Let’s see…what is this book about? In no particular order, the study of the extinction of snails, the Ukranian “romantic tourism” industry, familial relationships, the emerging Russian invasion of Ukraine….and the author’s literary journey. Yeva hopes to find the mate for her snail, who is possibly the last of his kind. Natia and Sol hope to find their activist mother, who has been missing for months. Pasha dreams that by returning to the land of his birth he will meet the perfect woman and start a perfect life. And Maria (yes, the author)…well, she’s there too.

In this meta fiction environment, it becomes clear that all of our characters - including Lefty the snail - may be “endlings,” the last of their species. But the urge for survival is strong, and each character’s journey is about their will to survive. We’ve neglected to mention the most prominent potential endling in this story - Ukraine herself. Does Ukraine have the same will, strength and resourcefulness as the other characters? The end of that story isn’t written yet.

I’m not used to reading meta fiction, and the first time the author inserts herself into the narrative was a bit jarring. But I soon got used to the structure, recognizing that we are living in times when it is difficult to separate reality from fiction. Although it took me a while to engage, once I was hooked in, I couldn’t put the book down.

Many thanks to Doubleday and NetGalleynfor the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review. It was an adventure.

Maria Reva’s Endling—the gloriously unhinged story—is what happens when satire, Soviet absurdity, and postmodern existential dread throw a dinner party and forget to invite closure.

The title might suggest some quiet elegy about extinction. Spoiler: it’s not quiet. It’s an extinction rendered through Kafka’s filing cabinet, where the paperwork never ends and neither does the existential nausea. But then Reva, true to form, kicks the reader straight through the fourth wall. Yes, you. She knows you’re reading. The story points at its own architecture and says, “You see this mess? Welcome to it.”

And just when you think it can’t get darker, the real world barges in. Reva is Ukrainian-Canadian, and the shadow of Ukraine—its history, its violence, its current trauma—is thick in the margins. The absurdity is no longer just literary; it’s terrifyingly relevant. When whole cities can vanish under rubble or red tape, what’s one character slipping out of the text?

The brilliance of Endling is that it doesn’t let you get comfortable. It’s satirical, yes—but not safe. It's funny in the way a fever dream is funny, right before it turns into a scream. One moment you're chuckling at the deadpan delivery; the next you're contemplating the machinery of erasure, both in fiction and geopolitics. (And somewhere, the narrator is side-eyeing you for daring to feel anything.)

In short: Endling is the last laugh before the lights go out. Equal parts literary grenade and bureaucratic funhouse mirror. Highly recommended for readers who like their satire laced with dread and their metafiction served flaming.

I struggle to wrap up my thoughts on this book, which I can at least definitively say is unlike anything I have ever read before.

It’s metafiction surrounding the Ukrainian bride industry, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and…snails? The author interrupts the narrative to weave her own life experience around the story, which was my favorite part, truthfully!

The sorrow the author feels over Ukraine‘s invasion, the futility of carrying on while so much pain and destruction and loss is occurring elsewhere, was deeply relatable.

It’s playful, with memorable main characters, but it didn’t always blend perfectly for me. At times there was just a little too much happening, and I felt a bit disoriented. Unsure where to focus.

I would still recommend this, because I think it’s timely and completely unique!

Thank you Doubleday Books and the publicist for this arc.

It pains me to DNF this one as the snail aspect is charming and meaningful but that's what I'm going to do. I feel bad for not being able to keep going as I know the author is working with heavy (real life) stuff that is deeply personal but I'm just not in love with any of it other than the snails and there's far too little of him/them. Nastia is described as keeping her face blank and not emotionally engaging with any of the bachelors and that's unfortunately how I feel about most of these characters. They're all blank and emotionally closed off to me. Maybe this is a cultural failing for me in not being able to dig past the surface but it is what it is and I don't think reading any further - okay, I lie, I did flip to the end and still don't get it - will help. I truly wish the book luck.

Potentially the best book I’ve read in the first half of 2025! I was so drawn into the story of our two main characters and their different motivations for being involved in the “romance tours” but when the story switches up and the author is talking directly to us?! The acknowledgements page being smack dab in the middle of the book?! Obsessed. It really made me reflect on how we tell stories, how we take the world around us and mold it or fictionalize it simply to survive. The book was gut wrenching, especially as the war in Ukraine continues as I write this, but it was also funny and absurd! I wish I had more words to describe this book but really it is something that should be experienced and is especially important to read right now. I can’t wait to make all my friends read this when it comes out!

