set in a world where humans only have a set number of generations to live, we follow a set of twins as they navigate through this melancholic and desperate landscape. i believe that 'the beauty of the end' had a lot of potential, as it presents a unique scene, yet one digestible enough that readers can believe it to be true and be immersed further in the story. with the current state of my country today (america), the book's themes of autonomy and humanity definitely hit harder than I expected. i found it very interesting how Sienstra eased us into this world and the contemporary of it, especially with the how she handled the government's role and ambiguous ethics during this crisis.

with this being said, i left the book feeling unsatisfied and slightly disappointed. the ending felt rushed and i would've appreciated a bit more build up to the main plot twist, despite it being satisfactory plot twist however. the narrator, charlie, could've been so interesting to witness, yet her voice was dull and any attempts to change this were lackluster and unfulfilling. we follow the character from childhood to adulthood, and more character development or a change in voice would've benefited the story. i was much more interested in maggie and her questionable ethics, however these two felt surface level and left a lot to be explored. i would definitely recommend this book for those who want to explore narratives of questionable science and situations where humanity and morals are challenged (not by external factors specifically) .

The Beauty of the End is a tender, melancholic exploration of grief, memory, and the quiet unraveling of identity in the aftermath of loss. Lauren Stienstra’s prose is lyrical and introspective, inviting you into the inner world of a narrator who is trying to make sense of what remains after everything has changed. This isn’t a story driven by action or plot—it’s driven by reflection, emotional nuance, and the ache of remembering.

The novel gently asks what it means to carry someone inside you after they’re gone, and whether love is ever really finished—or just transformed into something quieter, something we live with. There’s a poetic rhythm to the writing, the kind that makes you pause and reread lines not for clarity, but because they’re beautiful in their rawness.

What stands out most is how the book lingers in the aftermath—the space between acceptance and denial, where memory reshapes truth and grief becomes a mirror. It’s not always an easy read, but it’s an honest one. For those who crave emotional depth, subtle storytelling, and the kind of book that feels like a conversation with your past self, The Beauty of the End is a deeply rewarding experience.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish this book as it didn’t quite work for me. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

I really loved this book. Seeing the gradual decay of the world was quite a surprise, showing how everything relies upon the other lives that so often are ignored. I had never thought about how life could drastically change in a matter of seconds.

“Somehow, once again, my life changed irreparably another month later. So dramatically, in fact, it made surrendering my ovaries for bait-and-switch employment on a distant island in the South Pacific seem quaint.”

TW: death, miscarriage

Holy moly, I love a standalone dystopian sci-fi, but merge it together with a reflection on female health and reproduction rights? I’m sold. Similar to the hayflick limit which found that human cells have a limit of times they can divide, incapable of infinite division, the story follows the extinction of cicadas who “simply expired according to a preordained genetic schedule”, which was quickly looming for humanity.

Sci-fi as a genre often pushes the reader to contemplate the unthinkable, and this book is no different. With the future of humanity at risk, there are several key themes underpinning the story, including the ethical implications of having control others reproduction schedules and partners, as well as the impact of capitalism on the human body. All young women are offered two paths before they turn 18 - either have as many children as possible (with the hope of improving the childs fertility ’number’) in return for government benefits, or sacrifice your ovaries to the ‘cause’ in return for a guaranteed job and pension. In an environment where the end is nigh for everyone and both job security and financial freedom is almost non-existent, the opportunity to purchase both through the very permanent sale of body parts is thought-provoking.

“The dead don’t have feelings. You do. I. do. And if you don’t feel good about what you did, then I never will.”

Similarly, with an understanding that the fertility ’number’ of a normal human can’t be changed for the individual, but through potentially mutating genes before reproducing for others raises the question - how far are we willing to go as humanity to persevere the future at the risk of the present? In the words of the protagonist, it is “tragic that the people of today had to suffer for the babes of tomorrow - but necessary.”

“I realised then that her actual manner of death didn’t matter. He’d chosen to believe in a version of her death that vindicate his emotions.”

The book could go further in exploring these questions, but does a great job at introducing them through a very likeable and conflicted protagonist. Ultimately, the book leaves the reader with a lot to think about - always a winner for me.

Dnf around 50%

idk I was excited to read it but it never fully hooked me, idk if that's due to the plot or just me not being in the mood. I admit the trope of characters that are set on not having kids to suddenly wanting kids just annoys me but all pregnancy plots annoy me anyway so it's definitely a me thing, idk maybe I'll give it another try someday.

Thank you Net Galley and Little A for the arc!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

The Beauty of the End follows twins Charlie and Maggie in a sort of alternate history where scientists discover that every creature -- including humans -- have a date of extinction encoded into their DNA.

