What is happening in this book? Beautiful writing, rich character development, and a burning mystery. Celt does an incredible job of pacing this story, keeping us engaged in the events, but what she does masterfully is keep us engaged with Bertie. The end of the world has so many meanings here, but the most important is Bertie's impending adulthood. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.

The story is set in the near future as civilization is collapsing in all kinds of ways that feel very realistic (fires, floods, combings, shortages, etc). I was a little worried that it was going to be too much for my current mindset, but this is all happening in the background of the story. While the characters are affected by these things, it is not what the story focuses on.

This is a story about two friends, Bertie and Kate. Kate is about to move to L.A, and the two decide to go to Paris together during a window of ceasefire peace talks. The two meet a man who promises them a private tour of the Louvre before it opens, and they jump at the chance. This is when the story takes a sharp turn. Once inside the museum, nothing is as it seems.

The two friends have an argument and separate, but when Bertie tries to meet back up with her friend, Kate vanishes. Bertie finds she is trapped inside the Louvre in the middle of an apocalypse living the same day repeatedly.

There are slight differences to the days which readers will love discovering like Easter Eggs throughout the story.

I couldn’t get there. This cover is beautiful. I mean. Perfect. The idea is spectacular. I thought this was going to be something special. I wanted to love it. However, the writing felt stilted. I couldn’t tell if the writer was trying to be funny or clever. Some of the lines just made no sense. The line, “In the mirror Bertie thought she looked insane. Like a Munch painting or a cartoon dog getting hit on the foot by a hammer and going electric in it’s dismay.” Those to things are not even close to the same thing. I am not a fan of dual similes as they rarely work. Sorry. Thanks for the ARC.

We start with 30-somethings Kate and Roberta (“Bertie”), friends since high school, taking a spur of the moment trip to Paris before Kate moves to Los Angeles from Mountain View CA, where Bertie is an illustrator for an internet company and Kate has an important job for a nonprofit. Sounds fun, right? Think again.

The story takes place in an unspecified near future, when the world—including the US—is overwhelmed with natural disasters due to climate change, large and small terrorist attacks, and apparently has had dirty-bomb strikes in the not-too-distant past. Kate and Bertie’s trip is spur of the moment because the window for travel is temporarily open and they decide to grab it, since it could be who knows how long, maybe forever, before they will have a chance to visit Paris.

A guy named Javier, whom Bertie thinks seemed sketchy tells Kate that if they show up the next morning at the Louvre and mention his name, they’ll be allowed in even though it will be one of the museum’s normal closed days.

The reader sees right away that the day of the Louvre visit repeats, but also notices that the repeats play out differently; hugely differently by the third time around and the loop is broken. The story’s main character is Bertie, and the focus is on how she reacts to the strange events at the Louvre and over the following year. Other characters include a few of Bertie’s co-workers, and her boyfriend Dylan.

I was impressed by Celt’s depiction of how Americans react to their imperiled world. In their in-person lives, people turn inward and engage in selfish and irrational behaviors in the name of “self care.” They anxiously watch reports of attacks that kill many people, but in social media they meme-ify everything and make sick jokes about it. When they decide they should do something about what is happening, they take lots of photos and post them on social media. The rest of the time, they continue to do their jobs, stepping around more and more homeless people, working around the periodic food category shortages, rationing, and dwindling natural resources.

While the description of this near-future dystopia is masterful, it’s deeply depressing—especially right now, as Russia is attacking Ukraine, and we are talking about the real possibility of World War III.

The Bertie and Kate story doesn’t at all lighten the load, either. I think it’s a marketing mistake to refer to Groundhog Day in the book description. That made me think of Bill Murray, humor, sweetness, learning how to be a good and present person. But in this story, Bertie is full of anxiety, with good reason. There is a constant air of foreboding. On top of it all, to me Dylan seemed like a real creep, and I never felt like the whole time-travel-ish stuff made much sense.

Maybe somebody who is a big fan of dystopian fiction would like this a lot more than I did.

Bertie and Kate have been BFFs since high school, but are growing apart. While the world is facing one catastrophe after another they take a trip to Paris, meet a weird dude in a bar, and get a private visit to the Louvre. Then Bertie gets caught in a time loop and has to find her way back to Kate over and over again.

