkamp has a way of writing stories that tear you apart, At the End of Everything certainly fits that description. I had tears in my eyes several times, feeling for these characters and this horrifying situation they found themselves in. It’s heartbreaking to see how all the adults around them let them down, from the families that didn’t help them when they were first in trouble to the warden and guards, the soldiers and townspeople who refused to help them after the plague started. But the way these teens decide to continue on, to have hope (no pun intended) for a future, to stick together is inspiring. There is a lot of pain in this book, but there is grace also (again, no pun intended). But know that this story will stick with you for a long time, and some of that time may be in your nightmares.

Egalleys for At the End of Everything were provided by Sourcebooks Fire through NetGalley, with many thanks.

At the End of Everything is told through the point of view of three main characters - Grace, Emerson, and Logan. It follows a group of teenagers left behind in a juvenile detention centre during a comeback of the plague that is shutting the world down. This book was basically everything that's happened with Covid, just a worse version I suppose. It didn't bother me in the slightest to be reading this during the current pandemic, as I've seen some reviews mention. I took this for what it was - a book about a deadly disease and how these teenagers handled being on their own.

Unfortunately I didn't feel I could connect with any of the characters - despite being told from 3 people's point of view, there were several other characters that made up this story and it was alot to keep track of. Sometimes I actually found myself confused as to who's section I was reading, and being unable to tell them apart. As a result, it didn't really matter much who lived or died if you know what I mean? It just seemed to be missing that depth.

It's also worth mentioning that this book is very slow going. There was never really a point where I was like "I need to know what happens next, turn the page!". I thought maybe there would be a slight thriller aspect to it (and when we had confrontation with the guards at the beginning, I thought that was the theme the book would follow) but alas, it did not. This definitely takes more of a slow, humanistic, emotional approach to telling the story. Which I'm sure some will absolutely love! I just prefer things a little faster-paced.

The ending was good, and sort of turned out to be what I expected. Overall, it was a pretty good book but not my favourite. I think it will definitely suit the tastes of many, it just didn't happen to do it for me.