Review: The End of Everything

The End of Everything by Megan Abbott

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 246
Published: July 7, 2011
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult

My Rating: 3.5/5

Summary (from chapters.ca):

Thirteen-year old Lizzie Hood and her next door neighbor Evie Verver are inseparable. They are best friends who swap bathing suits and field-hockey sticks, and share everything that's happened to them. Together they live in the shadow of Evie's glamorous older sister Dusty, who provides a window on the exotic, intoxicating possibilities of their own teenage horizons. To Lizzie, the Verver household, presided over by Evie's big-hearted father, is the world's most perfect place.

And then, one afternoon, Evie disappears. The only clue: a maroon sedan Lizzie spotted driving past the two girls earlier in the day. As a rabid, giddy panic spreads through the Midwestern suburban community, everyone looks to Lizzie for answers. Was Evie unhappy, troubled, upset? Had she mentioned being followed? Would she have gotten into the car of a stranger?

Lizzie takes up her own furtive pursuit of the truth, prowling nights through backyards, peering through windows, pushing herself to the dark center of Evie's world. Haunted by dreams of her lost friend and titillated by her own new power at the center of the disappearance, Lizzie uncovers secrets and lies that make her wonder if she knew her best friend at all.

Review:

**NOTE: A copy of this book was provided by the publisher. However, no compensations were made and this review reflects my honest thoughts and feelings.**

This is one of those books that makes me sit back and think. I can't say for sure that I really enjoyed it but at the same time, I can't say that I didn't either. At times, The End of Everything was a nail-biting, sit on the edge of your seat story that I couldn't put down. However, there were also times when I felt like I was struggling to stay interested.

Lizzie, a 13-year old girl who is working her way through all the questions that come when a girl becomes a woman, suddenly loses her best friend. It is something that I cannot even imagine going through and yet she seems to do it with such ease. Not missing a day of school, being a key to every break in the investigation, it all seems so easy for her. As Lizzie lurks around town discovering clues to Evie disapperance, I was screaming at her to STOP... tell a grown-up and be a little girl.

The undertones of incest (or at least that's what I was reading) really made me uncomfortable but also confused. Was I reading that or is it just in my head? Remembering that this is a young adult novel makes me think that I read too far into it, but who knows.

Overall, I found that the novel was well written and the issues it dealt with very real. I am looking forward to Megan's next novel, due out this summer.