I hate not finishing a book, but I just couldn't find the will to get through this one. It was confusing and was not engaging my attention at all. Dystopian novels are out of my wheelhouse, but I really enjoy reading outside of my normal genres sometimes. This unfortunately was not one of those times for me.

I'm giving it what I consider a neutral 3 star rating as I feel like I was completely the wrong audience for this one. It doesn't mean I think it was a bad book or had bad writing - it was just not one I would recommend to readers with similar tastes to mine.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to read this one.

I'm honored to have been given an advance copy of "End of the World House" because I loved it so much. It's unlike anything I've ever read before, and keep coming back to it in my mind, even weeks after I finished reading.

I also had the distinct pleasure of interviewing the author Adrienne Celt for my podcast Storytime in Paris. Here is what I said:

"My guest this week is award-winning author and cartoonist Adrienne Celt. Adrienne has written three books, including “The Daughters,” which won the 2015 PEN Southwest Book Award for Fiction and was named a Best Book of the Year by NPR. She’s also won the O. Henry Prize and the Glenna Luschei Award for her writing.

Adrienne’s latest novel, “End of the World House” is a mind-bending exploration of friendship and identity. When best friends Bertie and Kate head to Paris’ Louvre for a last hurrah, Kate suddenly disappears, unleashing time loops and multiverses. Adrienne shares with us where her story began, how she crafted the story structure to reflect the narrative, how the Louvre inspired her, and so much more. Then, she treats us to a reading from “End of the World House.”

Thank you to S&S and NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review,

The world is ending, Sound familiar? In this version, best friends Bertie and Kate travel to Paris on a whim and find themselves trapped in the time-loop of the Louvre. No, really. When they get separated, things take a turn for the maybe-sinister and Bertie must figure out how to find Kate again, unsure if she's lost forever.

This was part women's fic, part sci-fi/fantasy horror, part existential dread. I'm not totally sure how all of these work together, as what they make is a pretty depressing end-of-the-world story that looks maybe a bit too familiar for my taste. I found Bertie's worries and her narration relatable and solid, but I think the way other characters flit in and out of her Groundhog Day life is a bit too thin, making the final punchline of the novel depressing more than anything. I wasn't sure who I was rooting for, in the end, which I don't think was the goal.

And all of the world-ending stuff was a bit too realistic for me. But that might be my tired brain talking.

3 stars.

I am a pretty staunch fantasy girl. When it comes to sci-fi, I tend to be put to sleep by mad scientists and rockets and parallel universes. But one sci-fi element I’ve always loved? The idea that time is not linear - it is a stretched, strange, plastic thing. And I think that’s what floated me through this slightly strange narrative.

End of the World House pulls this off pretty impressively. I loved the way time was manipulated and used in this story. It's easily the most successful and engaging part of this book.

The book is well-paced, delightfully strange, and unique.

So, why is it 3-stars?

Well, I couldn't stand the characters. In the face of such dynamic senses of time and settings and mortality, the characters felt cardboard and less interesting than the world it inhabited.

I will definitely keep an eye on Adrienne Celt in the future, as I mentioned this is such an interesting philosophical perspective...but hope we see characters as lively as the setting in her next book.

Ooo. This is bound to be a controversial book. I guess one thing I can guarantee is that you'll have feelings about it. Part of the "problem" is the premise is brilliant and the writing is strong, so you're bound to a) hear about it from someone or b) be tempted by reviews to read it. Just be prepared for your responses to be very hot or very cold.

I've read a number of time loop stories, and I loved that this one took a very different approach, basically wondering what happens when our minds get a little wiped by each loop. (And if that's true, who's to say we're not all operating in various loops this very moment?) I thought Bertie was a cool character and enjoyed seeing where her loops took her and how those residual memories bled through and effected the decisions she made. She's very much the heart of the story and that was a choice that suited me just fine.

The part I did NOT like is the part I can't get too deeply into without spoilers. Let's just say that the Bertie/Kate relationship is billed as the main one in the book, (although in reality, it's nearly almost all Bertie's story.) But a second relationship (one that's, in my opinion, suuuuuuuuper toxic) gets thrown into the mix too. This second relationship takes up a HUGE portion of the book, which kind of bummed me out because I really wanted to just follow Bertie and Kate and I thought this third person seemed like a garbage human.

In the end, I'm not sure what to think about this one. I HATED the choice at the ending, but liked how it was done technically. I thought the time loop thing was well done, and I liked Bertie. But the book does take wide swings with the plot and some of those swings were, for me, total misses. I'm not sure that made me hate the book, per se. But it did make me want to knock a star, (and it makes me understand why someone people wanted to throw it out the window entirely.)

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

The deal: Billed as “Groundhog Day meets Ling Ma’s Severance,” it’s about two pals trying to save their friendship as society/the world/reality/etc. collapses around them.

Is it worth it?: I impulsively requested an ARC on Netgalley (what else is new) because to exactly no one’s surprise, “dystopia x female relationships” is extremely my shit. I thought the second half fell apart quite a bit, but not enough that I felt like putting it down. It was simultaneously moving — there are a lot of flashbacks to the gals’ early friendship — and darkly funny. True sci-fi heads will surely think this was underdeveloped and messy and likely just straight up unfeasible plot-wise. But whatever, so is life?

