Mike Chen shows life after the end of the world in A Beginning at the End, a refreshing change from many dystopian stories.
Six years ago, a pandemic of the flu killed of the majority of the world’s population. People have already begun to rebuild even though they are still haunted by the past. Brought together by serendipity, a pop star in hiding, a single dad and a wedding planner find themselves entangled in moving their lives forward. But it seems the virus may be making a comeback. How these three new will found friends handle a new global scare?
I have always wanted to read a book after people escape the apocalypse and start new lives. Most books end at some plateau where they can live. But what does that look like? I was excited to see that Mike Chen had thought ahead to that. And gave us a world somewhat close to ours buy also so very different. In fact, I was less interested in their back stories. While they were needed to truly understand the characters, I was focuses on the survivability pf now. I needed to see the characters let go of the past and look to the future.
Chen’s work is easy to read. It’s not fluff but is relatable to everyday reader in booth writing structure and the characters. Readers will see something about themselves in the four main characters that will encourage you to find out how they handle the post-world and threat of further virus outbreaks. Chen creates wonderfully fulfilling characters even tough any of the character’s relationships could be called way before the ending.
A Beginning at the End is a story about what happens after the apocalypse but doesn’t land of the troupes of zombies or supernatural aspects. This focuses on each human and their own choices. As a reader, now I want to read his other works!

The Beginning at the End had me hooked just from the title. I had a list of titles to choose from for the Harlequin Science Fiction/ Fantasy blog tour and this sounded original.

A flu epidemic wipes people out and then people from all walks of life must cope with what they face as survivors.

The pace was quick and the characters well fleshed out. I was interested in how life would turn out for them.

A good genre blend. I want to listen to more by Mike Chen.

Thanks to Mike Chen and Harlequin for my ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

4 stars. I like the unusual cover too.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and a honest review and then some it shall receive! I cannot tell you enough how much I enjoyed reading A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen. I loved the world he built with the attention to detail to show what life in the US was like after the first global flu pandemic hit, and how believable it was. I’ve never read an apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic novel that isn’t focused on death and destruction with crazy human mutations, zombies or other fictional creatures. The fact that this book focused more on the surviving people and how they try to cope with what happened and find a way forward in life was a really refreshing outtake. It was a bit of a slow burn, but then again what fantastic science fiction read isn’t? I did not find it difficult to keep track of the four main characters and how the storyline bounced between them. You can tell that there was a lot of thought and planning put into the creation of Rob & Sunny, Krista, and Moira to develop their stories pre and post pandemic. It actually had a really great flow to it, and I love the flashbacks and intermingling point of views to provide you all of the characters though processes at certain plot points. I’ve heard that this book has a similar feel to how Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel was written, which I unfortunately haven’t read yet (but will soon!). The ending felt like it wrapped up nicely so I don’t expect there to be a sequel, but I wouldn’t complain if there was!

I will definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good Scifi read, especially of the apocalyptic kind or to anyone who read and enjoyed Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I’ve already raved about it to some close bookish friends and they’ve added it to their TBRs!!

Title: A Beginning at the End
Author: Mike Chen
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 4 out of 5

Six years after a global pandemic, it turns out that the End of the World was more like a big pause. Coming out of quarantine, 2 billion unsure survivors split between self-governing big cities, hippie communes, and wasteland gangs. When the father of a presumed-dead pop star announces a global search for his daughter, four lives collide: Krista, a cynical event planner; Moira, the ex-pop star in hiding; Rob, a widowed single father; and Sunny, his seven-year-old daughter.

As their lives begin to intertwine, reports of a new outbreak send the fragile society into a panic. And when the government enacts new rules in response to the threat, long-buried secrets surface, causing Sunny to run away seeking the truth behind her mother's death. Now, Krista, Rob, and Moira must finally confront the demons of their past in order to hit the road and reunite with Sunny -- before a coastal lockdown puts the world on pause again.

A Beginning at the End wasn’t your typical end-of-the-world dystopian novel. Apart from a few brief flashbacks, the story doesn’t spend a lot of time with the actual end of the world. Instead, it’s firmly grounded in the rebuilding phase of life after a global pandemic.

