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obsidian_blue 's review for:
This Is Where the World Ends
by Amy Zhang
Trigger warning for rape.
I initially selected this book as one of my 2016 new releases to read because the initial blurb I got for the book suggested a different story than what I got. Instead I got a story that revolved around what I would consider a toxic friendship, a confusing narrative, and a rather abrupt ending.
The story is told in alternating points of view, Micah and Janie or Janie and Micah. Seriously, be prepared to read that phrase a lot in this book. Janie's chapters are the "Before" points of view and Micah's chapters are the "After" points of view. We don't know what exactly what event was before and after, but we get a sense of it earlier on when we initially get to Micah's chapter. We also get journal entries from Janie that provide a look at the twisted fairy tale that she saw her life being.
What to say about Janie. I really wish that I could like her. But honestly, I didn't. You come to find out slowly that though she sees Micah as being her soul mate (blech) and that she knows she is destined to be with him forever, she still dates and has crushes on other guys. Now, I am not saying that is wrong, but it is wrong to lead someone on and or have them have to suck it up while you are out exploring yourself. However, even that would not have made me dislike her if it wasn't for the fact that you start to find out that no one but one other person has any idea that Micah and Janie are friends.
Yes. Can you imagine? You are supposedly some other person's best friend, but shh no one can know because if people realize that she is friends with such a loner it can mean that her popularity will take a hit.
During these revelations I started having less sympathy for Micah, because he knows what Janie is doing and he keeps going along with it. Starting in middle school she stopped acknowledging him in public and has become one of the popular people in their high school.
Janie even acknowledges it isn't fair, but she doesn't care because you are quick to find out that she is self centered and selfish (example, she hates that Micah hangs out with his friend Dewey and she dislikes it when she notices that other girls find Micah attractive) and never gets called out on what she's doing by other people except for Micah once in a while.
Micah in all of his chapters seems broken. Without Janie around he doesn't seem to know what else he is good for besides drinking and playing video games. I honestly started to hate Micah's chapters towards the end because the chapters started to feel so melodramatic and honestly the final reveal was a joke. You have to be pretty out of it to not guess what was coming.
The only real other character in this story is Micah's other friend, Dewey. And I had problems with how he was portrayed in this book. Micah and even Janie know that Dewey has feelings for him, and in this regard, Micah is no better than Janie. He knows he doesn't care for Dewey in the way that Dewey wants, but he keeps hanging out with him. After a while it becomes cruel.
That said, Dewey seems to want Micah to himself and there was way too much angst going on between the two of them for me. The dialogue between these two was just overwrought and danced towards the ridiculous after a while. I mean after a while Micah should have gotten a clue about things a lot faster than he did.
Also there was a lot of punching. I had to roll my eyes after a while, because Micah was recovering and I would say that him getting knocked around as much as he did would have landed him in the hospital again.
The other characters in this story, a guy that Janie has a crush on and then dates, her other supposed friend, her parents, Micah's dad were not there really unless it was to move the plot along further. Ms. Zhang doesn't take a lot of time to develop these characters.
For the most part I found Janie's chapters to be childish. Even after we get to what happens to Janie. Her reactions to it (i.e. get the other person in trouble) and than her realization that this other person may not pay for what they did seem to be the kind of reaction I would expect from someone younger. None of it really rang true, and I think that the author just didn't provide enough detail/dialogue or anything to get me to where she was going with Janie.
Micah's chapters were written by someone who had to be on a lot of painkillers. Nothing made a lot of sense and at one point it felt like we had a time jump of a significant period, but it could only have been a few days or maybe a week at that point.
The main reason why I gave this book two stars honestly were the chapters that were pages from Janie's journal. Her taking a look at her family, her friends, and what she was doing and how Micah fit in were a slight twist on fairy tales. That said, I have seen it done better in other works.
The setting of this small town in Iowa really doesn't work. I feel like a lot of these young adult novels set the story in a small town somewhere and except for some key places that the author chose to highlight, I just hard sighed over everything.
The ending was abrupt and left too many questions unanswered. I also had to laugh at one character telling another character to be a better friend which apparently was the moral of the story. There was also some dialogue between Micah and his father and a trip and man on man the whole thing fell flat. I don't know. I honestly can't recommend this book.
