Reviews with content warning for Bullying - This Is Where the World Ends

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This Is Where the World Ends by Amy Zhang

4 reviews

andreafiggy's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

The biggest part of the book that you're searching for is that Janie is dead, Janie set the house fire, and Micah had absolutely nothing to do with either things. Okay? I figured that out very, very early on; I'm not feeling a groundbreaking change.

Zhang's writing style was, without a doubt, the biggest thing drawing me through this book. Though her imagery and character movements did sometimes feel subpar, the ideas and themes as a whole felt really interesting and beautiful. Not to mention the journal pages throughout the book – EXTREMELY creative. The plot, too, though rather easy to figure out from the jump (and I can always entertain a book that has a familiar plot line or set of tropes), was a well-written reflection on young minds and desperations.

Besides that, I finished this book not liking a single character. (Maybe the English teacher.) Not a single one of them received any sort of closure or comeuppance.

Micah, for instance, recovered his memory and just. Decides to go to Nepal? Which doesn't deviate him from the person that Janie pulled around? He just takes up her dream? And I can understand Ander not receiving his punishment – hear, hear, to modern day justice – but Piper, who watched a girl get raped, gets her confession included in a very strange page and a half of her showing up out of nowhere and slapping Micah. Janie, perhaps, feels like the one who received the most well-rounded conclusion, but by the time you get to it, I can't even like her character very much to feel as much sympathy as I wish I had.

I would have wanted some of the conflict introduced to have a resolution aside from Janie's death. Some characters introduced appear and disappear without a trace, and I had hoped throughout that they would return.

It's Thirteen Reasons Why with a sunshine-girl-meets-introvert-sad-guy trope, and I wish it had been handled a bit better.

Content Warnings

starstrays's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

NOT A SPOILER FREE REVIEW

I read Amy Zhang's Falling Into Place years back and vividly remember the irritation I felt when I read this book, and that may be why I don't remember much else in it present day. I gave this book a chance despite my low opinion of Falling Into Place because another thing I remember from this book was how Zhang's writing was so appealing to me. It flows well, her language is flawless, and the way she writes things stuck with me, to the point that it makes me feel a little bad that I have to give the book a low rating. But only very little, because while I did enjoy reading it, I did not enjoy what I was reading about.

I think the largest problems in this book are essentially Janie, and the way Janie is handled.

I'd first like to preface that it totally would've been fine if this book purposely meant to portray toxic friendships. It was what pushed me to continue reading the book because I wanted to see where "Janie and Micah" were heading, especially when Micah blatantly likes Janie. I was clapping when Micah got his shit together and told Janie she was a terrible friend and he wanted to break their friendship.

But the ending felt like the author ran out of ideas? There was literally only one chapter for Micah to address him remembering that specific memory of Micah breaking things off with Janie. It itches at me how there wasn't much time for Micah nor us the readers to process such a revelation. It just... ends, and not in a satisfying way.

At this point you'd probably think I like Micah, but no, Micah is literally so boring and I dislike him. Most of the book is just rephrasing his amnesia, or being Janie's punching bag. The only one closest to likeable in this book is Micah's guy friend whose name I don't even really remember, but it bothered me immensely when Micah chose to kiss the guy who has Janie's eyes. At this point Micah already had an inkling that Janie was dead, so like, what the hell? But I understand Micah's role in this book as a victim of a manipulative friend.

Then there's... whatever Janie is.

I don't understand why her character is the way it is? It's implied she has awful parents, but this isn't a detail thoroughly gleaned on, like the only reason I can remember why her parents don't like her is because she moves away to some other point in town because she's been neighbors with Micah all her life and there will be lesser chances to hang out together. For some reason, her parents dislike Micah too? I don't know. And the thing is, she pretends Micah DOESN'T EXIST at school despite their """soulmate bond""" and literally for what? Like can't this book just say it's because Janie's a 'popular girl' and Micah's a 'weirdo' than whatever the hell sort of mental gymnastics Janie kept telling herself? Literally why get angry at your parents for a reason you could easily fix, Janie?

TRIGGER WARNINGS AHEAD

And then halfway into the book, while Micah's still in his limbo amnesia stuff, it's revealed to the reader that Janie is raped. This, among factors of """terrible""" nonexistent parents, the school going against her, and Micah getting the balls to tell her that she's a terrible friend, it's then revealed that Janie committed suicide at the end.

I think the author was trying to get us to empathize with Janie and the teenage torture she was going through, but Janie is so unlikeable. I can sympathize with Micah because we can tell he's a victim of toxic friendship, but what is there to Janie that makes you think she's someone to sympathize with? She's self-centerer, ignores her best friend at school, she has the tendency to rebel against parents who literally only appear once or twice and have given me no reason to see why Janie dislikes them other than her "fairy tale" diary, and she actively CHOOSES to date a boy who has red flags over Micah, who we definitely know early on she has feelings for as well. Why should I care about a character who only cares for herself?

What doesn't sit right with me is that not only is the ending not able to make me sympathize with Janie, it also leaves Micah blaming himself for her death. What kind of message does this send to readers? That suicide is the solution to your problems, rather than owning up to your mistakes.

If you like Riverdale and its edginess and strange dialogue in book format, then I guess I can say this book is for you. But I finished this book without finding any value in whatever it was trying to say. There are probably better books out there that handle the topics of rape and suicide and toxic friendships more carefully than this book. This Is Where the World Ends was definitely not it.

Content Warnings

halopink's review against another edition

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emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

pn__'s review

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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