At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp

The Quick Cut: A group of teens at a juvenile center find themselves fending for themselves when a plague outbreak happens across the globe.

A Real Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for providing the ARC for an honest review. We have been living in a pandemic for going on two years now. All the problems we used to have changed and now the conversation is more about variants & masks than parties & classes. Can you imagine going through all that without your family or own environment though? This is the case for Emerson and the teens left behind at the Hope Juvenile Treatment Center. Although its name is so happy sounding, Hope Juvenile Treatment Center is anything but happy. Set in the wilderness of the Ozarks, the landscape of trees and mountain ranges houses a group of teens abandoned by their families and labeled as problematic. The kids here struggle with their problems and identities as is when they notice the adults there acting strangely. Then, soldiers appear to keep them from leaving and find out a plague has broken out. Can they survive on their own? Or will they get sick like everybody else? Any other time other than during the corona pandemic, this book probably would've gotten a different rating. It's a smart story about surviving in an already difficult situation and learning what you are willing to do to make it to tomorrow. Unfortunately, this book is coming out with a story that rings a little too close to the current reality and just further points out how much the current reality sucks. This book deals with a lot of difficult topics, like gender identity. We need more honest conversations like this. It needs to be out there that it's okay to struggle with who you are and what you stand for. That struggle is the only way to really figure out what you stand for and how strong you are. I would've just preferred that story to be a little bit more upbeat. A plague outbreak book that's a little too realistic. My rating: 3 out of 5