I’m not even sure how to talk about this book, because it’s like nothing else I’ve ever read. It’s about endangered Ukrainian snail species, a mobile mollusk conservation van, a romance tour agency, a missing mother, the Russian invasion, and somehow—somehow—it all works.

Yeva is one of the most memorable characters I’ve read in a long time. She’s so weird, so real, so full of quiet rage and deep, overwhelming care. She’s trying to save a species no one else gives a damn about, while her country is actively being invaded, and her inner monologue is just devastating. There’s a line early on: “Even Yeva was tired of Yeva.” I had to stop and stare at the page for a minute. It’s funny and tragic at the same time.

Also? The snail discourse in this book is next level. The way Reva uses them to skewer conservation politics, human apathy, and media attention is so sharp it’s almost absurd—but in a good way. (“Snails weren’t furry or cute. They weren’t interactive with humans. Snails weren’t pandas…”—I mean. Come on.)

There’s a turn the book takes—one I won’t spoil—that reframes the whole story in a way that made me stop and sit with it. It’s unexpected, but incredibly effective. And what it adds to the conversation about Ukraine, about representation, about how stories are told during wartime… I’m still thinking about it.

By the end I felt raw. Sad. Drained. But also full of love for these characters. It’s not just bleak—it’s also funny, strange, intimate, and hopeful. It captures the surreal day-to-day of living through war in a way that felt painfully honest. It doesn’t flatten anything. It holds both the horror and the resilience.

Just—read it. That’s all I’ve got. I’ll be thinking about Yeva and those damn snails for a long time. And Nastia. And Sol. And Pasha. Thank you to Doubleday for the free ebook to review.

This is my first ever metafiction book. So it was different from what I am used to. It touches on Russia’s war on Ukraine, ecological conservation of the endlings of a species, and romance tours where western men try to find an eastern european wife.

Yeva is a biologist living out of her mobile lab in Ukraine trying to save the country’s snail species from the edge of extinction. She funds her research and rescue work by doing romance tours for westerners who think they’ll find a docile wife. Nastia and Solomiya, sisters, posing as a bride and translator while secretly searching for their mother who disappeared after years of protesting and activism against the romance tours. And so it begins: Three angry women, a truck load of abducted bachelors, and a last-of-his-kind snail on a journey of a lifetime. All plans come to a screeching halt when Russia invades.

Definitely a unique book. Witty and humorous while still being weighed down by the fears and tragedy of war. A little absurd and equally heartbreaking. The interruptions of the author to knit her own life experience and feelings into the story were one of my favorite parts about this book. The surrealness of having to continue with life when your homeland is being decimated by war is something the author does really well.

Thank you Net Galley and Doubleday Books for the eARC.

This was a DNF for me at 25%. The story did not grab me at all. Characters weren’t relatable. This one was not for me

An attempt to save the last of a snail species, “romance tours” in Ukraine, a woman searching for her missing mother, a kidnapping plot…this book starts out as a wild absurdist ride before verging into something much more grounded and meaningful when Reva’s timeline intersects with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. To say much more would spoil the beauty and singularity of this metafictional story that will stop you in your tracks. Protagonist Yeva’s actions to save an endling have so much to say about our current reality and others’ inactions have so much to say about the human tendency towards complicity. This may not sound like summer reading, but you will want to pick this up if you enjoyed Noor Naga’s play on structure in If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English and books that allow you to unpack meaning.

4.5. What an interesting read with a lot of substance. Yeva lives in Ukraine out of her mobile lab where she tries to breed rare snails (her endings- last babes of the species). She funds her research and work by taking advantage of the marriage industry, where bachelors travel to try to find brides uninfluenced by modern ways. This is where Nastia and her sister Solomiya come into the picture. They are also involved in the marriage industry, going on dates with bachelors but secretly searching for their missing mother, who protested against the marriage industry and then disappeared. We have angry women (as they should be), snails, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. No but seriously, I’ve never read anything like this. Amazing. As always, thank you to the publisher for the earc.

Books like these are a powerful reminder of how strong and necessary words and stories are. "Endling" is a meta-fiction piece on the resilience of humanity, even in the midst of war. Reva's writing is dense yet accessible and the author masterfully weaves fiction into reality. A read that is truly worth your time.

Another 3.5 that I can't quite push to a 4 star read. This book was definitely unique and probably something that in years I might still think about. But, I was never sure where the story was going and why we were reading some of the things we were reading. It almost felt like a satire of bride tours, species going extinct, and the war in Ukraine all mish-mashed together. Even typing that hurts my brain. I think it was all just a bit more than I could grasp in the same story. Thoughts felt unfinished because something else popped up and took over the direction of the story, only to come back to it several pages later when that plot came back to interrupt something else. And the hijinks interspersed throughout felt out of place, adding to the confusion. So, read with patience.