My heart went out to Rob. He’s been keeping a huge secret from hid daughter Sunny for years—and now it has caught up with him and he doesn’t know what to do, so he’s floundering. Moira has been running for so long she doesn’t know how to not run. And Krista…well, I didn’t like her for most of the book, as she’s selfish and a bit ugly to people around her, but she fortunately has an epiphany about herself that changes her. I loved that this novel left the large-scale view alone, and focused on a handful of individuals, their lives, and their emotions, as this made everything much more vivid and realistic.

Mike Chen is a lifelong writer, from crafting fan fiction as a child to somehow getting paid for words as an adult. A Beginning at the End is his newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Harlequin/MIRA in exchange for an honest review.)

Pop star Moira takes advantage of the frenzy of another flu epidemic to escape her controlling father and reinvent herself as an everyday working girl about to get married. Her wedding planner Krista somehow gets hooked into babysitting Sunny, the daughter of Moira’s work colleague Rob. When Sunny goes missing, Moira and Krista follow Rob into the wastelands, through communes, and around police cordons to find her, Rob knowing that he must confess the truth about Sunny’s mother. Chen builds a credible post-apocalyptic world with a divided US population of those who continue to follow laws in hopes of normalization and those who no longer believe in them after the global flu pandemic. His characters are unique and interesting if not necessarily endearing, and even secondary characters (including the fiancee and his family) maintain their integrity and presence. Dear Readers who love character-driven sci-fi will appreciate Chen’s style. I was fortunate to receive a digital copy of this story by one of my favorite authors from the publisher Mira Books through NetGalley.

I loved Mike Chen's debut novel, "Here and Now and Then," so I was excited to get an advance copy of this new, totally separate book. And happy to report that I loved this one too. This book is set in the near future, after a worldwide flu pandemic has wiped out most of the population. The book alternates viewpoints between 3 characters - Moira, a former teen pop star who used the global outbreak as a chance to escape from her controlling stage manager father; Rob, a single father struggling to do the right thing in raising his young daughter after his wife died during the quarantine period' and Krista, who had a tough life even before the outbreak and is struggling to make ends meet in the new world as well. While post-apocalyptic, it's only dystopian in the mildest of ways - we're not talking a "Hunger Games" type of world here, but a world still recognizably like our own, just crappier and a little scarier. I definitely got wrapped up in the characters and their journeys both literal and emotional.

Most of the planet’s population is dead, killed by a strain of the flu. Those left are slowly rebuilding the world and trying to put their lives back together. But bureaucracy and the need for normality come together to target those who just want to be left alone. Rob wants to heal from the death of his wife but every time his daughter acts out, he is at risk of losing her to the government. Krista’s business is close to falling apart and she is forced to find and reunite those who, for whatever reason, have disappeared, and Moira isn’t even sure who she is anymore, let alone how to hide herself. But reports of another outbreak and Sunny’s sudden disappearance throw these three together.
Rather than a novel about the end of the world, this is more about the aftermath of lives once people start to rebuild. There were some interesting developments such as the PTSD groups and the balance of social life verses work that people are now obligated to fulfil to prove that they are ‘healthy’ functioning members of society.
The original aspects of this broken society were what kept me reading because, honestly, I didn’t find the characters and their problems all that engaging. I found Krista to be little naive and superficial and Moira and Rob were both quite selfish, ignoring what was actually going on around them in the world. Rob especially with his insider information who actually does very little to disseminate that information and protect others.
It didn’t feel much like a sci-fi novel or dystopia more as a human drama piece. I think iut would do well in book groups but I was slightly disappointed in it.

I’m not usually a fan of dystopian novel but I can say I really liked this one because it mixes a dystopian background with a strong attention to relationships and how people can change when they are relating to the right persons.
It’s a well written and engrossing speculative fiction story that gives a lot of food thought while entertaining.
The world building is quite original as we read about a society that is trying to start again after a pandemic disease that killed large part of the human race.
The plot mixes memory of the experience of the characters during the disease with their past story and their current life and problem.
Moira, Krista, Sunny and Rob are well thought and likeable characters that grows on you and you end up rooting for them.
The plot is gripping and even if the end is not unexpected you cannot help keep reading and being involved in the story.
It was an excellent reading experience, strongly recommended.
Many thanks to MIRA and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This story is set in a post-apocalyptic world, but it's main themes are timeless. You have people who are trying to make a life after dealing with dysfunctional family life, overbearing parents, the death of a spouse or parent, etc. They are all doing the best they can to make a "normal" life for themselves and those around them.
While there are obviously a lot of gut-wrenching, tear-jerking events in this book, it contains plenty of laughs as well. At times it seems that the seven-year-old is the smartest person in the story, leading her dad and his friends in the directions they need to move.
I loved this book and would recommend it to everyone, whether you usually read post-apocalyptic stories or not.

