"The End of Everything" by Megan Abbott~ Slices Through Expectations

Published by: Regan Arthur Books/Little, Brown & Co.

Pages:  246

Edgar-Nominated Author of "Bury Me Deep"

Megan Abbott

The Dame Reviews :

I'm still awash with the enormity of Megan Abbott's creative writing abilities. She is a wonderful writer, of course, but that doesn't say it all; she is one who creates such a space in time existence for the reader that it becomes difficult to shake out of it when the book is finished. I've sat all day wondering how I can review "The End of Everything" and really do it the justice it deserves, because on the outside it just looks like the ordinary "girl gone swimming and something happens" novel. It's far from that.


"The End of Everything" is a coming of age book about two 13 year old, devoted friends who've grown up together as next-door neighbors. They have a bond that exceeds that even of sisters...you may know that kind of friendship well. These two girls are so connected that the main protagonist-cum-narrator, Lizzie, can feel her friend's feelings, hear her silent words; and, they have a deep understanding and trust that surpasses all others in their lives. Don't they?


Well, this and others are the big questions in this startlingly complicated book. Ms Abbott carries us along from the naivete' of Lizzie and Evie's middle school field hockey day, to the end of a horrendous, eye-opening that causes them both to bond in a radically different way...a way that can never allow them to go back to where they were before. In the process of this journey, we become as opened- up and shattered as the girls and those who love them.


The beauty of this book is the heaviness that quietly begins to fall on us as we read it. Lizzie is a serious girl with a point to prove and absolutely nothing stands in her way. The book is Hitchcockian in suspense and angst as we venture out with Lizzie into "adult" territory that could well snap down on her without a moment's notice.


There is so much more to this book than it may at first appear. Family secrets, neighborhood weirdness, children's stories and hidden things, parents and lovers, teenaged angst, sexuality, betrayal, crime and punishment.


I am smitten by this book for one, but I also want to read anything Megan Abbott has or will ever write. She is an author with perfect pitch. This book is chilling and mysterious...the suspense is to die for! It rivals "Lovely Bones."


5 stars and highly recommended to everyone


Deborah/TheBookishDame


A YouTube indie bookshop review from July:

More About "The End of Everything~

The Book Summary:

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.


Just dying to hear what you think about this one, or if you've read "Bury Me Deep."  "The End of Everything" is right up there on my favorites of 2011.

Deb