In this unique novel, two best friends whose lives are drifting apart find themselves stuck in a loop at the Louvre during the end of the world. Let me break this down a little further. Things are unraveling all over the globe – hijackings, bombings, civil unrest. Kate and Bertie, who have been friends since 9th grade sense change on the horizon as Kate is moving from San Francisco to Los Angeles in a month, leaving her best friend behind This trip to France is like a final hurrah before Kate’s move. Bertie is an incredible artist but hasn’t found much success there. The two friends visit the Louvre where a strange and mysterious gentleman named Javier has offered them a private tour of the museum, but things quickly escalate into an Alice in Wonderland, down the rabbit hole museum experience where their friendship is tested as Bertie is forced to repeat her day at the Louvre over and over again. Bertie needs to figure out her way out of this mess and the only way forward may be examining her past. This is a novel about friendship, art, memories and living during fraught times. Thank you to Simon & Schuster and to NetGalley for the advanced review copy.

This was kooky and fun but just too repetitive (which is the point, I guess). I think the better story lies in the backstory of our two characters and I kind of wish this book was that. Still, it was a pretty decent time I spent in my reading chair.

The Readerly gist by invisiblemonster is mine. Thank you for this opportunity.

A Time Prison

There are many areas in our lives that we cannot influence. We cannot stop wars or murders, repair broken hearts, single-
handedly change the economy and cure universal evils and setbacks. Since we cannot individually repair climate change, remove a dictator from power, or make someone love us, we can create a vision and try to revamp our personal matters to discover what is important.

Adrienne Celt, in this unusual book, focuses her characters on what they can accomplish. The two main characters are Bertie and Kate, best friends since they were pre-teens. Like many devoted friends, they’ve been close observers and counsel to each other’s lives. They are at a turning point; Kate is planning to move to Los Angeles, and Bertie is dumping her ambition to become a well-thought-of cartoonist and reverts to drawing a dinosaur mascot for her Silicon Valley employer.

They decide to make a take a trip to Paris before Kate moves, knowing friendships cannot remain the same when one moves away. They are invited to an after-hours tour of the Louvre. It is an enhanced feeling of confusion as they enter a whirlwind of time filled with other characters. They become separated and discover only one figure can change conditions. It is a mirror of Groundhog Day.

Celt does not let us forget the outside world and its domination. However, we seem to plod along in our lives as if nothing is horribly wrong. There are many bad changes taking place; global issues are front and center. However, we individuals cannot change them and so we find some solace in our personal problems, maybe we can Improve them. It is a quagmire of philosophies. Celt pushed me to the brink of uneasiness. Because Celt is also a professional cartoonist, she envisions for the reader a possible comfort, but there really is none. I thought she would inject some humor mixed with satire.

This is a creative, formidable book. The author lost me several times. Too much is going on; icecaps melt, terrorism marches on and yet, the billionaires survive along with the inevitable tech companies. In this world, we can only do the best we can. We are unequipped to handle many issues.

My gratitude to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this pre-published book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Adrienne Celt’s “End of the World House,” out this week, is one of those reads that offers you up a theoretical explanation you can latch onto so tightly you’re almost afraid to let go.

And it may leave you asking, “Am I a Bertie? Or a Kate? And is any of this even real?”

I don’t typically pick up dystopian novels, which is odd in that anytime I read one, I usually really enjoy it. Maybe it’s the shades of Piers Anthony on my brain, books shared between my brother and myself growing up. I wasn’t surprised when I went looking at other previews at the mentions of “Groundhog Day” alongside “Russian Doll” (Ahhhh! Season Two is coming!) and Rumaan Alam’s “Leave the World Behind.” Celt’s time-twisting adventure of Bertie and Kate, two childhood friends, also had me thinking about Kate Atkinson’s “Life After Life.”