Beyond 5 Stars!


This combination post-Apocalyptic, midst-of-Apocalypse affected me so strongly yet so subtly that I was engrossed before realizing. In love with the story before I noticed. Just as absorbing as A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ and SWAN SONG, A BEGINNING AT THE END is a novel that won't let go. Yes, there is near-futuristic science fiction: pandemic, infrastructure loss, billions of deaths. But what drives the story is a few very special individuals: Moira, Rob, Sunny, Krista, as they perform as prisms through which the reader views the human potential, mind, spirit, heart, will.

At the beginning of this book, the four main characters are just casual acquaintances at best (well, except the father and daughter). They're all living in the San Francisco Metro after a widespread pandemic forced them into quarantine and then out into the world to start over with essentially nothing. Most of the population suffers from PASD (Post-apocalyptic Stress Disorder) and many people avoid interaction with others. Those are just the facts.

Our involvement with the story starts when the wedding planner (Krista) leaves her client (Moira) and ends up stuck in the elevator with Rob (one of Moira's co-workers, and Sunny's dad) during a power outage. Their familiarity with each other is now established, and the plot can proceed. They all become closer with each other over time (a few weeks, maybe?) until everything escalates at once. They work together through an unexpected crisis during another possible pandemic outbreak to try and achieve the happily-ever-after we all want.

I enjoyed the characters a lot, and they are why the overall rating made it to 3.5/5 stars. I did wonder form time to time at the lack of impact on their lives from the first pandemic. Yeah. the quarantine and starting over changed all their lives greatly, but despite somewhere in the book giving a fatality rate of a lot from the illness, only one character talks about an actual interaction with someone sick. I'd say it was still mostly believable, but I'm just surprised that an illness causing the 'end of the world,' isn't more noticeable.

I'd still recommend this book for fans of dystopia. Also, there is only super-minimal romance, so that may be a plus or a minus, depending on your tastes.

This is one of the best science fiction books I’ve ever read.
Reading A Beginning at the End feels like once in a lifetime experience. It was fresh, endearing and heartwarming, while being suspenseful and thrilling at the same time.
The writing and the world building were excellent. They captured my attention from the beginning and kept it throughout. I loved the characters as well, the more I read the more connected I felt to them, and this kept the story dynamic and interesting. The plot pacing started off a bit slow, but once things connected, it picked up and I fell in love with the book even more.
In the end, I found this book to be uplifting and unique. I can’t recommend it more, and I look forward to reading more from Mike Chen in the future.

The world has been devastated by the flu that has wiped out much of the population. Six years have passed and people are half-heartedly trying to rebuild, reconnect, and live, all with varying degrees of success. Some people have chosen to live in Metro areas, which are government-controlled, some off the grid in Reclaimed Territories, and gangs roam unclaimed areas. Most of the story takes place in San Francisco, except for flashbacks to the lives of the main characters.
Moira, Krista, and Rob become connected by chance. Rob is struggling to move on after the death of his wife and raise his young daughter, Sunny. Krista is indifferent to everyone except her cat, but an encounter with Rob, makes her rethink her lonely life. Moira was a pop star, now she is just trying to live a life free from her father. They each have secrets, and it is only when they share the truth of who they were and what happened to bring them to this place, that they have a chance to heal and live again.
This is much more of a character-driven story that a tale of what caused the apocalypse. You do however get a sense of the overwhelming panic when the characters share pieces of their individual stories. The main theme though, is how do Rob, Moira, and Krista accept what has happened and risk becoming connected, not knowing what tomorrow may bring.
I flew through this book wanting to know if the past would win, or if these characters had hope for the present and the future. My first read by Mike Chen and I will be looking for his work again.

Building Family in the Wake of Disaster

In this dystopian novel, the world is recovering from a devastating flu epidemic that killed seventy percent of the population. In San Francisco, three people are struggling to put their lives back together.
Moira was a famous pop star under the thumb of her father. When the flu hit, she took the opportunity to evade him and start a new life. Krista is a wedding planner who plans to survive in this strange new world. Rob is a single parent trying to care for his daughter Sunny. He has been afraid to tell Sunny that her mother is dead which leads to problems in their relationship.