•-•-•-•

This was overall an engrossing read and a trippy, time-travely way to explore female friendships and the grief that’s felt as those all-important, all-consuming friendships change. I thought it was clever how the outside world collapsing around them sort of mirrored their crumbling friendship. I also loved how Bertie and Kate’s ho-hum responses to the slow apocalypse happening around them felt realistic - life goes on even as everything is falling apart - might as well go to your dumb job and plan a trip to Paris because flights are cheap (shrug). This would make a great book club pick - lots to discuss!

I thought the first half of the book was strong. The prose was straightforward and flowed well. I also enjoyed Bertie's work life and inner dialogue, which I found charming. What was lacking and what I wanted more of was Bertie and Kate's friendship. I also expected the narrative to be similar to Groundhog Day a time lapse or jump in which the friends must redo the same day over and over to mend their fractured relationship but instead I found the parts related to time looping to be confusing. I would like to read more from this author, but unfortunately this storyline did not work for me.

This was a really ambitious and impressive concept. I think it loses itself at points because there’s just so much happening, but I enjoyed the characters and depiction of friendship!

i like speculative fiction & multiverse stuff but the throughline of this book was murky and the character motivations opaque.

the writing quality was fine & i really appreciated the way the speculative-future-world was handled but the story arc lacked pacing.

Multiverses and time loops are really hard to do. This book was ambitious in concept and execution but something was lacking for me. Maybe the characters - they felt a bit flat, and in order to be fully invested in the story you needed to be fully invested in them. And I wasn't so the story just sputtered along for me while I waited for the conclusion which was disappointing but quite in line with what we learned. I will be on the lookout for more from the author though bc there's a lot of talent and good ideas in the novel 2.5 stars

I was not really feeling this novel for some reason. I wasn't invested and the characters weren't really my cup of tea. I love the idea of a Groundhog Day novel where two people are examining the world and the universe in a time loop, but I just didn't connect with them and that made this read a bit of a slog. I think there is a definite audience for this novel, but I am deeply under the impression that I was not it. Regardless, I appreciate the ARC, and thanks to Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for the early read.

The concept of this book is awesome: while the world implodes, friends Bertie and Kate take a trip to Paris as their last hurrah before Kate relocates to California for a new job. The two visit the Louvre on a day when the museum is typically closed. They get separated, and somehow, they enter a time loop where the same day repeats with slight variations.

This might be the most obvious critique, but the book felt…repetitive? Reading about the same day over and over made me skim over much of the book. It didn’t help that the narrator took ages for her to realize something was amiss, and it was only at that discovery where the plot made some headway. There was a lot going on, and I didn’t love some of the directions the story went.

Beyond that, I enjoyed the casual societal commentary and the exchanges between two women who are obviously great friends. Like I said, the idea behind the book was fun, but I wish it was better developed.

In this novel, the end of the world refers to both the physical world, which is undergoing climate-related disasters and various terrorist attacks, and the more personal ending of a friendship between two women. Bertie is an illustrator in Silicon Valley whose friend Kate is moving to L.A. As a last hurray, the women take a trip to Paris where they luck into a private entrance to the Louvre on a day it is closed to the public. Great setup, imagine having free reign to the Louvre. The women become separated and that's when the time loop starts, although it's manifested in Bertie having memories of prior loops, not quite waking up every day with "You Got Me Babe" blaring on the clock radio. The second half of the novel was interesting but confusing for me, a little to speculative and mind-bending, I guess I like things a little more straightforward.

End of the World House is ambitious. There's a lot going on. Against the backdrop of every possible world disaster (bombings, cyclones, famines, you know, the usual) two close friends decide to take a trip to Paris. It's their last hurrah before one relocates after accepting a new job offer hundreds of miles away.

Their friendship is tenuous, marked by little jabs and aggressive quips that only the closest of friends have. The morning before their visit to the Louvre is described in minute detail, from their pastries to their accessories and the people gathering in the Cour Napoleon. They finally get inside, and things are weird.

We know from the book blurb that this is a Groundhog Day scenario. The day repeats, more world disasters are casually dropped throughout, there are slight and then not so slight changes to the repeating day.

