This Is Where the World Ends

by Amy Zhang

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
I was sure that it was just a fluke that I didn't love Falling Into Place. Everyone and their mom loved it. Who knows, maybe my mom loved it. I loved the writing. I did not love the book. So I firmly believed that this foray into Amy Zhang's work would go better. And it did, for a time. It gave me feels. And I excuse just about anything with the right amount of feels. And this book was heavy, emotionally. Oh, there is also a trigger warning for this one too, but I will place under spoiler tags, just in case There is rape involved in this book.

My problem with it lies in that I knew the general plot immediately. There was no real sense of urgency, since I knew, for the most part, exactly what happened from close to the start. So I knew we were looking at a really unhappy situation- it says so in the synopsis, really- and that made it hard to read. But I was definitely moved by Micah and Janie's emotions, so I forged on. Janie and Micah's friendship is painful- she is embarrassed to know him, and he worships the ground she walks on. But he's at her beck and call, and she knows she has him on the hook. Then reading along as things get worse and worse for them both... it's hard, but in an unsatisfying way. It's difficult to connect to either of them, because Janie isn't the nicest person, and we're reading her POV from the past; and Micah because even Micah himself doesn't know what is going on half the time.

I think I could have even been okay with the whole thing, but the ending was incredibly lacking for me. Since I kind of knew most of what was happening in the story already, I was hoping for some "oomph" at the end. Instead, I got a whimper, and a ton of unanswered questions and loose ends. 

Bottom Line: I hate that I didn't love this one. I still don't think I will give up on Amy's writing though, since it really is fabulous. Third time's the charm?

*Copy provided by publisher for review.