When taking on this kind of plot device — that of a person caught in a time loop — an author runs that risk of being compared to previous examples, especially when those examples are excellent. But it would be unfair to compare Celt’s story to those in a parallel, mostly because in the world Celt creates here, nothing is a straight line. Instead, it’s as life is on a series of loops linked together like a magician’s rings — connected, then apart. Connected, then apart.

Theoretically, imagine a different version of yourself riding a loop on each one of those rings. Multiple yous, connected, then apart.

Those connection points between rings? That’s how I will always imagine how deja vu works. You’ve lived it, just not on your loop.

On one ring Bertie is aware of losing Kate. On another, Kate’s there, but not really. Then there’s the loop or loops with Dylan, her paramour. There’s Bertie that’s content with her job. There’s the Bertie that is writing her graphic novel. There’s … a lot to Bertie.

And this is all layered on an Alam-esque background of kinda sorta impending global doom. Given our current state, it’s more than a little disquieting, but OK. (The fact my grocery store was completely out of blueberries (the horror!) this weekend hits too close to home here, but I know I am overthinking it and no of course nothing is blowing up here. Welcome, anxiety, my old friend.)

I loved this story, the possibilities it creates in the brain, the threads you can pull imagining alternate futures and the promise it offers at the end, on a plane with a stranger that’s not a stranger. I’d think there’s a lot to dissect as a book club choice, especially when it comes to the concepts of free will and manipulation.

Yeah, I’ll be thinking about “End of the World House” for a while. Don’t pass on it.

They say good writers show rather than tell, but I think this book is an example of where there could have been a little more telling rather than just showing. There was a lot going on in this novel and many of the pieces just felt superfluous, yet could have been very meaningful if they were developed more. The story tries to cover many themes and I think it gets a little too overly ambitious along the way and loses a lot of what could have been. It's hard to tell if this a book about the growing threats of climate change and global change, friendship, time travel and the multiverse, or something else, and ultimately I guess ends up being all of these things without doing any of them particularly well. That being said, there is some interesting reading along the way and the story definitely isn't all bad. There were just several times in the midst of parts of the novel that I enjoyed where I had to stop and try to figure what was happening or if I had somehow lost place in where I was reading.

The End of the World House has a great premise and I was instantly intrigued after reading the synopsis. Groundhog Day, set in France at the Louvre? Yes, please! Could not be more up my alley, however I was a little… confused by this book. It took a turn I did not expect and I did find it hard to follow along with. I really loved the writing though!! The author described the characters and their feelings so well. All in all, I would still read another book by this author based on the writing.

End of the World House takes place in a dystopian future where...the world is ending. Terrorism, rationing, climate disasters are the backdrop of the world these characters inhabit. During a period of relative peace, best friends Bertie and Kate visit Paris. Kate is about to take a new job which will move her from San Francisco to Los Angeles while Bertie will remain in her well-paying but soul crushing job drawing cartoons for a big tech company. The friends receive an invitation for a private tour of the Louvre. From here our book delves into Groundhog Day science fiction territory. I think if you enjoy other sci-fi time travel type books (as I have recently) you should give this one a shot. The "science" is only loosely explained and isn't central to the plot so you need to be able to suspend believe and not necessarily look for answers. I enjoyed the friendship/feminist aspects of the story but felt a little icky about the men in the story (though I suppose that was the point).

3.5 stars. I liked it, didn't love, but I bump it up the .5 as it's almost but not quite at the 4 star level for me.

Thank you to Simon Schuster and Netgalley for the electronic advanced copy.

End of the World House by Adrienne Celt is a dystopian science fiction fantasy novel set in a future version of our world. The world has been at war with fires and floods and bombings in the cities and of course shortages in the supplies.

Bertie and Kate have been best friends since high school and have gotten one another through this tough time but Kate has decided to move from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Bertie doesn’t want to see Kate go but Kate had made up her mind to leave the city.

Bertie decides that a girl’s trip is just what the pair need to take their minds off of the separation and there is currently a ceasefire going on in the world making it safer to travel. Bertie and Kate head to Paris but after arriving they meet a strange man and end up trapped in a time loop in the Louvre.

