THIS IS WHERE THE WORLD ENDSBy Amy Zhang
© 2016 Greenwillow Books - NY, NY
ISBN# 978-0-06-238304-4
287 pgs
April 2016
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Is this what kids are reading now-a-days? Ugh. I am definitely not a fan of "realistic fiction" then. I do understand that the real life topics of rape, depression, suicide, drinking, and bullying are important for teens to know how to deal and cope with, but this book had too much of it. The book could certainly create a dialogue for any of the issues that I mentioned, if that is your intent. But wow. So dark and depressing. I found the narration hard to follow at times; the story is told in a before and after (THE EVENT) alternation that mostly had me flipping pages to find out exactly what THE EVENT was. The plot is the tale of Micah and Janie, two high school students that are secret friends; i.e. ignore each other at school or when anyone else is around. Micah wakes up in the hospital and no one will tell him what happened to Janie, where she is, or why she's not answering his text messages. The narration style takes you down the rabbit hole with Janie and Micah and their twisted toxic friendship. Grade 9 and up. I don't think I "liked" this book, but I couldn't put it down in order to find out what exactly THE EVENT was.
