As I sit here typing this review, it leaves me with a dream I have pretty consistently. That dream being Goodreads updating their rating system to allow half-stars. This book sits comfortably in the realm of a 3.5-star rating. I'm rounding it up to 4 because I do feel there was a lot of good mixed in with the bad and very bad.

Two friends, Bertie and Kate, take a trip to Paris to visit the Louvre during an apocalypse and try to rekindle a bit of that friendship that's been lost over the years. From there, we dissolve into a Groundhog's Day type story where different things are said and choices made. It's easy for me to say that this first Part is the best section of this novel. Adrienne Celt is great at writing tension between two friends with that bit of unspoken air that always creeps around when you can't just say what you feel. I really believed their friendship and wanted them to make-up or resolve their differences.

Unfortunately, the book takes a turn with the introduction of Dylan. I won't give anything a way but he takes center stage alongside Bertie for the remaining chapters of the book and by the end it feels completely unnecessary. If he wasn't a part of the story, it would have been an exceedingly better tale of the complexities of friendship between two women. But alas, we get the stereotypical emotional abuse and gaslighting that feels completely out of left field and pushes Kate to the background. And by the end a twist occurs that's just so frustrating and damning to the emotional impact that should be felt in the last couple of chapters, that it borderline ruins the whole experience.

Even so, I think some people will get a lot out of this that didn't hit nearly as hard for me. There's a lot of great character dialogue and inner monologues that feel natural and fleshed out. I really enjoyed a bit of tension between Bertie and the character of Danzy when the former invites the latter out for drinks. It's an extremely realistic and awkward moment that breathes a lot of life into the narrative. If only we had more moments like this, while also taking Dylan out of the plot.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing me an advanced digital copy of this book!

END OF THE WORLD HOUSE is recommended for fans of complex dystopian tales. Perhaps readers of Ruth Ozeki and Alix Harrow would enjoy this one. The narrative is a bit of a labyrinth that rewards careful reading. Saying "twists and turns" barely scratches the surface. There's a lot going on here -- many layers, multiple plotlines -- and of course, the time-bending angle. Celt is talented and will surely find her audience.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of End of the World House.

I loved the Groundhog Day premise entwined with the post-apocalyptic setting so I was excited when my request was approved.

The writing was good, but like some novels with great premises, there was too much going on.

Is this a novel about a relationship between two women during a post-apocalyptic Earth and how their friendship will survive when one is moving away after so many years of leaning on each other for moral, mental and emotional support?

Is this about time travel, the multiverse and the roads not taken?

Is this about our place in the world after a world crisis and how we continue to go on; mourn our losses in friendship and families; what the world used to be, how we were able to travel and go to the market and get whatever we needed whenever we needed.

Instead, the novel was a jumble of the above with no clear delineation of what the author was trying to say; there is repetitive filler about Bertie's job, the power hungry tech CEOs of companies that want to shape the world and people to their image.

I expected something more Groundhog Day like; a time lapse or jump in which the friends must redo the same day over and over to mend their fractured relationship but instead we get rando characters like Javier and Dylan, whose characters are superfluous and unnecessary.

Especially Dylan. He is a schlub, toxic and a creep, to put it bluntly.

I don't understand why the author would add a male character to guide Bertie in the time loop at the Louvre, giving him the power to manipulate Bertie and restart the loop with the snap of his fingers. I was not a fan of that.

Why does a man and a relationship between a couple factor into every novel?

Why not use Bertie's parents to guide her, compel her emotionally and mentally?

Why not explore the friendship between Kate and Bertie instead of devoting more than half of the pages to the phony relationship between Bertie and Dylan?

There are lots of unanswered questions including why is there a time loop at the Louvre and why does Kate stay?

What I did love:

The relationship between Kate and Bertie; the honesty between both women who become even more dependent on each other after a world crisis the author evokes with mentions of a war and food shortages.

I love the brief drawings in the novel (wish there were more) and the End of the World House title refers to the graphic novel Kate is creating in her graphic novel.

The writing was good and the author does raise some interesting questions about the paths we take but they get muddled along the way, which made this hard to continue reading after I put it down to read something else. But I finished!

"She just couldn’t shake the feeling that something about Kate had changed since the cease-fire; the air around her had lightened and clarified, whereas Bertie felt her chest was being compressed, all the best oxygen leaking out of it and leaving her gasping for breath."