I’m one that is always up for a good science fiction or dystopian read so when I saw End of the World House by Adrienne Celt and noticed it was compared to Groundhog Day, which I enjoyed, I couldn’t help but be curious. Well, this one did not pull me in the way I completely expected it to. One wouldn’t think that maybe it was the repetitive nature that did me in but no, it just simply fell flat and I couldn’t not connect to the characters at all. Also sold as a humorous read I didn’t find that at all for me either so in the end I gave this one two and a half stars as it certainly had potential but could have been better executed in my opinion.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

I loved the concept of this novel, but I was a little disappointed with the execution of it. Some of the novel felt jarring and not fleshed-out enough to pull the reader in.

The novel opens with an introduction to Bertie and Kate who have been friends since they were 15 years old The plan was to visit the Louve without looking like tourists, thus they were in a hurry to gain entrance to the Louve's enterance directly after a round of bombing were completed. Although the girls wanted to blend in with the locals, Bertie still wanted to see the "Mona Lisa"which would not be my first choice. Bertie asked, "Isn't that basically Louve 101?"The previous night, the girls met Javier at a bar and he assisted the girls into a secret entrance of the museum. Was this the best plan of action?
Bertie seems to be reliving a sort of Groundhog day, "In her dreams,, she and Kate ended up at the museum again". Yet Kate's outfit changes, but Bertie's dirt jeans stay the same. What's crazy was that the "Venus de Milo' seemed to grow arms, something that she has not had in centuries.
I had a hard time pinpointing a time period it seems like a dystpian society with the bombing, although I did enjoy the art (especially Toulouse-Lautrec), the Ramones, and Paris bits of the novel, unfortunately those portions were short. I also had a difficult time seperating the characters, I needed to constantly flip back and forth and perhaps the repeating day caused my confusion.
I am not suggesting the writing of the story were not good, it was not for me, in fact I think the story held a lot of promise and as we know, reviewers each have completly different opinions. I felt like the story and the characters did not evolve. Thank you to Simon and Schuster, Adrienne Celt, and NetGalley for the privlege of reading this eARC in return for an honest review.

End of the World House by Adrienne Celt
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Bertie and Kate have been friends since high school. They’ve been through a lot together, including the oncoming end of the world. But now on an epic vacation in France it feels like their friendship needs saving more than the world.
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What I liked:
-I love books that are weird and different, so this one hit the mark for me!
-The book is compared to Groundhogs Day and I could see that comparison! I loved those elements in this story.
-I really enjoyed that a good portion of this story took place in the Lourve.
-I loved that Bertie drew a graphic novel in this and wish I had pictures now.
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What I didn’t like:
-Some of the transitions in the story felt a little sudden. 😅😅
-I would have liked a tiny bit more explanation of the phenomenon going on in the book, but I also think it was intentional that it was written like that to get my imagination going and keep me thinking about the book afterwords. And yeah, that worked cause I am still thinking about this book.
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Overall I liked the story. I would love to see this be a trippy sci-fi movie or TV show one day! I bet that would be really cool.

Adrienne Celt's END OF THE WORLD HOUSE is based on such an engaging premise that I willed myself past the tough parts. I know the Louvre well, so the idea of a pair of best friends getting lost in this astounding museum appealed. The twist of the friends celebrating their last time together in the same city before one moves from their beloved San Francisco to Los Angeles appealed as well. Strange, fantastical, wild things happening in Paris? I'm in. I stumbled a bit over the cataclysmic environmental, political, and social unrest especially because there were few specifics and the ones that were provided were vague and unconvincing to the point that they drew me out of what could have been a great story. Unfortunately, I was deep into the novel before I realized it wasn't getting any better. The supposed tight bond between the best friends was at best unconvincing and at worst, codependency of the worst order. The twists and turns did not contribute anything other than complexity to what could have been a wonderful. I emerged disappointed. I received an advance copy of the novel and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

#TheEndOfTheWorldHouse:

This cover is amazing. You had me at end of the world on a time loop. Someone tell REM it’s time to blare their hit song. While I enjoyed the first half of the book, I felt this was almost broken into two different books, and the ending just didn’t cut it for me.

