Book Review: This is Where it Ends

4,5 stars for This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijmkamp.

10:00 a.m. The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve. 

10:02 a.m. The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class. 

10:03 The auditorium doors won't open. 

10:05 Someone starts shooting.
Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival

Source: Goodreads

I was kindly given a copy through Netgalley with many thanks to the publisher and author.

This was the kind of book that made me stare into the distance and try to make sense of everything I was feeling upon finishing it. 

This is where it ends is about a school shooting and makes you experience it from four different point of views all involving around one person: the boy with the gun.

I like that Nijmkamp chose to portray him not as just the monster he is supposed to be but simply as a human being. As a reader we are given an insight in the person who everyone wants to know about.

As an outsider it's easy be prejudiced about 'the shooter' because he's the obvious monster.

This story is honest and true. It reminds  you of the fact that there is never one truth.

The truth is the boy with the gun is:

- A monster

- A killer

- A friend

- A brother

- A boyfriend

- A caretaker

- A lost soul

- All of the above

It was a fast-paced read with enough tension and interesting stories to keep you gripped from beginning to end. It's a story that makes you stand still and think about things in a new light; Re-evaluate your own life and your relationships with other people. It's a story that makes you pause and stare into the distance while you think 'Wow'.

A Brilliantly heart-breaking and exhilarating read.