This Is Where the World Ends: A Devastating YA Mystery About Secret Friendship and Loss

This Is Where the World Ends: A Devastating YA Mystery About Secret Friendship and Loss

A heart-wrenching novel about best friends on a collision course with the real world from Amy Zhang, the critically acclaimed Indies Introduce and Indie Next author of Falling into Place. Janie and Micah, Micah and Janie. That’s how it’s been ever since elementary school, when Janie Vivien moved next door. Janie says Micah is everything she is not. Where Micah is shy, Janie is outgoing. Where Micah loves music, Janie loves art. It’s the perfect friendship―as long as no one finds out about it. But then Janie goes missing and everything Micah thought he knew about his best friend is colored with doubt. Using a nonlinear writing style and dual narrators, Amy Zhang masterfully reveals the circumstances surrounding Janie’s disappearance in an astonishing second novel that will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver. But as Micah’s memory returns in fractured pieces, he must ask: who was the real Janie Vivian, and what truly happened the night the world ended? Secret Friendship: Janie and Micah have a world of their own, built next door and kept hidden from everyone. But some secrets are too heavy to carry alone. - Teen Angst and Revenge: A dark contemporary story exploring the razor's edge of high school, where first love turns to obsession and pranks escalate into something terrifying. - Small Town Mystery: In the suffocating quiet of Waldo, Iowa, a girl’s disappearance rips through the community, exposing the ugly truths hidden beneath the surface. - Emotional Suspense: A gripping, heart-wrenching novel told in dual timelines that will keep you guessing until the very last, devastating page. “Zhang switches between Janie’s thoughts before the fire and Micah’s after, bridging the two with unsettling fractured fairy tales from Janie’s senior English project…Zhang’s subject and tone recall books like Paper Towns and Thirteen Reasons Why.” - Publishers Weekly “A dark, complicated tale, steeped in obsession [and] painful secrets…this is most definitely a novel that will have fans talking.” - Kirkus Reviews “Zhang’s effortless exploration of the complex intersection of memory and perception, and intricate, menace-laden plot is a perfect fit for fans of E. Lockhart’s compelling We Were Liars.” - Booklist (starred review) “Zhang does a wonderful job of creating characters. …She creates a plot line that will be believable among most teens about secrets that are and are not shared. This will make a great pairing with Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak.” - Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (starred review) Once upon a time . . . There was a girl named Janie Vivian. And a boy named Micah Carter. And a boy named Dewey. A boy named Ander. A girl named Piper. And once upon a time . . . Janie Vivian declared an apocalypse. And they all fell down. They all fell down. Micah can’t remember when or how or why. But he knows one thing for certain: This is where the world ends. We drive in silence. I study my palms. There are four perfect half moons where my nails dug in, and a fate line that looks normal. Perfectly straight, average length. I used to think that destiny was fluid, because isn’t that the point of every Disney movie and Saturday-morning cartoon? You make your own choices. You decide how life goes. I always thought that your fate line would change if something happened, bam , something goes wrong and the line on your palm goes all wonky to reflect that. Nope. It still looks fine. I dig my nails into my palms again and look ahead. Staring contest, glaring contest. Let’s go, universe. You and me, right here, right now. Advance Praise for This Is Where the World Ends “Zhang weaves a dark, complicated tale, steeped in obsession, painful secrets, and mind-numbing vodka. Readers will be left to decide for themselves whether this is a tragic love story or a psychological thriller; regardless, this is most definitely a novel that will have fans talking.”— Kirkus Reviews “Zhang’s effortless exploration of the complex intersection of memory and perception and intricate, menace-laden plot is a perfect fit for fans of E. Lockhart’s compelling We Were Liars. ”—ALA Booklist (starred review) Amy Zhang was born in China and moved to the United States when she was a young girl. She grew up in Wisconsin and recently graduated from college. She is the author of Falling into Place and This is Where the World Ends , and she currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.