Etiquette for the End of the World

by Jeanne Martinet

[Leah]

When I spotted Etiquette for the End of the World on NetGalley, I was immediately entranced by its old-fashioned cover. It shows a somewhat regal-looking lady against an NYC backdrop and the tag line claims it to be Bridget Jones for the new Millenium (oh God, no, that’s an insult to this novel, to be fair, as I really didn’t like Bridget Jones). With 2012 being a pretty serious year – if you’re a believer that the world will indeed end in December (I do not believe it in the slightest, and think it’s all utterly ridiculous) I was intrigued to read a novel that was going to give us a humourous look into the world ending. (Whether I believe it or not, I love humorous takes on things that are already stupid and ridiculous.)

I will admit that parts of the novel is a bit fantastical – sometimes it rather does slip into a sci-fi/mystery novel rather than what it is, which is Chick Lit. If, like me, you’re not a believer in the world ending in December, you will find all the Maya(n) explanations to be boring and due to their frequency in the novel, I did find myself tiring of them easily. I also thought the “secret plot” Tess uncovers to be mildly farfetched, and to be a pretty similar thing to Y2K. It didn’t make me switch off, but it did make me wonder where on Earth the novel was going. How does a Chick Lit novel make itself into a sci-fi novel? I didn’t really get it, it’s not necessarily two genres that mesh well, really.

What Etiquette for the End of the World did offer, was a humourous look at the world ending. I was easily sucked into Tess Eliot’s life as her own world falls apart and she finds herself writing a self-apocalyptic help guide. Tess is a fabulous character and the way in which she goes through life is brilliant. I loved the cosy atmosphere of her local pub the Scrub-a-dub-pub, I loved her friends, particularly Harriet who is like a mother-figure. Sure, I personally don’t believe in the world ending any time soon, but I believed what the characters believed and though I did find it a bit over the top, I appreciate that there probably ARE people who believe the world will end and there probably IS an organisation like WHOOSH who believe they’re doing the right thing trying to prepare people for the world ending, and as such Tess’s writing of the guide was humorous. It was quite nice to see that she herself felt a bit weird and strange writing this guide and working for these people when she, too, wasn’t entirely sure if they were true believers or just quacks.

Etiquette for the End of the World is very well written and Jeanne Martinet has reasearched the Maya(n)s thoroughly. One thing I will say is that the novel is quite wordy and that dialogue is sparse at best. I’d have liked more diagloue and less of paragraphs and pararaphs of words. It did seem that whenever dialogue did appear, it wasn’t that it was out of place or unexpected, but it truly was strange because I was so used to just reading pararaphs without breaks, of reading pages and pages with no chatter. It does mean that the book does lag a tiny bit – any book that is so narrative heavy is always going to suffer if someone tries to read the book for a long period of time as you do start to wonder why there is no interaction or so little interaction between the characters. However, the novel was a solid read, and I would recommend the book because it is one of the quirkiest books I’ve ever read. I’m so glad the cover is so beautiful and it managed to convice me to request it, and I’m so glad I started to read it, because I did enjoy it and Tess Eliot really did make the novel for me, she’s definitely a heroine to root for.