By: Ella Carney
The book, “This is Where it Ends” by Merieke Nijkamp is a #1 New York Times bestseller. It is important to remember that this is a fictional story told in the perspective of four different students when a school shooting takes place.
While reading this book I was in suspense from beginning to end. I just had to see what would happen next. I personally found this book emotional, intense, fearful, and bittersweet. I highly recommend reading this book because it really makes you think about a problem that has become more apparent across the nation.
What I found truly heart wrenching about this fictionalized story are the different perspectives that were shown. Because of that, the reader gets to understand the different emotions that run through a student’s mind during a traumatic experience such as this.
The different perspectives were from the sister of the shooter, the girlfriend of a victim, a kid who wants to save his sister trapped inside with the shooter, and a girl on the outside trying to reach police help in the isolated town that the school is in.
While writing this book the author, Marieke Nijkamp researched tons. Nijkamp read firsthand accounts of shootings, listened to 911 calls, looked through investigative reports, talked to people, kept up with news and social media feeds as active shooter situations emerged, and familiarized herself with the psychology of being held at gunpoint.
I would give this book 4.5/5 stars because while the book was captivating from the start with all of the adrenaline and all of the “what will happen next” moments I would have liked to have read even a little bit of the aftermath that comes after something like this. But other than that I found it to be a well-written book and also to be a quick read.