The book, this is where it ends, by Marieke Nijkamp is a heartbreaking and nail-biting story of a high school shooting. This fiction book is told from the perspectives of 4 different high school students while the shooting is going, giving background context and stories for each of them, and the sacrifices they each are forced to make in order to survive. The author goes deep into the lives and past experiences of each teen that leads into the current event. Nikkamp does a great job connecting all of the snippets from the past to the motives and terror that were hiding behind the event. The theme of this is where it ends is love and war. We can see this through the heartbreaking sacrifices made due to these teenagers fighting out of love for each other. Claire, one of the four main teens that this story revolves around, is not in the gymnasium where the school-shooter (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) is holding everyone at gunpoint and threatening to kill. Her immediate response when hearing of this terrifying event is to run as fast as she can to get help, thinking of her little brother Matt who is trapped inside of the gym. Additionally, there are two twins, Tomás and Sylvia, who had grown apart as they grew up, but they made their love for each other known in the state of sheer chaos and horror. Sylvia was hiding a secret romance with Autumn, the last teenager, and that resulted in even more heart strain and love in the war of their lives. All of these kids were intertwined in an atrocious, unfortunate knot of circumstances and fate, and as they ran for their lives from the shooter, they also were running for each other and those they loved. This book was one of the most interesting, memorable reads I have experienced in a while. I found myself glued to the book and could not stop thinking about it when I was not reading it. It left a genuine imprint in my heart, and a very heavy one at that. In my opinion, the author did a very well-done job in raising issues such as school shootings and the lack of preparation/care put into the lives of children at school. She really emphasized the importance of safety and keeping harmful weapons out of unhealthy people’s hands. I greatly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a heart-clutching, roller coaster ride of emotions, and I guarantee it will be the heaviest read you have read in awhile. I advise against reading this book if you are triggered by violence, death, or sexual abuse. This read will break your heart into pieces and leave you, but you will be forever changed.
465 words
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