I initially selected this book as one of my 2016 new releases to read because the initial blurb I got for the book suggested a different story than what I got. Instead I got a story that revolved around what I would consider a toxic friendship, a confusing narrative, and a rather abrupt ending.
The story is told in alternating points of view, Micah and Janie or Janie and Micah. Seriously, be prepared to read that phrase a lot in this book. Janie's chapters are the "Before" points of view and Micah's chapters are the "After" points of view. We don't know what exactly what event was before and after, but we get a sense of it earlier on when we initially get to Micah's chapter. We also get journal entries from Janie that provide a look at the twisted fairy tale that she saw her life being.
What to say about Janie. I really wish that I could like her. But honestly, I didn't. You come to find out slowly that though she sees Micah as being her soul mate (blech) and that she knows she is destined to be with him forever, she still dates and has crushes on other guys. Now, I am not saying that is wrong, but it is wrong to lead someone on and or have them have to suck it up while you are out exploring yourself. However, even that would not have made me dislike her if it wasn't for the fact that you start to find out that no one but one other person has any idea that Micah and Janie are friends.
Yes. Can you imagine? You are supposedly some other person's best friend, but shh no one can know because if people realize that she is friends with such a loner it can mean that her popularity will take a hit.
During these revelations I started having less sympathy for Micah, because he knows what Janie is doing and he keeps going along with it. Starting in middle school she stopped acknowledging him in public and has become one of the popular people in their high school.
Janie even acknowledges it isn't fair, but she doesn't care because you are quick to find out that she is self centered and selfish (example, she hates that Micah hangs out with his friend Dewey and she dislikes it when she notices that other girls find Micah attractive) and never gets called out on what she's doing by other people except for Micah once in a while.
Micah in all of his chapters seems broken. Without Janie around he doesn't seem to know what else he is good for besides drinking and playing video games. I honestly started to hate Micah's chapters towards the end because the chapters started to feel so melodramatic and honestly the final reveal was a joke. You have to be pretty out of it to not guess what was coming.
The only real other character in this story is Micah's other friend, Dewey. And I had problems with how he was portrayed in this book. Micah and even Janie know that Dewey has feelings for him, and in this regard, Micah is no better than Janie. He knows he doesn't care for Dewey in the way that Dewey wants, but he keeps hanging out with him. After a while it becomes cruel.
That said, Dewey seems to want Micah to himself and there was way too much angst going on between the two of them for me. The dialogue between these two was just overwrought and danced towards the ridiculous after a while. I mean after a while Micah should have gotten a clue about things a lot faster than he did.
Also there was a lot of punching. I had to roll my eyes after a while, because Micah was recovering and I would say that him getting knocked around as much as he did would have landed him in the hospital again.
The other characters in this story, a guy that Janie has a crush on and then dates, her other supposed friend, her parents, Micah's dad were not there really unless it was to move the plot along further. Ms. Zhang doesn't take a lot of time to develop these characters.
For the most part I found Janie's chapters to be childish. Even after we get to what happens to Janie. Her reactions to it (i.e. get the other person in trouble) and than her realization that this other person may not pay for what they did seem to be the kind of reaction I would expect from someone younger. None of it really rang true, and I think that the author just didn't provide enough detail/dialogue or anything to get me to where she was going with Janie.
Micah's chapters were written by someone who had to be on a lot of painkillers. Nothing made a lot of sense and at one point it felt like we had a time jump of a significant period, but it could only have been a few days or maybe a week at that point.
The main reason why I gave this book two stars honestly were the chapters that were pages from Janie's journal. Her taking a look at her family, her friends, and what she was doing and how Micah fit in were a slight twist on fairy tales. That said, I have seen it done better in other works.
The setting of this small town in Iowa really doesn't work. I feel like a lot of these young adult novels set the story in a small town somewhere and except for some key places that the author chose to highlight, I just hard sighed over everything.
The ending was abrupt and left too many questions unanswered. I also had to laugh at one character telling another character to be a better friend which apparently was the moral of the story. There was also some dialogue between Micah and his father and a trip and man on man the whole thing fell flat. I don't know. I honestly can't recommend this book.