Received a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

A coming of age novel with a teen who is also coming to terms with their own sexuality. Add in a dash of “end of the world” drama.

There’s loads of religious stuff thrown in this novel. I think this is mainly due to the setting being in the southern part of the US. There’s also degrading terms used within the story against the main gay character by other characters. There is some slight racist undertones as well from one of the character’s parents -in that the wife isn’t allowed to speak in her native tongue or teach the language to her kid.

I wish there had been more end of the world stuff without so much religious reflections on the events.

I did appreciate that this story was told in one character’s perspective throughout the entire narrative. I have found way too many romance and coming of age novels being recently being told in multiple or shifting perspectives.

Thank you so much for the ARC Netgalley.
I put this book aside for a long time because I picked it up thinking it was a post-apocalytic romance book, haha, it has nothing to do with that. It is a book that deals with many strong themes. I can't say it's a light read just because it's YA, but the characters are still very wholesome to read. It was okay, just not what I expected.

I have so much love for this book it's honestly ridiculous. It was such a beautiful story. Milo captivated my heart, and was such a relatable character with his struggles dealing with his sexuality, his religion, his family, and his social life. My heart ached for him. His anxiety and fears were so real I could feel them. In a world where being your authentic self is often criticized, and even unsafe, Milo and Marcos at the End of the World is a book that reflects what it can feel like facing those fears. I truly don't have the words to express how much I adore this book, and it's themes. But I highly recommend it.

I don't know that everything worked super well, Milo makes some frustrating leaps of logic and both of them obsessing about 2 weeks at camp 3 years ago when they were 14 did seem to drag. But ultimately, I was in actual pain for Milo and his internalized homophobia and I don't think there are many stories about teenagers who truly believe in God and don't shy away from it.

This was such a good read! I liked the flashbacks of them at camp. I wish the synopsis would've put a little more emphasis on the religious trauma though. That was unexpected. And the apocalyptic part wasn't as strong as I would've liked. But overall, I did enjoy my time reading this. Plus the cover is stunning.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the advanced copy of this book to read.

This book was not at ALL what I thought it would be and I was genuinely delighted by that.

Milo and Marcos met years ago at camp. They haven’t talked since they had one night of ~tension~ and Marcos left. But now, Marcos has moved to Milo’s town and it seems like the world is ending. Natural disaster upon natural disaster seem to coincide every time the two become closer which wouldn’t be a problem except that Milo is battling some vicious religious inner demons.

I was so enthralled by this, the flash backs to camp, seeing how Milo and Marcos’s relationship progressed and grew from when they were younger to when the book takes place. The inner turmoil of Milo! The conviction and lack of faith of Marcos! An ending that made me happy!

A great time.

4 stars

This book does coming of age very well, characters felt realistic with real problems without feeling forced. A lot ya authors these days feel disconnected from how a teen acts but not this one

Love, family and the right to be oneself in this intense book where family loyalty and faith battle against hearts and true happiness. Where the world can literally be upside down if you follow your Heart, Milo and Marcos at the end of the world deals with love and family, pain and homophobia, fears and the willingness of being oneself and to love Who do you want to love.

This is how you do coming of age stories. The perfect amount of angst without being overly dramatic, and realistic teens and adults. It could have been a touch longer, but not a huge complaint. I felt for the main character, and I think the religious aspect was done with care and respect. I will definitely pick up more from this author. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this novel! I loved the apocolyptic nature of the story, despite the fact that it wasn't apocalyptic at all. I wish we could have queer stories where parents were supportive, but this story still made me love it. I've already added it to my classroom library.

I am a big fan of the author’s podcast “The Two Princes” on Spotify, and I really enjoyed this book, too.

The book takes the stressful feelings of coming out to the extreme by throwing literal natural disasters, like meteors and fires, in between them at key moments, and the main characters have to decide if these events are coincidence or if they’re a sign from God.

Overall, this book was really fun and also a reminder of how stressful being true to yourself can be.

(My apologies for the brevity of the review, but I wrote it for my students as a book recommendation.)

This was cute, however I could have done less with the internalized homophobia. It didn't take away from the story, and it's a really cute YA novel. The romance is sweet. It's a cute, solid read.

Milo and Marcos had history and this book took on subjects I was not anticipating. I haven’t read a queer YA novel that takes on issues of religion and the author does so with care and complexity. The complicated family situation and the steadfast best friend made the love between Milo and Marcos even more powerful. The impending end of the world was also an interesting plot point, but not sure it was resolved all that well. The end was also a little abrupt but it was fitting. I would recommend this book because of its representation of queer youth who live in ultra-conservative communities trying to find their way.

Milo and Marcos at the End of the World by Kevin Christopher Snipes is a YA queer novel that follows Milo as he finds his first queer love while being extremely religious. This book has some sci-fi elements to it as well that I enjoyed. This book had me in tears and had me laughingI had a wonderful time reading this. I rated this book 4.5 stars, as I had a bit of a hard time being invested in the story. Thank you to NetGalley for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

"And when you think about it-- I mean really, really think about it-- maybe a God who roots for love is the only God worth believing in."

Milo has spent his whole life as the "Good Presbyterian Boy." He's devout, he goes to church every Sunday, volunteers with the children's bible study, and even goes to Bible Summer Camp. But when he meets Marcos at this summer camp, he starts to question himself for the first time. What are these feelings he has towards Marcos? What does that mean for him, and for his faith?