The reader (Nancy Wu) made this book sound so quirky. I liked the different idiosyncrasies I could hear from Birdie coming off the page. I feel like I saw a few reviews saying the jokes landed flat as forced in the story. I think with the audio, they landed perfectly. They were funny and Nancy Wu hit the right inflection at the right time.

I felt like this should have been more funny with a Groundhog Day type feel (there were jokes and quips but not a solid comedy of that makes sense) but it was more serious and caring with a look into life and friendships that sometimes we grow out of. While I say it’s almost like two books is because we’re in this time loop with Bertie and Kate, then Bertie hanging out with ole Dylan, who just was not it for me.

Overall, a decent read but not at all what I was expecting. Definitely recommend if you check it out to do audio because the audio was phenomenal. Thank you @simon for the gifted copy. The End of the World House is out 4/19!

What a cool idea for a book. Sci-fi- tension - a familiar setting - friendship - relationships - tension…all examining choices and possibilities. Great writing and loved the concept. Although this one didn’t suck me in, it was a ride, for sure. Heartfelt thanks to Simon and Schuster for the advanced copy. I’m so glad I read this one.

I thought this book was great all the way up to the middle part and there were too many side characters cam into the story. I usually love dystopian/end of the world books and this did get me thinking about the demise of humankind and the end of the planet; and exactly why the premise drew me in to request this to read.

Isn't the cover great too?

This did have some great twists and turns and was not predictable but I was not as wowed by as it I should have been. Still a recommended read.

Thanks to Netgalley, Adrienne Celt, and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 4/19/22

Special thanks to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my own opinion.

I was very cautious going into this book because I love labyrinths but I can't stand groundhogs days and so I had trepidation, I hate to say I was right. Two friends go into The Louvre, lose each other, and yes the time loop starts and I just was really happy it was not a long book.


This book was so convuluted,that went bad early on.and the time loop stuff that just didn't bode well and these two women take a vacation in a ceasefire of economic crises as well? Uh-uh I was really confused, just a mess of a book. And then sci-fi as well? Nope.

2 stars!

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC of this.

I love a time loop story, and this was really interesting and different as far as how the loop seemed to work. I kind of wish we’d found out more of what was behind all of it, and the ending was very open, which drives my unimaginative brain crazy as I can’t figure what might happen next. Overall I enjoyed reading it and it was pretty short and easy to get through.

Having to hit this one in the middle with the rating. Ooof. One of those where a solid grouping of stars just doesn't cut it. I need two ratings — one for the first 90% of the book and another for the last 10%.

End of the World House started out strong. A couple of women, thirty-ish in age, on a trip together in Paris. Fresh off a night out and headed to the Louvre, Celt sets up a story of a dynamic female friendship on a mid-point climate and political crisis stage. But the friendship, once strong and life affirming, seems to be heading into trouble. Bertie is trying hard to not be angry with Kate, and to enjoy this trip, before Kate moves to another city and leaves Bertie behind.

But the outing to the Louvre isn't a typical one. Kate met a man named Javier the night before while she and Bertie were out, and he offered to get both women into the Louvre on a Tuesday — the day of the week when the museum is typically closed. And as the women cross the courtyard to enter the Louvre by way of giving Javier's name to the guard behind the door, there are ominous sounding lines woven into the text: Later, she would remember...but in the moment.... The atmosphere was ripe with the possibilities promised in the book's blurb: Groundhog Day meets Ling Ma’s Severance. (And now, having read the book through, I'd add The Truman Show to that for extra layers.)

The time spent in the museum is thick with an argument waiting to drop — or the tension from steadfastly avoiding a fight. It's thrillingly quiet — they are alone in the Louvre, but they can't seem to enjoy it with the personal betrayals so close to the surface, valiant efforts aside.