There was a lot that I thought was really strong about this book, most especially its funky ending and its overall premise. The entire opening, where we get to experience the discovery of the limit through a vanished cicada brood, had me absolutely hooked, and I was looking forward to the way the book would explore the implications of this limit on humans. What I didn't expect, and what I really struggled with pretty much up until the end, was that our two girls would become scientists whose involvement in the social crisis of the discovery of the limit is one where they surrender any potential they have of experiencing it in the name of finding a cure. I thought at least one of them might go the route of trying to do her duty to the species or something, but instead that was explored very little, and exclusively through characters we only briefly met. I found myself wanting to know more of what this world was like outside of their labs and offices, and I wanted the book to dig far more than it did into the experience of being a woman in this society. At the time I read the book, I didn't know about Lauren Stienstra's involvement in public health, specifically during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic response, and that certainly informs a lot of the trajectory of this book. I don't think that knowing this ahead of time would have made me feel too differently about the sequence of events, but it would have set me up with better expectations.

All that said, I don't think wanting far more than a book provided is necessarily a bad thing. The world Stienstra sets up is compelling and intriguing, and the characters were beautifully complicated and nuanced. I'll certainly be picking up more of her writing in the future.

I tried to read this, but I could only get 10% through the version that NetGalley gave me access to.

The writing was very clunky, both at the sentence level ("Don't you worry your precious little head about what's going on in here. Remember what your mother always says: if you wait patiently and quietly, everything will turn out fine.") and structurally: exposition, obvious exposition, plodding exposition.

[a few spoilers follow, though if they occur in the first 30 pages, are they spoilers?]

When news of global infertility of all life gets announced, it happens "...on Friday, the thirteenth of May. The date was, of course, a coincidence. At least that's what they told us." Because, the other explanation is, what? That world governments would intentionally announce catastrophic news on a day that's a superstition for bad luck? It was paragraph after paragraph of things like this that didn't make sense.

If the writing had been gorgeous, I still probably wouldn't have continued. The premise is that scientists discover that all life (or maybe just animal life) has a pre-programmed number of generations remaining until it stops being able to reproduce. Nope. That's not how genes work. Moreover, it is this genetic issue that was actually behind extinctions like those of the dodo and the woolly mammoth. "Geneticists located the cursed gene in every single [species]. Much to the misfortune of life on our planet, these creatures hadn't fallen victim to overhunting or habitat loss or climate change, as previously hypothesized. They'd simply expired according to a preordained genetic schedule."

I couldn't go on. I get that Stienstra wants to get to a world where some kids know they're the final generation. But just start it there. Don't give this weird setup that feels more like Koch Brothers' revisionist history than justification for a speculative novel. I was angry and insulted by the writing AND the plot. Too bad. The cover is lovely.

I hate to give ARCs a low rating, but this took me a month to read because I just hated picking it up. Which was so disappointing because the premise and the first third of the novel were really engaging! I love how it started off feeling very dystopian and from a child's point of view and the creation of a government solution to extintion was interesting, but then it just continued to decline. The scope of what Stienstra was working with felt extremely large and I think that it why a lot of the holes in the plot started to surface. This could have all been fine (not great, but fine) if the ending didn't make me so mad. I hate when the childless woman (who didn't want children in the first place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) ends up having kids because she feels some higher purpose in doing so. It invalidates women's choices and it felt so tone def for a story about the end of the world idk.

3.25⭐
Thanks to NetGalley, Little A, and the author for the advanced copy!

The Beauty of the End follows twins Charlie and Maggie, adopted into a working-class family after being born to Marshallese parents.

As the world faces human extinction due to genetic decline, the two become involved in a scientific group called the Mendelia, which tries to save humanity through selective breeding.

Maggie is fully committed, but Charlie remains doubtful and conflicted. The story spans about fourteen years, showing how Charlie struggles to balance her love for her sister with her own beliefs and the weight of the world's future.

Though the book explores interesting themes like medical ethics, adoption, and sibling bonds, it doesn't always feel focused. The pacing is uneven, and Charlie's passive nature can be frustrating, especially compared to Maggie’s energy.

The final part of the novel feels off-tone and might be uncomfortable for some readers, especially around themes of birth and trauma. Still, it's a bold debut with big ideas, and the author shows promise for future work.

Thanks to Netgalley and Little A for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! The premise of this story intrigued me and, weeks later, it is still memorable. However, I felt the writing style was more junior than expected and the characters were not very fleshed out. You knew everyone in a surface level manner only but either didn't get any detail or got too much unnecessary detail. The science behind this concept also has to be taken with a grain of salt as it wasn't very believable to me (and I don't know much).
I'd recommend this for fans of YA and as a 'sci-fi' ish palette cleanser between heavier reads.

I was really hoping for something dark, like Handmaids Tale, but I feel like either the author or publisher wanted to hold back.