Pairs well with: Devs and Tuca & Bertie

B-

Thought provoking to be sure but funny not so much, at least to me. Bertie tells this story of her relationship with Kate. The world has had all sorts of bad things happen and now for a brief period, people can travel so the two take off to Paris where they meet Javier. He takes them on a tour of the Louvre while it's closed and that's where things go off the rails. They are separated and Bertie finds herself searching for Kate in a world where things keep repeating. And then more bad things happen. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. No spoilers from me but know that this is an odd one that others might find more rewarding than I did.

I wish I could give a better and more positive feedback to this book, but unfortunately, the overall impact is sort of underwhelming, given the larger-than-life comparisons its publicity blurb made it out to be. Comparing something to both Groundhog Day and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind doesn't really make it easy, and those are some very large shoes to fill in.

Bertie and Kate are best friends, who are visiting Paris, and the fabled Louvre during what seems to be a near-future that is approaching or going through some sort of partial cataclysmic war event. There have been mentions of bombs, destruction, and a sense of a generic looming despondency. From there on, the story goes in multiple directions - partially, I must add, and sort of extinguishes all those attempts by giving what certainly seems to be half-hearted attempts.

Somewhere along the way, there's a boyfriend (or is there ?), ad there are some backstories mentioned in passing now-and-then.

The biggest miss is an overarching story or compelling plot to the adventure.

Going back to those two comparisons, both had a protagonist that made us root for them, or hate them - depending on your perspective, but at least it evoked strong emotions and eventually rather well-formed personalities.

Neither happens in this case. While there clearly a yearning lurking somewhere, it is lost. Sure there is an element of sci-fi, but it is not used well. And while there are multiple mentions of the apocalyptic doomsday scenario the world seems to be going through, it is not allowed to unfurl or really play a part of the story. This last aspect, more than the others, felt sort of forced on the story, and I felt it had literally nothing to add to the story and while it could have been used to drive a lot of plot points - what if the Groundhog day was brought about by something in the doomsday-scenario definition, or there is that line of thought that the Groundhog feeling is not limited to Bertie, but it too is under-developed and not allowed to be a central pull of the story.

Overall, a good attempt, but sadly - that's all.

The writing was good but I just could not get into this plot. It did not interest me. I’m sure there are many who will enjoy it more than I did.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

**Many thanks to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Adrienne Celt for an ARC of this book!**

If you dumped out a bag of Scrabble tiles, tossed in some comics from the Sunday paper, and threw in a pocket watch stuck at 12:00, you'd have two things:

-a jumbled, odd, and incoherent mess

-a visual representation of this confusing and wholly unlikable book...which is itself a jumbled, odd and incoherent mess

The loose framework for this one is as follows: best friends Bertie and Kate have taken one last 'we're-the-best-of-girlfriends' trip to Paris. Bertie is a cartoonist, and paying the bills by doodling for a tech company...while Kate is...moving from San Francisco to L.A. (how this embodies her entire character, I'm still not sure.) A man at a bar named Javier promises them a magical special secret tour of the Louvre while nobody else is there...and at some point along the way, the two friends end up separated from one another, searching for Javier, locked in the museum, and stuck in a time loop (supposedly). And apparently the world is also ending. (There is a coffee shortage, which I DID find tragic, and honestly the saddest thing about this book.) Can the two ever break the chain and find one another? And can you keep yourself reading long enough to find out?

I'm sorry, but even trying to write a synopsis for this was painful and brought back the days-long headache I endured trying to get through this book. Calling this novel "comedic" is a stretch...a Stretch Armstrong type stretch. Not only didn't I laugh once while reading this, I found the attempts at 'humor' incredibly odd and off-putting. It felt like the author was trying to be highbrow and literary, but it just came off as strange.

This book is also about 40% chock full of anecdotes about Bertie and Kate's LONG, LONG friendship...which all felt incredibly boring, like a long-winded elderly person rambling on and on. The timelines also don't make ANY sense, I honestly wouldn't have even known time loops or multi-verses were going on for about 70% of the book if it hadn't been mentioned now and again. Granted, sci-fi and speculative fiction aren't my genre of choice, but I have read plenty of time travel books that were executed well: this one just isn't. I am also not sure what the relevance of the 'end of the world' even had in this book: it certainly didn't add to the dramatic tension. There is also a LONG section in the middle where we get to hear extensively about Bertie's time at her obnoxious corporate job.

...Fun.

To make matters even stranger, the ending is so cliched, so bizarre, and so unfulfilling I have no idea what the author was going for, since 90% of the book is about how Kate can't live without Bertie and Bertie can't live without Kate....and the ending is about another character entirely and was cringe-worthy in its own way.

Every book has an audience, and I'm sure there are those who will enjoy this one...but as for me, I'll stick to watching Groundhog Day...over and over and over.