The two get separated. The chapter ends, and the next chapter begins with a replay of that Tuesday, with slightly different variables, leading them back to the Louvre. The slightest hint of questioning awareness scratches at Bertie's mind, but she ignores it and shrugs these strange feelings off.

What follows is a series of events that sheds Kate from the story and brings about a new character into the picture: Dylan. Suddenly he's at the museum at one point when Kate seems to have disappeared. He's Bertie's boyfriend. It resets. Bertie and Dylan meet in California. They work at the same company. They start dating.

As Bertie struggles to put the pieces together from her memory recall overload that slowly creeps its way in — something that only gets worse for her as the story continues — and her time, place, location, and known friends come together in her mind like ill-fitting puzzle pieces, a near fit but they're from different puzzles. Dylan steers her back to him — and she does seem to find comfort and love from knowing him. Still, Kate exists for her and pulls at her mind, even when they no longer know each other in Bertie's current reality. Bertie's thoughts return to Kate again and again — the need to find her, even when Bertie doesn't remember that Kate is missing somewhere in Paris, maybe still in the Louvre.

The constant examination of their friendship, the need for companionship, and the way that dynamic is set up in the story is incredibly compelling. Kate and Bertie feel like a matched set, a complementary pair if there ever was one. But where Celt lost me was very late in the book, and without giving away spoilers, what constituted an ending made the entire journey fruitless and frustrating. Dylan as a character is interesting, but because of his particular role by the time the story closes, his relationship with both Bertie and the story's plot overall, feels like the antithesis of the actual design behind the majority of the writing and character development for Bertie. Or at least the intention presented by the novel's first eighty to ninety percent.

The beautiful confusion and the taut need of a friendship that seems to be preordained that swirls around Bertie throughout much of the novel made me think I was headed for a five-star book. The untangling of all that was built as the foundation of the End of the World House seems to have been as suddenly and swiftly forgotten as Kate's initial disappearance around a corner in the Louvre. I thought Celt's writing throughout was lyrical and weighty, but the hammered in resolution was puzzling and disappointing. Even after I finished the book and the sharp sting of betrayal to the story, I struggled to categorize my thoughts on it. The events and confusion of the ending reminded me exactly of Bertie's feelings when she'd emanate confusion about her newly reset circumstances — which she'd only allow to intrude for the briefest of moments. If that is the intention, it was not an earned ending for me.

I hate not finishing a book, but I just couldn't find the will to get through this one. It was confusing and was not engaging my attention at all. Dystopian novels are out of my wheelhouse, but I really enjoy reading outside of my normal genres sometimes. This unfortunately was not one of those times for me.

I'm giving it what I consider a neutral 3 star rating as I feel like I was completely the wrong audience for this one. It doesn't mean I think it was a bad book or had bad writing - it was just not one I would recommend to readers with similar tastes to mine.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to read this one.

I'm honored to have been given an advance copy of "End of the World House" because I loved it so much. It's unlike anything I've ever read before, and keep coming back to it in my mind, even weeks after I finished reading.

I also had the distinct pleasure of interviewing the author Adrienne Celt for my podcast Storytime in Paris. Here is what I said:

"My guest this week is award-winning author and cartoonist Adrienne Celt. Adrienne has written three books, including “The Daughters,” which won the 2015 PEN Southwest Book Award for Fiction and was named a Best Book of the Year by NPR. She’s also won the O. Henry Prize and the Glenna Luschei Award for her writing.

Adrienne’s latest novel, “End of the World House” is a mind-bending exploration of friendship and identity. When best friends Bertie and Kate head to Paris’ Louvre for a last hurrah, Kate suddenly disappears, unleashing time loops and multiverses. Adrienne shares with us where her story began, how she crafted the story structure to reflect the narrative, how the Louvre inspired her, and so much more. Then, she treats us to a reading from “End of the World House.”