The End is a YA “end of the world” novel
and deals with friendship and the loss of love and family.
What would you do if you knew when the
world was going to end? How would your family, your neighbours, or your friends
react? Would you hide out in a bunker and refuse to believe the truth, or would
you go out there and complete your bucket list?
Earth has just over a month left to be
Earth. A few weeks where EVERYONE has to say their goodbyes and then a comet
known as Foxworth will obliterate the planet. The once inseparable group of
friends has split up, seemingly confused by what they want to do in their final
hours. Tilda and Simon have parted ways, well, she dumped him, and she is
spiralling out of control. Lots of partying and drugs and sex. Simon is still
madly in love with her but she wants nothing to do with him. Lucinda is on the
sidelines. Once a star swimmer like Tilda, her body now heeds the commands of
cancer and she has all but isolated herself from the world. The others are all
interested in their own pursuits. One of the group is murdered and Simon is
blamed. With only a few weeks left to live, is it worth it to try to clear his
name or will the killer take their secret to the world’s end?
The book is written from different POVs so
you are able to see things from a number of perspectives. In the beginning I
found the partying and excess drug abuse and sex a bit “in your face” for a YA
novel, but as it progresses and you begin to understand the desperation of this
being the only time in their lives they will ever get to go crazy with no
ramifications, you begin to feel their emotions a lot more. The further I got
into the book, the more I began to feel understand that the book was not about
what acts were happening on the surface, but the underlying reasons behind them—their
true emotions. It is no longer just things to do to pass the time, it now
becomes a reality—one where you realise that each second that goes by is one
more second closer to the last one. When you have that final time and date, it
makes it a lot scarier.
So many interesting dilemmas then came up
like: how do you complete your bucket list when everyone else wants to do that
too and there is no one left to pilot planes or take your train ticket? What
happens to the prison guards who say they no longer want to go to work—are the
prisoners let out or left there to starve? Then there was a dilemma closer to
home: Simon’s pregnant sister, Emma. I was heartbroken at her planning for the
future yet knowing that the child would never be born.
There are a lot of deeper questions in the
book and some introspection as you read. The book started out being about what
people would do if they knew when the world would end, to how people would free
their emotions and reveal their true selves when they knew their time was up. I
wanted to race to the end of the book to see if it would really happen but I
wanted to slow down in case it did. The story sometimes dragged on for a bit as
it seemed the author wanted to cover something each day in the final month.
Sometimes the characters’ actions based on emotions didn’t ring true, but in
the end the deeper messages of the story came through. Definitely made me think…
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