How it Ends

by Catherine Lo

There are two sides to every story. It's friends-at-first-sight for Jessie and Annie, proving the old adage that opposites attract. Shy, anxious Jessie would give anything to have Annie's beauty and confidence. And Annie thinks Jessie has the perfect life, with her close-knit family and killer grades. They're BFFs ...until suddenly they're not. Told through alternating points of view, How It Ends is the story of a friendship from first meeting to breakup, set against a tumultuous sophomore year of bullying, boys, and backstabbing.

• ISBN13: 9780544540064
• Publish Date: 7 June 2016
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 12 May 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[whisperingchapters]

This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews.


How It Ends is about two girls who become the best of friends, but also going through all the complications that high school throws at them, among other things. What I loved about this book is that it focuses so much on friendship and also what it's like to have a friend who suffers from Anxiety Disorder.

Jessie and Annie became friends who were attached at the hip. Jessie and Annie's friendship was so real. They had their happy moments, sad moments, and even disagreements, just as a real friendship is like. These two were different, but in a way they complemented each other. They trusted each other so much. At one point, things started to change. Annie slowly started to branch out in having friends and Jessie couldn't understand this. Jessie thought Annie was joining the group of girls at school who always "talked bad about her". Jessie's anxiety started to make her doubt everything and this was the beginning of their fall out.

“I just don’t get it Annie,” she says. “I don’t understand why you don’t miss me the way I miss you.”

Reading this story in dual POV's gave a much better understanding to the whole story: from the perspective of someone who suffers from Anxiety and from the perspective of someone who doesn't know the other has Anxiety and has trouble understanding what is happening. Both Jessie and Anna felt real to me, from their personalities to their struggles to their high school experience. From beginning to end, this story is all about friendship and how anxiety can come to play in a friendship. I loved how real Jessie's anxiety was portrayed. Having suffered from Anxiety Disorder, I could understand what she was going through and it's as real as it can be real life, which is why I think teens and adults alike should read this novel to understand the lengths that Anxiety can take a person's thoughts.

Overall, his is a very realistic and brutal story that is sure to make readers think a lot and hopefully understand this illness that many seem to keep hidden.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.This review was originally posted on Latte Nights Reviews.