[Review] At the End of Everything - Marieke Nijkamp

Summary: The Hope Juvenile Treatment Center is ironically named. No one has hope for the delinquent teenagers who have been exiled there; the world barely acknowledges that they exist.

Then the guards at Hope start acting strange. And one day...they don't show up. But when the teens band together to make a break from the facility, they encounter soldiers outside the gates. There's a rapidly spreading infectious disease outside, and no one can leave their houses or travel without a permit. Which means that they're stuck at Hope. And this time, no one is watching out for them at all.

As supplies quickly dwindle and a deadly plague tears through their ranks, the group has to decide whom among them they can trust and figure out how they can survive in a world that has never wanted them in the first place. (Pub Date: Jan 04 2022)

 

This reminded me a great deal of This is where it ends, but in the context of the pandemics instead of a school shooting. It was good, it was more thrilling than I had expected, but it is too early for that topic to come up in our leisure time. 

The juvenile treatment center has been abandoned by all people who could be responsible for the teenagers inside and they have no idea why. Until they break out, only to find there is a plague—the Plague—widespread and killing. Without receiving food or any attention from the state, they have to organize and treat themselves on their own despite their differences.

3.5 rounded up to 4.

As always, this author's control of plot and character development is superb. The story is told from three points of view, and I feel this was my favorite work since This is where it ends. It had me crying, it had me cheering, it had me questioning and wondering. 

It is still a book about a widespread and contagious disease. It is not Covid but it is very similar, except it makes the word into a war field, very similar to the distopic YA's that were popular some years ago. It's all written on the summary, so I feel that anyone that gets this book will be ready to read scenarios that have distopically become part of our present. I also feel it was an interesting take to focus on kids in a juvenile center. I really hope there isn't a true story behind this, but I can't say it didn't sound real, unfortunately. 

If you're aware of what you're getting into, I think it can be therapeutical to some. And it's not only that, there is a proper story that I found not only scary but all compelling. As usual for Nijkamp's books, you'll find diversity in the characters too. It's not a comfortable reading, but it was well built.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 4 out of 5.