Although this story is science fiction, the emphasis is on character development. The background of San Francisco is well done and adds realism to the story. The plot is fairly simple because the characters drive the story. The three adults are drawn together trying to help Sunny who is having trouble adjusting because Rob can’t bring himself to tell her the truth about her mother. As the adults try to help the child they create a strong emotional bond.

The theme of this story is creating family. We usually think of the nuclear family, but in the devastating circumstances following the flu pandemic family becomes those who you are close to and form a strong caring relationship. I enjoyed reading a science fiction story where science took a back seat to the emotions of the characters.

I received this book from Harlequin for this review.

I'd been saving this one for the right time, and the last day of the year seemed perfect. Mike Chen wrote one of my absolute favorite books, HERE AND NOW AND THEN, so I'd been stalking this galley for a while. I read it all in one gulp on New Year's Eve while my children destroyed my house. Totally worth it.

The narrative follows Rob, Krista, and Moira - three people who are connected via slim threads. Six years after a pandemic destroyed the country, the three strangers are living in the Metro area of San Francisco. Metro areas are highly controlled, while some people live off the grid in Reclaimed Territories. The internet has gone back to flip-phone days, with dubious connections, and the city is still struggling to rebuild. Rob lives in government housing with his young daughter, Sunny, but when Sunny has an outburst in class, he faces a custody hearing. Children are precious in this society, and if parents can't hack it, the kids have to go to communal dorms. Rob runs into Krista at his work, which he shares with Moira; Krista is Moira's wedding planner. Rob asks Krista if she'll serve as a character witness for him at the hearing, and even though they barely know each other, Krista agrees. What follows is a deepening of relationships between the three of them, from friendship to conflict and back again, creating a portrait of what is truly important in an ongoing time of crisis.

This book is a breath of fresh air, especially considering the news these days - many readers will empathize with the characters. Their stories create a web of hope, one that will catch us even in our darkest times.

At first I wasn't too sure what to make of the synopsis as I didn't think I really wouldn't feel any sympathy for a "woe is me" pop-star who had it all, but the rest of the premise was really intriguing. What if the world technically ended, but instead of a Mad Max-esque wasteland, some of society remained and the world was actually just on pause? How would we as humans cope carrying on with semi-normality in that landscape?

It all reminded me a bit of one of the most horrifying books I've ever read (and its movie adaption), On the Beach. In it, we follow Australians who are the lone surviving humans on earth after a world-wide nuclear war. They know the end is most likely coming, but somehow they just have to keep living like that isn't hanging over them. That is exactly the scenario our characters are in as they try to get on with their lives in post-pandemic San Francisco.

Being originally from the Bay Area myself, I was already drawn in by the setting but soon the characters had me drawn in as well. Sometimes it was a little cheesy (especially some of the dialogue), but overall it worked. And in the end it wasn't the pop-star I ended up getting annoyed with, but another character, Krista, who really just needed to get over herself. Luckily, she eventually did. Whew!

Mike Chen's bleak tale was one that actually had a lot of hope in it, not to mention some heart pounding actions and drama toward the end. His descriptions fully transported me to the chaos our characters were in during the book's climax, leaving me turning the pages well past my bed-time. I whole heartedly recommend this unique take on the post-apocalyptic genre.

Full review to come on my blog near the publication date.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: A Beginning at the End

Author: Mike Chen

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 5/5

Publication Date: January 14, 2020

Genre: Dystopian

Recommended Age: 18+ (violence, some mature scenes, death, plagues, CPS, the usual)

Publisher: MIRA

Pages: 400

Amazon Link

Synopsis: How do you start over after the end of the world?

Six years after a global pandemic wiped out most of the planet’s population, the survivors are rebuilding the country, split between self-governing cities, hippie communes and wasteland gangs.

In postapocalyptic San Francisco, former pop star Moira has created a new identity to finally escape her past—until her domineering father launches a sweeping public search to track her down. Desperate for a fresh start herself, jaded event planner Krista navigates the world on behalf of those too traumatized to go outside, determined to help everyone move on—even if they don’t want to. Rob survived the catastrophe with his daughter, Sunny, but lost his wife. When strict government rules threaten to separate parent and child, Rob needs to prove himself worthy in the city’s eyes by connecting with people again.