This is a book about two sisters trying to save the world in the face of near-future extinction. It tackles themes of reproductive ethics, parenting, and how we as a society should act facing imminent extinction, among other things, themes that are very much relevant in our real world situation. However, the book doesn't seem to be very interested in deeply exploring all of those things, instead, it focuses more on the main character, the people around her, and all the things that happen to them. The themes are just there to be touched upon when the story calls for it. The fact that it's so plot-centric makes this book a thrilling read that's hard to put down, but at some point, it becomes clear that this book is more interested in that, and shocking readers, instead of exploring the themes. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just something that should make readers adjust their expectations accordingly.

Sisters Charlie and Maggie adoptees in a dystopian society, but feeling very much of today, are being raised in the “before times” when their president announces there would be no more babies. Soon extinction talk was rampant, from cicadas to rats- the story of a crumbling society told through the eyes of children.

A crumbling society may be hard to read right now but this was easily written and flowed, so I found this a quick read. We are too dismissive of children at times, telling them not to worry, just be kids; when they understand more than we know and want to help. So many lines where you really needed to read between the lines, where you could see where the author got some everyday inspiration from. The innuendoes were not subtle.

The plot moved quicker through an idea when I wanted the book to sit on it for a little, add some detail, and really flush it out. The middle did drag a little. And a lot of it dragged, as it switched from a plot story to be more focused on the character development of the sisterly bond and I was really craving the plot. The author unfortunately softened a pretty deep plot line into a young adult love triangle for a bit.

The strength in the story is when it focuses on scientists playing God, and their implications. The decisions either main character made, felt like it was motivated by selfish means and the plot was flip flopping between whether letting Maggie and Charlie show signs of any humanity or not. So the depth of the development of the characters strongly showing in the middle, was disregarded for the end. Almost as if the novel couldn’t decide what it wanted to focus to be.

Overall, an interesting story but may not be for everybody.

This book was so up my alley. Charlie and Maggie are twins in a suburb of Pennsylvania who live a relatively normal life, until scientists discover that humanity will be extinct in four generations due to a genetic mutation. 10 years later, Charlie and Maggie graduate high school and join the Mendelia, the government agency tasked with trying to find a cure through any means: principally, by having scientists combine eggs and sperm in interesting combinations to see if they can create babies that do not have the genetic mutation (it's more complicated than that of course, but I don't want to give anything away). Charlie and Maggie have very different feelings about the Mendalia, and their bond is tested as they navigate being adults in a fragile world.

I really enjoyed this book. It raises incredibly interesting questions about whether sacrificing a few is worth it to save the many, how much of the present we should let go for the future, and how ethical it is to play God with people's reproductive choices and futures if they give you "permission." It's also a really moving story of family and sibling love, and what we do when we don't understand or agree with each other. And, it's a fast-paced story that sucks you in right away with just enough context before getting into the action. This story feels particularly relevant at a time when it's becoming more and more possible to make custom embryos, and I was fascinated by the candid conversations the characters had about the implications of their work. I also appreciated that the book did not shy away from the fact that the government scientists sought to take advantage of marginalized populations and capitalized on people's trust in science to mislead them and cover up way too many things, as that is unfortunately how these situations generally go. This book covers a lot of ground in not that many pages, and I left the book with a couple questions, but overall this was extremely satisfying!

Thank you to Little A and NetGalley for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an advanced reader's copy!

While this is a dystopian type plot, the main storyline isn’t really about that. It’s mostly about how these two characters respond to the circumstances and then a weird journey of attempting to help the problem. The setting isn’t really that fleshed out, it doesn’t always make perfect sense. The character motivations were not always clear to me either. Overall it was an interesting idea and I was interested.

The Beauty of the End by new to me author Lauren Stienstra, published by Little A; is a heartwrenchingly beautiful story that gives all the feels and deserves all the stars.
Well written, intriguing, literallyunputdownable, a real pageturner.

The world is coming to an end. Each human has been coded with a finite number of generations that will come after them. For some it will be the end of the family line. For others they may have 2 or 3 more generations that can come into being. Soon the human population will die out. The book focused on the Mendels, who were scientists trained especially to harvest eggs from donated ovaries and sperm samples. The Mendels would implant different combos of egg/sperm in women, attempting to create the DNA that would allow for increasing the number of generations. The science was hard for me to understand but it didn't detract from the novelty of the story. The book was not a doomsday story, painting the earth as desolate with dying people. There was no panic. No riots and looting. It was the story of twins, their life as Mendels, and the ethics of implanting mutant DNA. This book earns itself 3.5 stars for its novel and interesting story line but rounded down for it's slow pace. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the complementary digital ARC. My review is my own opinion and not coerced in any way.

A great speculative fiction novel.
The story was absolutely engaging and the setting was noticeable and superb.
The story has many twists and turns, which kept me reading for more.
A really good debut!

This book has some very interesting themes that feel more timely now than ever before. Reproduction rights, ethics, personal freedoms, etc. This was just dystopian and speculative enough to scratch the exact right part of my brain!