How It Ends -- Laura Wiess

15-year-old Hanna wants Seth, and she wants him above all things.  He always seems to have a girlfriend, but she hopes that sooner or later, his eye will fall on her.

Being so preoccupied with her heartache, she hasn't been spending much time with her adopted grandparents.  Who aren't getting any younger.  And who have dealt with -- and are still dealing with -- their own head and heartaches.  Grandma Helen, especially, knows that there are things she needs to tell Hanna, and she needs to do it while she still can.

How It Ends is made up of Hanna and Helen's alternating narratives, as well as a transcription of the audiobook they listen to together.  It's a coming of age story and a romance -- multiple romances, really -- a story about family, about aging, loss, death and dying, about obsessive love, and about strength, hardship and about how the connections we make with other people can carry us through fire*.  With, you know, bonus Gothic elements.

It's one that won't be for everyone -- many adult readers, especially, will have a hard time with Hanna's bad choices and inability to see much of anything beyond her own situation, and some might feel that the beginning of the book is slow-going -- but it'll hit some people hard.

Like me.

Hoo boy.  I haven't cried so hard since I read The Subtle Knife.  We're not talking Book Thief tears pouring down the face.  We're talking red-faced-mouth-open-can't-breathe-no-holds-barred crying so hard that I was worried Mrs. Across The Street would hear me and come nosing around because she was "concerned". 

I do think that my response was, in part, intensely personal:  How It Ends deals with some of my greatest fears, and there are many parallels between Helen's lifestyle and my own.  So it resonated.  But setting my personal reaction aside, I think it's an extremely strong book on its own -- Hanna's behavior, while maddening to those of us with more life experience, is quite realistic, and the slow beginning is necessary to allow the reader to actually get to know and care about the characters BEFORE the big payoff.

It's one, I think, that could benefit from cross-promoting -- definitely, definitely a good pick for adult readers of the YA.

___________________________________________________________________

*Sorry if I got a little overly dramatic there.  I'm still fighting back tears about this one (even though I finished it days ago), and also we re-watched Babylon 5 recently, so I currently have Jeff Conaway's voice on loop in my head:  "It was the YEAR of fire..."  Plus, you know Delenn or Sheridan probably said something or other about carrying one another through fire.  I mean, it SOUNDS like something one of them would say.  Okay.  I've distracted myself away from another crying jag.  Back to it.

___________________________________________________________________

Book source/other info:  Review copy from the publisher; Cybils nominee.

_________________________________________________________________________

I'm part of the Amazon Affiliate program.  Which I'd assume would be apparent by the ad in the sidebar, but assuming that you're bright enough to understand that is not enough for the FTC.  So, I will spell it out:  if you click through to Amazon and buy something, I get money.

Comments

[Rachel]

Oh dear-i got this one in a giveaway a while ago-I didn't know it was that sad. I'd better wait until I have a day with the house all to myself so I can bawl like a baby in peace. :)

[Leila]

I was really glad that I was home alone. REALLY GLAD.

[tanita]

Sigh. Laura Weiss often makes me cry.
As Does Babylon 5, especially the second to last season.

I'm scared of this book.

[tess]

Hmm. Was this one markedly different from her first two books? Because if it is, I might read. I hated Such a Pretty Girl and Leftovers. Like, HATED.

[Leila]

Tess, I handed this one off to a friend who also hated Wiess' first two books (I haven't read them) -- so I'm waiting to see how she reacts before I pick up the others for myself. I'll keep you posted. I figure if she hates it, maybe she and Wiess just don't jive -- but if she loves it, then... well, we'll see!

[blueicegal]

i loved this book i know exacly what you mean this book was like a big emotioanl roller coaster ride, and the ending just shook me, infact im about to review it on my blog right now feel free to chek it out :) a amazing bok and a must read!

http://blueicegal-fantasy4eva.blogspot.com/

[Jennifer]

Ugh, I definitely hated "Leftovers", because of the two WITCHES that the main characters became and how some readers still seemed to like them. I couldn't read "Pretty Girl" because of the incest-rape. But you know what? This book sounds dynamite..