Maria Reva's 'Endling' is an arresting blend of absurdity and urgency, a novel that dances on the edge of satire while never losing sight of the devastating real-world events it encircles. Set against the backdrop of pre-invasion Ukraine, it follows three vivid female characters - a biologist mourning the vanishing of a rare snail species, and two sisters navigating the surreal world of the Ukrainian mail-order bride industry. Their journey is strange, sharply funny, and often heartbreaking.

What begins as a quirky road novel - complete with a kidnapped busload of Western bachelors and a snail named Lefty - slowly evolves into something more metafictional and politically raw. Reva pushes narrative boundaries, even inserting herself into the story as the book grapples with storytelling's limits in the face of war. The result is disorienting in the best way: a novel that asks how fiction can respond to catastrophe without turning pain into spectacle.

Reva's writing is biting, original, and darkly lyrical. Her characters move through a world where loss - of species, of mothers, of national identity - is constant, and yet her voice maintains a strange buoyancy. 'Endling' manages to be fiercely funny and deeply moving, often in the same paragraph.

Fans of Miranda July, Olga Tokarzczuk, or the fabulist edge of George Saunders will find a kindred spirit here. 'Endling' is not easily classified - but that's precisely the point. It's a daring, slippery, and timely novel that resists extinction.

really fun and well-written book with some awesome characters. the snail focus is so cool and the plotting is so fun. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

What a delightfully weird little gem.

Describing this book feels like a series of madlibs, but everything comes together with such humor and heart you can’t help but go along for the ride.

This novel touches on Russia’s war on Ukraine, romance tours of American men trying to find Eastern European wives, throw in a kidnapping plot and a whole bunch of snails and IT WORKS.

I am so thankful this was recommended to me because I had such a great time. The humor and wit is top notch. This is satire done right. Who knew I’d be so interested in reading about snails?

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

Endling is set in Ukraine, on the eve of the current war with Russia. Yeva is a biologist working to rescue various snail species from extinction (Endling refers to the last of a species). She has created a mobile lab by applying for grants and living with very singular focus, but has recently joined as a "bride" on Ukrainian marriage tours (mostly Western bachelors doing marriage tourism) to finance her conservation work, in spite of having no interest in marriage or procreating herself. She meets sisters Nastia and Sol, doing the same to finance their lives in the wake of their mother's disappearance, and gets roped into Nastia's scheme to kidnap a group of bachelors to expose the industry and get their activist mother's attention. Upon launching their plan, they immediately wind up in the first Russian assault on Kherson and things go from there.
This can mostly be read as a straightforward, plotted drama. But there are also instances of the author breaking the fourth wall, having imaginary conversations, redoing chapters to show real and imagined events, etc. It certainly gets meta, but if you're generally put off by metafiction (as I am), it's not overwhelming and does add to the general sense of weight and overwhelm of the situation. The author trying to work through events in front of the reader feels akin to how we're all trying to make sense of this mess through the filters of media and distance. I kind of loved it.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

This book is so full of feeling. It’s a unique story with unexpected circumstances and story arcs. At times it may seem rambling and nonsensical but the last quarter brings it all to light. Don’t let the snail and bride parties trip you up, it’s completely worth reading. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Endling by Maria Reva is a razor-sharp, darkly funny odyssey through a war-torn Ukraine where survival, science, and satire collide. Centered on a rogue snail breeder, two sisters faking their way through the romance-tour industry, and a nearly-extinct mollusk named Lefty, this genre-defying novel teeters between absurdity and heartbreak with stunning precision. Reva’s metafictional twists and biting humor lay bare the surreal routines of life under invasion, all while asking urgent questions about identity, resilience, and the narratives we craft to endure the unendurable. It’s wild, weird, and unlike anything else—equal parts brilliant and brutal.

Speechless after finishing Endling; truly cannot believe this book is real. It's meta, heartbreaking, a bit absurd, horrific. How Reva was able to combine so much commentary - and to make it accessible! - into this book, I'll never know. Endling deserves endless praise. It's a book I'll be talking about for a long time.

Endling by Maria Reva is a powerful work of meta-fiction. Intertwining narratives, astute storytelling, dark humor, and edgy social commentary make this an unforgettable novel. Existential in scope, Endling’s fictions rewrite themselves as the story asymptotically approaches deep emotional truths. This is a book to read first for enjoyment, then to read again to appreciate the nuances of art and structure.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.