This Is Where It Ends

By: Marieke Nijkamp

Narrated by: Nick Podehl, Whitney Dykhouse, Kate Rudd, Lauren Ezzo, Amy McFadden, Brittany Pressley, Scott Merriman

Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2016 Marieke Nijkamp (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. First published in print by Sourcebooks Fire.

Just listen

This book is just... you can't go wrong. Please for the love of god listen to this. It's got me in my feelings right now, feelings that can't be expressed by words. Just listen.

Really captivating

It takes you inside a school shooting and gives you characters to root for and mourn over.

Amazing!!

Loved all the different narrators. I never wanted to turn this off. I wish it wouldn't have ended!

Heavy but amazing

The topic obviously is hard to listen to but sadly a part of our regular life.

The way the author tells the story is amazing and heartbreaking. I highly recommend it.

fine for highschoolers maybe...

This book is written in a rather juvenile way and is probably fine for people in high school or middle school. Even for people in that age group though it's sort of disconnected because the author has clearly not been in a high school in decades.

Teenagers Should Love This--

Every now and then I get a hankering for some YA, especially when I see that Nick Podehl is one of the narrators. And you never know, YA, even MG, can be tonic for an adult out of touch with themselves.
This one, "This Is Where It Ends", is good if you want to get in touch with your inner angst-ridden teen. Not so much for adults, really. It's urgent, emotional, fraught with every type of teenager there is. It goes to GREAT lengths to touch on any experience, background a teen can come from. So naturally, you might find yourself rolling your eyes a time or two, if you're an adult.
If you're a teen (and by the way, this is NOT for 11-13 year olds!), more power to you. You'll find yourself within, every emotion you've ever felt, every fear you've ever had.
Masterfully narrated, with Nick Podehl turning in the most compelling character's voice, this is a decent way to spend your time.
Sort of...

Very Intense! Incredible performances!

The narrator's were great! Blew my mind, I couldn't stop reading and they really make u feel like ur there. The story was intense and well worth reading!

Raw, real and touching

This book touches on what so many have both lived and dies through, school shootings. It's is a sad yet very well written book about a high school, in America. That falls under seige one horrible day. By one student. It shares all of the feelings of the students stuck in the hell of the Auditorium one morning, while one student begins his murderous & verbal torture of the students & teachers alike. It also focuses on those students who are not stuck inside the auditorium, the students who do everything they possibly can to save as many of their classmates as possible. This book is moving, sad and honest. It brings to light a subject that is all to well known. However it also brings to light those students who put their fears aside to go into the school and help very very many escape. This book was an amazing listen. I highly recommend it.

Emotional listen

While this story was very difficult to listen to, it was riveting and emotional. Listen to it.

WOWZA

This book was really something. To give you a little spoiler of my life, my biggest fear ever is what was described in this book. I was literally shaking throughout this entire audiobook.

I didn't give this book a perfect rating because there were several things I didn't like about the book:

1. I wanted more from the climax/outcome of the book.
2. Tyler's choices to terrorize his school and the people in it wasn't fully developed, like I didn't understand what happened to make him so hateful. All I got was he was upset his sister loved Sylv, that he fought with Thomas, and that he broke up with his gf. Just somewhat juvenile-but unfortunately, with mental health problems, a person can switch from any of those triggers--which is why it's such a scary thing!
3. I understand why the tweeting and social media was placed in the novel as a character in itself, but at times I felt like it was unnecessary or at least not well thought out. I get that tragedy makes the world curious and nosey or even "know it alls," but the writer could have made social media a larger character than what was presented.

Overall, those four things were just the reasons why I didn't give it a 5 star rating; however, it was a good book and I would recommend it to others.

As for the audiobook, I really enjoyed all the characters' POVs being performed by several actors/actresses. My favorite was Claire--she didn't have a young feminine voice, but she was my fave character. Next, I loveeeddddd the guy who did Fareed's voice--sounded attractive and I loved the character.