Hello! August was not as busy in terms of reading advanced copies, so I might be able to keep up and not fall too far behind this month! **And as always, the work to support the Black community is not done, whether there is media coverage for it or not, so here is the link to click in order to support the Black Lives Matter movement in any way you can, and thank you to StarlahReads for compiling these resources.**
Today I will be discussing The End, a young adult dystopian mystery by Mats Strandberg. This was originally published in Sweden in October of 2018, but has been translated to English (translation by Judith Kiros) and will be released later this year. A few months ago, I was scrolling through the Read Now section on NetGalley, and came across this book. I saw it was a young adult novel about the end of the world, downloaded it, and may or may not have forgotten about it until I finally picked it up this month. I remembered next to nothing about the plot (so imagine my surprise when the murder mystery aspect kicked in) but still wanted to give it a shot. Well, here are some of my thoughts.
On May 27th, the world learns that a comet, later named Foxworth after the scientist who discovered it, is heading towards Earth, and that all life will cease to exist after September 16th. A few months later, with only a few weeks left until the comet hits, Swedish teen Tilda is found dead, and the town is convinced her “obsessed” ex-boyfriend, Simon, is responsible. He joins forces with Lucinda, Tilda’s former swim-team mate and best friend, in order to find the true identity of Tilda’s killer. Will the two of them find out what truly happened that night, or will the end come without them ever knowing peace?
If I am being completely honest, I truly did not enjoy my experience reading this book. However, with that being said, I am able to recognize aspects that can appeal to other readers. So to start off with some things I did find interesting, there is a lot of social commentary found both on the page and between the lines. The end of the world is near, and the book truly highlights different ways people cope. Some turn to religion for a sense of community, while others shift to the extreme end of the spectrum and follow a radical extremist group that promises life after the end for believers. Some aren’t able to cope at all, and end their lives before the comet can. Some take advantage of the time they have left and do things they’ve always wanted, while others stay at home to avoid any danger. There is a lot to unpack and I believe that some great conversations can be had with topics brought up in this novel.
For some of the things I didn’t enjoy:
–Writing style – this is written in dual POV, following Simon as a narrator, and Lucinda, who is writing on TellUs, a platform used to preserve the last communications of Earth’s inhabitants to be read by other worldly beings in the future. What I noticed was that Simon’s sections focused primarily on action and moving the plot forward, while Lucinda’s focused primarily on giving the reader context and background to the story. If this was intentional, I noticed, and it felt jarring when it switched from present day action in Simon’s POV to character history in Lucinda’s. It could be said that Simon was more focused on moving forward towards the end, and Lucinda was more focused on remembering the past, I just wish there could have been more of a balance between the two points of view.
–Characters – I felt like there was a fair amount of character growth for our two main narrators, Simon and Lucinda. Simon goes from partying the end of the world away to spending time with the people in his life who actually matter, and Lucinda learns to let people in instead of pushing them away, and that even though she is sick she is still capable of love. However, a lot of the side characters felt heavily underdeveloped, and I kept mixing them up in my head. Several times I switched Miranda, Lucinda’s sister, with Molly, Tilda’s cousin, who each play a significant yet unique role in the story. Simon’s friend group, save for Johannes, was just a conglomeration of teenagers, and I forgot that Lucinda’s dad was still around because he’s mentioned so little except for when he and Lucinda are fighting.
–Plot – For the most part I did find the plot engaging, and I agree that adding a murder mystery twist on an end-of-the-world story made it stand out. My issues lean towards how the mystery is actually solved. Simon and Lucinda had a list of suspects, and each time they decided to interview those suspects they immediately knew the context of the situation and provided information about why they didn’t commit the crime. Then out of nowhere, one line leads them straight to the answer. Personally it felt stilted and rushed, but that might be preference more than anything.
In the end (pun not originally intentional, but now completely intended), I am grateful for the opportunity to have read a copy of this book. I truly believe that readers who want an end-of-the-world story will find something to love in this novel, and I hope they do. It just did not work for me, and I hope The End is put into the hands of the right audience who will love it for what it is. The End is being released on October 6th, 2020 in English, so if you’re at all interested in the premise, maybe consider picking up a copy. **Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Arctis Books, for the e-copy, all thoughts and opinions are my own**
Places to find The End:
Amazon
Goodreads
Mats Strandberg’s site
Simon & Schuster
Thoughts About Things 