This Is Where the World Ends

Amy Zhang

Mar 2016 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

A heart-wrenching novel about best friends on a collision course with the real world from Amy Zhang, the critically acclaimed Indies Introduce and Indie Next author of Falling into Place.

Janie and Micah, Micah and Janie. That’s how it’s been ever since elementary school, when Janie Vivien moved next door. Janie says Micah is everything she is not. Where Micah is shy, Janie is outgoing. Where Micah loves music, Janie loves art. It’s the perfect friendship—as long as no one finds out about it. But then Janie goes missing and everything Micah thought he knew about his best friend is colored with doubt.

Using a nonlinear writing style and dual narrators, Amy Zhang masterfully reveals the circumstances surrounding Janie’s disappearance in an astonishing second novel that will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver.

Ratings and reviews

Short & Sweet: A GORGEOUSLY written fast paced novel on rape, friendship and dreams. Amy Zhang’s writing is powerful and will stay with you for a while. Let’s break it down: WRITING: Amy Zhang’s writing is what brings this book alive. Told in both Janie and Micah’s point of view, her writing adapts to bring out the voices of her characters and does it well. Micah has selective retrograde amnesia (he can’t make new memories) and Janie is a chaotic soul filled with dreams and beginnings and I felt like I got to know these characters because of Zhang’s writing. IDEA: I love the idea for the story. If there’s one thing you can say about This Is Where The World Ends and also about Janie and Micah it’s that they don’t fall into normal YA tropes. This story is about dreams and reality and friendship and love and tragedy and rape and IT WAS SO GORGEOUS. PLOT: It was the writing that really brought this book alive, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t plotted well. This book switches from Janie (before) to Micah (after) and it also shows you Janie’s diary/ senior thesis (with some GORGEOUS illustrations) and it was all really well planned out. Everything about this plot worked just right and I LOVED IT. CHARACTERS: I liked Micah and Janie. Their story was a good one, brought alive by the exceptional writing which I can’t talk about enough. At the same time, WITHOUT the writing, I can’t help but feel like the pair would have been the most CLICHÉ characters in the world. Both Micah and Janie were pretty much the main characters of John Green’s Paper Towns with a twist here are there. Also, Janie’s attitude towards Micah annoyed me. She kept saying hurtful things like “I know he’s in love with me and I’ll get there too. Someday” and “It was easier to not stay friends in school because of her image,” and it all made me kinds of MAD? She wasn’t a real friend to him, not where it counted. I also HAVE to talk about that ONE last scene. The book was BEAUTIFUL. The ending was even better and there was this last scene with Dewey and Micah that fell so completely FLAT, it made me cringe. I’ve only experienced bad endings, not bad last scenes but this one was so MEH after such a good book. CONCLUSION: This is Where The Worlds Ends is constructed with exquisite writing and gives you a story you won’t forget for a long time.

This was the absolute best book I've ever read in my life! I recommend it for everyone! I am going to buy a hard copy so that I can read it over, and over again!

About the author

Amy Zhang was born in China and moved to the United States when she was a young girl. She grew up in Wisconsin and recently graduated from college. She is the author of Falling into Place and This is Where the World Ends, and she currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.