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a DNF for me. I was intrigued by this premise - post apocalyptic Groundhogs Day with female besties at the Louvre - but I found the execution to be a little too anyway for my tastes.

Like others, I found the first half of the book strong and then the second half fell flat and felt repetitive. Such a good idea, but the execution could've been much better.

What a fever dream! I love dystopian vibes, and this was just like being pulled in every which way. It felt like whiplash with every 25 pages toward the middle, but without just pulling the proverbial rug out from under the reader. The flip-arounds were not just twists, and I appreciate that because "twists" are often a lazy approach at plot roller coasters. This author had meaning for why events happened; this was definitely not lazy writing. Would definitely enjoy a re-read of this one soon.

I thought this sounded interesting, but it fell flat for me. I liked the female friendship, but it wasn't a large enough focus to pull the book along for me. I really liked the cover., and I liked the setting. The first half was better than the second half. Overall, I found it confusing to follow.

QUICK TAKE: wanted to love it, liked a lot about it, but ultimately was turned off by the toxic masculinity/gaslighting subplot that felt a little off for me. I liked the female friendship at the center of the story, but that gets pushed aside for a dark and icky relationship story. Still, interested in reading more from this author, and I love the cover art.

Unfortunately, I felt this book was trying to do far too much and therefore it's difficult to summarize. It seems to be playing a bit on the covid pandemic with the world ending aspect, and in the midst of the inexplicable bombings/accelerated global warming/apocalypse, two friends are trying to mend a rift. In doing so they travel to Paris and get stuck in a time loop in the Louvre, but then things take a turn and we realize everyone is living simultaneous possible lives. To me, it didn't connect -- I didn't understand the purpose of Dylan, Javier, or the apocalypse. I was interested in the friendship and the time loop, but nothing really felt tied up and the characters felt flat.

I wanted to love this book with a Palm Springs/Groundhog Day premise. The book starts off strong as Bertie as Kate decide to travel to Paris while the world around them collapses. Somehow they’re caught in a weird time loop in the Louvre and Bertie must find a missing Kate. The first half was great but the second half lost me. Seems like a case of interesting idea not well executed.

i think the general consensus among reviewers is that the first half of this book is much stronger than the second
i really really enjoyed reading about the female friendships and the mind boggling time loop but when we met dylan and everything went in the opposite direction the book kind of lost me
bertie is endearing but once again the book went through some very boring characterization through the mid 1/3 of the book
the explanation for time just did not,,, click?? maybe i’m just dumb lmao
station eleven meets groundhog day meets very infuriating characters

End of the World House by Adrienne Celt just had me baffled. Bertie and Kate go on a fling to Paris before Kate moves away, as Paris has just opened back up to tourists after some cataclysmic and apocalyptic wars on the planet. While there, they are asked by a strange man if they want a tour of the Louvre on the day it's closed and they accept. Once there they are launched into a timeloop where Bertie keeps losing Kate and can't find her, waking up each morning to do it over again until finally she wakes up without Kate. Then she meets her old boyfriend and the loop is broken and she's back home with him, but is the loop broken?

This book is just bizarre. I found it to be confusing, the characters were one dimensional, with the exception of Bertie who we came to know quite a bit about. I couldn't follow the plot...just a little too surreal for me. Thank you to the author, Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

In the End of the World House, it involves asking yourself what would you do if your best friend disappeared at the Louvre during your trip to Paris? Then it adds in a continuous looping of events that confuses you with different endings, similar characters amidst escalating world conflict. I loved the way this story developed and let your mind wander. Over all a good solid read!

This book was nothing like I expected. It is a story that focuses on the friendship between Bertie and Kate who take a vacation to Paris as a last “hoorah” before Kate moves away. At the same time, the world is potentially on the verge of apocalyptic collapse with resource shortages, climate change problems, and world conflicts. As Bertie and Kate enjoy a private tour of the Louvre, time gets fuzzy and the day gets repeated with slight differences. To make matters worse, Kate disappears and Bertie is sick about finding their way back to each other. This is a mind-bending novel, not always easy to follow, and rather confusing and slow at times. Overall though, it was enjoyable and interesting and something fans of science fiction would likely appreciate.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book started off strong, and the parts focusing on female friendship were the most resonant for me. The book lost steam when it got trapped in time loops and lost focus. What started as a story of a woman, Bertie, trying to find her best friend, Kate, in a series of alternate realities turned into, well, not much? SPOILERS AHEAD. Bertie DOES find Kate and Kate chooses to go on without her and Bertie…doesn’t seem to mind? After spending the whole book trying to find her. And how the time loop worked was fuzzy—how does Dylan have the power to snap them into new realities? Bertie offhandedly mentioned how her company was working on a way to live in a virtual space once the world as we know it effectively ended. Is that where they are? Trapped in a virtual world? Celt didn’t really concern herself with answering those questions.