Krista, Moira, Rob and Sunny are brought together by circumstance, and their lives begin to twine together. But when reports of another outbreak throw the fragile society into panic, the friends are forced to finally face everything that came before—and everything they still stand to lose.

Because sometimes having one person is enough to keep the world going.

Review: I really liked this book! It was an amazing dystopian adventure with a highly imaginative post apocalyptic world! I loved the examination of characters and I really like seeing how people react to different pressures put upon them by society. I liked seeing how society reinvented itself and how it was trying to reclaim what it previously had. I also liked the writing and the world building.

However, I did feel like the pace was a little slow and that some dystopian fans would be turned off by the focus on the post apocalyptic and not the ensuring disaster. Overall, I really loved this book!

Verdict: Definitely recommend this one for dystopian fans!

3.5
One global pandemic killed 70% of the population in 2019. Fast forward today, 2025. Survivors were trying to lead a normal life. We get a glimpse of the lives of four people living in San Francisco. Moira, Krista, Rob and his 7-year-old daughter, Sunny (hers towards the end of the story). Moira, left her life as a superstar, now living with a new identity; Krista trying to survive on her own after leaving her alcoholic mother; Rob, now a single dad, having a hard time moving on after the death of his wife, and Sunny, his daughter, who had no idea what had happened to her mother and clung on to the idea that she was still alive.

I almost gave up 20% in; I didn’t find the characters nor the plot engaging. Everything felt so bland. But thankfully, it picked up a little as we dig deeper into the characters’ lives – how Moira’s past kept haunting her no matter how hard she tried to escape it, Krista’s fight with trust and commitment until she met Sunny who was a beam of sunlight, Rob on his struggle to let go of his past and tell Sunny the truth about her mother, and how they came together at the end despite their differences in beliefs.

I also enjoyed reading about the ‘new world’ Chen created – a country divided into the Metro, Reclaimed Territories and ruins that became a battleground between gangs; high-speed connection became yesterday news and map-reading made a comeback; support groups for PASD became the new ‘normal’, looters were common, and gas masks were a fashion statement, oh, and having parkour as a skill is a great means of survival 😊 Definitely a different future than most of us have imagined – high-tech stuff, flying vehicles, holographic messages, food in pill-like forms, etc.

A Beginning at The End is such an apt title for this novel. The End of the World didn’t mean the end of everything; it didn’t mean everything had to be put on hold; it just meant adjusting and adapting and finding the new ‘normal’. It meant accepting the redefinition of families and friends, survival and love. It meant a new start; a new beginning.

The ending was pretty predictable but a hopeful one indeed. A great read to start 2020.

I’ll end the review with some memorable quotes and takeaway messages I got from this book: ‘Memories are meant to fade. They’re built with an expiration date. and that ‘It’s okay to move on’; just let your past be part of you, don’t fight it.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin Mira for the invitation to read this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

If readers liked *Station Eleven*, I feel like they are really going to like *A Beginning at the End* by Mike Chen. Post-apocalyptic and family driven, and emotional, with a pandemic! It felt at some places that the plot was too much because it was a full and overwhelming (in a good way) read.

I'm always up for a post-apocalyptic book.  This one was being compared to Station Eleven, a novel I really enjoyed, and I'd seen some rave reviews for this author's first book.  

Don't go into this expecting something like a zombie apocalypse or a meteor crashing into Earth.  Much like Station Eleven, it's a quiet book that focuses more on the journeys of the survivors during the aftermath of a global virus and how they come to terms with their losses.  Everything about this world is plausible - cities struggling to rebuild and restore some degree of normalcy, looting and gangs, groups living in Reclaimed Territories not under government control, and survivors dealing with grief in different ways.

The characters really make the story.  Rob is a single father trying to do right by his young daughter, Sunny, who is on a mission to make her father happy again.  Moira had the most intriguing backstory for me, and is hiding in plain site after escaping her past.  Then there's Krista, determined to keep people at a distance and not care about anyone other than her cat.  Each of their stories are riveting and occasionally heartbreaking, and I liked how their lives gradually become intertwined.  The climax of the story is compelling, and I couldn't read fast enough - I had to know what happened to these characters I'd come to like so much.  Although the ending is slightly uncertain, I was happy with the way the author left things. 

If you enjoy character-driven stories that inspire hope in the midst of disaster and loss, I highly recommend A Beginning at the End.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.