Apocalypse for Beginners

by Nicolas Dickner

Micky is your average teenage boy, until he meets 17 year old Hope Randall. Living in what was once an exotic pet shop with a bathtub for a bed, Hope is anything but average. For each member of her family, the onset of puberty has brought with it a prophetic vision of the end of the world, which invariably tips the expectant prophet over the edge when the armageddon fails to materialise. So far, Hope has not yet started her period or received her revelation. Instead, she picks a date at random, has it 'confirmed' by the best-before date on a batch of ramen noodles, and begins to wait for the worst. In the meantime, Micky is falling helplessly in love. But will he risk losing his soulmate if he confesses how he feels? And what kind of future can you have with someone who believes that doomsday looms? Moving between Canada and Japan, between solid ground and flights of the surreal, Apocalypse for Beginners is the lovely, surprising story of two people travelling from friendship to romance, and from separation to the possibility of reunion.

• ISBN13: 9781846272592
• Publish Date: 6 January 2011 (first published 7 December 2010)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 27 July 2012
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Granta Books
• Imprint: Portobello Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[Rinn]

Also posted on my blog, Rinn Reads.

An adorable, quirky tale of boy meets girl, Apocalypse for Beginners is reminiscent of 500 Days of Summer or Juno type stories. Hope Randall is a very unique young woman, incredibly intelligent but also fixated on the possibility of the end of the world.

This was such an easy read - I borrowed it from the library at midday today, and I finished it about thirty minutes ago. It was a nice diversion from the heavy sci-fi. But part of the reason for it being such an easy read was that it was simply so enjoyable. Mickey and Hope's relationship is so sweet, and it was exciting to watch it grow. The book was also quite different to others I have read in that sort of genre, in the fact that we get so much of Hope's back story and very little of Mickey's. In fact, I didn't even know Mickey's name until about halfway through.

From the get go, Hope is an intriguing character - I was just as interested as Mickey to find out more about her. She comes from a troubled family - troubled by visions of the end of the world, and as a result has never had a stable family life. She escaped into learning - languages, politics, sciences - and is very smart. The way she talks is above and beyond her age. Mickey, on the other hand, is a fairly ordinary teenage boy, whom we barely know or learn anything about. There is no mention of other friends which was one frustrating bit about the book - it feels like he exists only to be point of view outside of Hope herself.

If you're not one for the Summers or the Junos, Hope may get on your nerves. She's not that typical 'manic pixie dream girl' (I forget who coined that term!), but she is halfway there. The ending of the story is also frustrating in a way - far too open - but it's also nice for the reader to decide what happens.

All in all, a rather short, cute 'boy meets girl' story, with a bit of a twist to it.