This is one of those "Trust the Process" novels. I was terrified half way through that the plot device of the supernatural happenings throughout his city would be end up as God punishing Milo and Marcus. I almost put the novel down because I know how painful this line of thinking is. As a Southern Lesbian, finding a book marketed as LGBTQ only to have homophobic views is painful and harmful. I was petrified that this was about to happen to me, and not only me, to other LGBTQ youth who just wanted a cute gay romance.

But it did end up being lovely. Milo's inner thoughts are painful but utterly heart wrenchingly honest. He has trouble managing his faith and his feelings for Marcos but there's a wonderful conclusion where he accepts that he can have both, and I think that's incredibly needed. I'm not religious, so this doesn't hit exactly home for me, but I know LGBTQ readers who are will find themselves and their struggles in this book.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

I think this book is perfect for fans of Shaun David Hutchinson's <i>We Are the Ants</i>. It has the ambiguous sci-fi mixed with contemporary romance thing going on, which admittedly, does not hugely work for me (I'd much rather it not be ambiguous, thank you), but I do find it symbolically appealing if done well.

Honestly, the weird sci-fi, is the world ending? is it God? is it happening or not? thing only kind of worked for me here (and I really struggled with the ending bit, and the lack of resolution about whether these disasters really had a point at all, it felt underdeveloped and arbitrary; though, I was thankful that the floating bed in space bit was all a dream because when that happened, my mind went blank) but what worked for me less was the all over the place character development.

I struggled a lot with Milo's character, mostly because on an emotional level, I relate to him very heavily, and I think a lot of his actions, especially toward the end, were out-of-character. For how closeted and uncomfortable he was coming to terms with his sexuality, he was very quick to do certain things particularly kiss his boyfriend in front of a whole crowd at Reverend Rapture and while these things moved the plot along and gave the story momentum, realistically, they didn't make sense. For someone so deeply uncomfortable with his sexuality to be okay making a <spoiler>physical grand gesture in public</spoiler>I just didn't buy it.

I understand that I shouldn't put my own experiences onto a character because we're not the same, but I struggled to wrap my head around Milo's decisions and sudden confidence in certain situations where I think it would have been more realistic for him to be terrified. I just feel like the characterization was off, and never fully developed enough for the book to reach the pinnacle at the end.

I don't know, for awhile I was really loving this, and enjoying the characters' romantic dynamic and the discussions of religion and internalized homophobia, but by the end, I was lost a bit with how we got from point a to b, and I think this book could have done with a few extra rounds of editing to polish it off.

But it was still fun and cute and kept me sane while at my desk "working" all day, so there we go.

Last thing I'd like to say is that this is not a comfy, cozy book. It's not about an apocalypse, like the summary suggests, nor is it a sweet, easy romance. I think it's been poorly marketed as such. It's about two boys falling in love while dealing with intense religious homophobia and internalized homophobia. For people who have experienced that, this book could be really triggering, so I want to make sure people are aware of the subject matter before going into it. There is the use of slurs, talk of conversion therapy, and general hateful rhetoric throughout the book. Read with caution and care <3 (Though, I will easily say that I think Snipes handled the religious aspect excellently, and I appreciated the nuanced way he introduced religion, never saying Milo had to give up his faith to be himself, and even having the pastor tell him he couldn't be "fixed".)

3.5 stars. This was a good book and showed a lot of promise but it sort of veered off course for me towards the end. I did really enjoy the characters and the writing style and would definitely read something else by this author in the future but for me, this particular story fell flat.

This story is gay panic at it's most extreme. The plot is full of twists and chaotic situations that take the trials of growing up queer in a restrictive community and dial them up to 11. It highlights the ridiculous of what queer kids and teens are forced to face just to make it through to adulthood. I would recommend this for teens and MS and HS libraries.

Milo and Marcos are teens that met and fell in love and just didn't know it but when they meet each other again, the problems start and they aren't just normal problems, but end of the world problems. Things that should not be happening to them are and then the normal everyday teen things are happening too. If one were to think that this would be a tale of serendipity, they would be mistaken. Extremely mistaken.

After reading this book in its entirety, I found that tremendously enjoyed it. There were times in which I wanted the plot of the book to get to the point and there were times in which I thought "dang, this really is an 'oh crap' moment."
At times, I found myself going along with Milo and his thinking and I realize that I, myself needed a reality check. That I too needed to grow up and that it is hard to go for what you want when everything in the world seems against you doing that. And the worst part is, I am an adult well into my prime. Whew.
And there were times in which I just needed to read more because I felt the need to know what happened next. What happened to Marcos? What happened to Vanessa? Like the questions abounded and I found myself reading whenever, wherever I could.

This book gives you the teenage angst, the hurt and comfort and the romance all rolled into one that is a soft romance. And that is exactly something that I was looking for in a book. It starts off a little slow, but I stuck with it especially after we dive into the past of Milo and Marcos as younger teens.

There is nothing I would ultimately change about this lovely book. I know it was slow in the beginning but the plot needed it to be slow for readers to grasp the craziness of the plot, and for readers to want to dash through to the end. I will say that I felt bad for our main characters, as what is explained in this book is something that many people go through on a day to day basis. And it isn't eye-opening becasue I see it everyday and I wish it would stop. But I think that if those people had or have a friend like Vanessa then maybe things would be just a bit better. I think in the end we can all learn something from this book and if it's to be like Vanessa or Caleb in an hour of need, I think everything would be a bit better.