As the book deals with a post apocalyptic future, this book may be triggering for some people, as some details mirror current events.

The first half of this book was a trip! It was disorienting and engaging and fun and complicated, with a strong voice and an interesting relationship between the two best friends. The second half? I didn't like nearly as much. I almost stopped reading because it simply didn't hold my interest in the same way. But cool first half!

I’m truly not sure what to make of this book. I want to feel positively toward the premise, at the very least—it’s curious, unique and anchored me into a surreal Groundhogs Day environment at the Louvre. The characters were somehow the weakest point of this novel; for a book about loyalty, friendship and relentless codependency, we learn a startling little about the main characters’ inner life and workings. When the plot wasn’t playing with multiple realities, it was actually super dull. The mechanics of the time bending and the purpose the boyfriend character plays is speculative… The last page turns the entire book into a romance meet cute, why? Still trying to process how I feel about it, at the very least it’s not a book I’ll soon forget.

What would you do if your best friend disappeared at the Louvre during your trip to Paris? Now add on a continuous looping of events that confuses you with different endings, similar characters amidst escalating world conflict . . .

Bertie, our protagonist, is a cartoonist drawing dinosaurs to market products that may save the world. She loses her best friend and then meets Dylan who seems to understand this loopy, twisty world. How much control does Bertie have over her future—and her past in order to survive the impending doom of the world? To what extent do we act with freedom of choice, repetition of life events, and bursting soap bubbles to create mastery in our own lives?

This sci-fi story is complex, intricate and sometimes difficult to understand. But the premise is intriguing . . . will Bertie’s life be marked by freedom and choice or spin through repetition? What would you choose? Worth reading and thinking about as our world spins.

This book definitely hits a particular way after a year of COVID- the slow apocalypse this world describes is both horrifying and familiar. I loved the characterization of the complexity of Bertie and Kate's friendship- it's not a perfect friendship, in fact, it is often quite fraught, with romantic undertones. Bertie is given two options in these parallel timelines of "soulmates"- Kate, or a creepy guy. I think the book could have been better at making both relationships fleshed out, I felted very biased towards favoring Kate. The time/parallel worlds was fairly clearly articulated in this world, although I am still not 100% sure how all the forms of Kate are allowed to exist at the Louvre. I suppose that's just what she's predisposed to. Also how Dylan acquired these powers is unclear, but that doesn't bother me as much.
Lastly, I appreciate some of the ambiguity of the future of Bertie's romance life. I'm glad Dylan actually listened to her and reset the timeline for them both to get to know each other anew. I'd still prefer she end up alone instead of with him, however.

Childhood best friends Bertie and Kate have reached a strenuous point in their relationship—the world is balancing on an uneven scale that might just lean towards apocalyptic by the next morning, and Kate is moving. In effort to ignore the doom and gloom of the world, and Kate’s soon-to-be distance, the two embark on a Paris vacation, which leads them to the jewel of the city—the Louvre. Their chance visit to the museum seems too good to be true (read: they’re the only visitors that day), but things quickly take a turn, and so does time.

The concept of time in this novel was an intriguing catch—I found myself really wanting to understand how time functioned, and yet I don’t think I ever really figured that out. I don’t think that lack of understanding mattered too much, because, like Bertie and others, they didn’t understand it in the end either. However, the last half of the novel didn’t live up to its own intrigue. The plot slowed down and took an unpleasant turn, the characters fell flat and seemed to dig themselves into a hole of unfortunate characterization. The story seemed to hint in one direction, but then that direction was completely disregarded and forgotten. I think I would have liked to have been able to connect with the characters more, but I don’t feel like we’re given much of a chance. As for the novel overall, the world-building was laid out and unique, and I think that really gave the story its substance that kept me reading.