I'll reiterate that this is ambitious. Unfortunately for this reader it misses the mark. With too many plates spinning, I think Celt loses the narrative arc. This one left me unsatisfied.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story is unlike many I’ve read before. The main character, Bertie, is on a trip to Paris with her best friend Kate. The world as they know it has been deteriorating and they take advantage of traveling to Paris together while they can. On their last day, they go to the Louvre and Bertie loses Kate. This starts a series of repeating days and very strange occurrences.

This was an interesting and weird read. The world ending hit close to home as it felt like a not so unrealistic future, with rising sea levels, forest fires, bombings, and technological advancements. I enjoyed the writing and the author makes many witty comments on society. There were a lot of observations about this not-so-distant future that made me laugh (such as a fringe group nominating a long-burning forest fire for the National Register of Historic Places). Once I kind of found out what was going on in the story, I felt confused by the turn the book took. I think I will recommend this book to some because it does provide commentary on our world and it was a unique story.

I really enjoyed this book. The concept is super interesting and understandably difficult to convert into a book. I would definitely recommend this book to every movie fanatic I know as it reads just like a beautifully directed movie.

Taking place sometime in the future, End of The World House envisions a world in the process of collapsing. There are perpetual fires and floods, terrorist bombings in major cities, all leading to shortages and rationing. In the midst of all this, during a period of ceasefire peace talks, Bertie and Kate head to Paris for a vacation before Kate moves from Silicon Valley to LA. Once there, they meet a man who promises them private access to the Louvre. This is where the book launches into a Groundhog Day scenario, told from Bertie’s viewpoint. But unlike Groundhog Day, each re-start has minor differences and it became fun to pick up on each inconsistency.
Then the book takes a hard turn. I can’t go into much about the second part of the book without spoilers. Suffice it to say it's about Bertie’s life without Kate. The problem was I just couldn’t get invested in the story. There are some minor discussions about the multiverse (as opposed to the universe) and other philosophical thoughts meant to be deep.
I am not a big fan of Sci-fi, so others that are might be more invested in this story.
My thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this book.

ok, 3.5, mostly because I think the concept outpaces the prose. I think it starts off super strong, and then as it backtracks and loops around for the whole middle, some of the scenes lag, some of the dialogue is a little on the nose.

all of this is to say, I tore through this, I needed to know what happened to the main character, which just goes to show you that this book has ~something~ ! I will also say that maybe I shouldn't have started a book about the end of days and dissolution of a major friendship in the midst of war, maybe this pushed me into a weird spiral, I simply do not know!

tysm to netgalley and simon & schuster for the arc, I did have some kind of a blast!!

A story about two women who vacation together in Paris during a suspension of world hostilities. The setting takes place mostly in and around the Louvre, where they find themselves trapped in a Groundhogs Day type scenario.
While quite repetitious, the story also tended to be lacking in something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. The premise sounded amazing; it just fell a bit short for me.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t find this gripping.

There have been bombings and other things that have halted travel and normal living, but when the world opens back up, cartoonist Bertie asks her friend Kate to visit Paris with her. Kate has accepted a promotion that will transfer her from San Francisco and Bertie to Los Angeles, something Bertie finds even more depressing than doing cartoons for her Silicon Valley tech firm. While there, they get an invite from a man in bar to visit the Louvre on a day it’s closed to the public, and they get stuck there, living a similar day over and over again.

You’d think it would be interesting reading about someone passionate about art whose goals to write her own graphic novels are thwarted by making money doing art on command for an actual paycheck to get stuck at the greatest museum in the world, but not a lot happens—it’s repetitious. That’s partly the point—that between our jobs and how we unwind from our jobs, the endless terrible headlines repeated day after day, many of us live most of our lives in a half-awake routine. The backstory of her and Kate’s friendship was more interesting to me than their present-day conundrum and more interesting than Bertie’s relationship with her boyfriend.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which a RELEASES APRIL 19, 2022.

Loved this book! It absolutely earned it’s comparison to Groundhog’s Day and Severance, but somehow still managed to be it’s own unique story. Plot was well paced and the characters were really well drawn.