2.5 stars

I really liked the concept of this book but I think the execution was a bit muddied. Would have liked more on the friendship between the two women and a bit less ambiguity on the time loop/sci fi elements (I don't feel like I need to have every answer but it should make *some* sense).

I don’t think I’m smart enough for this book. To be fair, I’m almost always confused by time loops multiverses, but I was really with this book for the first half of the story. Bertie and her best friend Kate are in Paris. They’ve scored a cheap European vacation thanks to the world being in general disarray and somehow manage to find themselves on a solo tour of the Louvre. And then they’re there again. And again. But they’re not always aware that they’ve been there before, just of the residual anger towards each other from the previous days.

I was really digging the exploration of female friendship told through the prism of a time loop at the end of the world, but then the book took a hard turn. I won’t give anything away, but suffice to say I didn’t care for the second half nearly as much. Not just because of the narrative shift, but because it also caused me to lose the thread of what this book was trying to say. Nothing much was explained literally or metaphorically and it left me questioning the point.

I did enjoy the writing style and the pacing was on point. I was hooked from the start and tore through it in my search for answers. I didn’t end up finding any, but sometimes the journey shouldn’t be judged by the destination.

This is an interesting and highly creative book. Bertie and Kate have been best friends since childhood. There friendship has largely endured into adulthood, even as the world around them seems to be crumbling. But Kate has decided to move to Los Angeles for a new job, much to Bertie's disappointment who is worried how she'll handle being alone. As one last adventure and to take advantage of what may be the final days of international travel, the two decide to go to Paris. While there, they meet a mysterious man who says he can get them a private tour of the Louvre. When they arrive for their tour, they are admitted to the museum and soon find that they seem to be the only ones there ... and that is just the beginning of the strange things they are experiencing. The two soon get separated, and Bertie spends most of the rest of the story trying to find Kate -- made all the more difficult because she realizes she is caught in a time loop where she is reliving the same day over and over.

This was an original novel, combining the best parts of a time-loop story, a friendship drama, and an apocalyptic narrative. I was fully immersed in this one from beginning to end. Highly recommended!

In a world that seems always on the verge of apocalypse, Bertie and her best friend, Kate, have clung together. Their friendship is by turns confining and comforting, but in a world with little certainty they have each other and their plan to shelter from the imminent crisis, together, at an End of the World House.

Now, in a moment of reprieve from disaster, they travel to Paris and visit the Louvre. But the famous museum, empty on the day they visit, is filled with strange noises and infinite corridors. Bertie and Kate are separated - and then the day starts over, and they are separated again. The day repeats, again and again, and realities shift. Even though time has become a loop the two women are moving inexorably toward the decision that will change everything.

End of the World House is twisty and gripping and unique. It wasn't quite what I expected from the synopsis I read, and it probably isn't quite what you expect from the synopsis I just wrote. I don't think it's possible to describe the story properly without giving away the twists that send the story in unexpected directions right up to its end.

Lyrical and haunting, End of the World House touches on friendship and love, connection and loneliness. There are elements of romance and moments when it seems like a thriller. But mostly the story is - I think - about one's relationship with one's own life: mortality and control, choices and their consequences.

The book isn't for everyone. Its magical realism may not be to all readers' tastes, and the alternate-near-future apocalyptic setting may be unpalatable to some at the current moment. But I found it engrossing and unexpected and memorable.

This felt like something I would like, but it didn't grab me. I ended up not finishing this title. I really think that others will enjoy it though.

This book takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where Kate and Bertie take a trip to Paris. When visiting the Louvre, they get stuck in a time loop (groundhog day vibes) and the pair need to confront their pent up issues.

I enjoyed the female friendship and thought it had some funny moments.

The storyline did feel repetitive by the end and I didn’t feel extremely connected to the characters. I found this book hard to get through!

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon Shuster for this ARC!

Bertie and Kate are stuck in the Louvre in a Groundhog Day like situation.......I'm not really someone who is into time travel or time shifting so I was out of my norm in reading this--but in the spirit of trying something new.... In the first part I was appreciating the author's way with words despite not being into the premise. I got bogged down in the middle and wasn't happy with the resolution at the end , so it's a mixed bag for me.

I would be interested in another book by the author even though this wasn't my cup of tea.
Thanks for NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Best friends Bertie and Kate are on a last-hurrah trip to Paris before Kate moves away.

When a mysterious stranger offers to take them on a secret tour of the Louvre, they can’t resist. But they get more than they bargained for when they become stuck in a time loop, repeating the same day in the museum over and over.

I was confused with the specifics of the time loop. About halfway through, it felt like a completely new story. I wondered how the two stories would weave back together.

While this isn’t specifically a pandemic story, bombs and strife and climate disasters are the backdrop as much as Paris, because Kate and Bertie are living in a global society on the brink. So if you’re looking for an escape from those topics, this probably isn’t the book for you right now.

Having said that, the writing was lovely and the ending was perfect. I was left with questions about the how the time loop worked, but in the end I really enjoyed this story about holding on, and letting go, of the most important relationships in your life.

Thanks to @netgalley and @simonandschuster for the e-Arc! This book will be published on April 19, 2022.

Check out this book if you want an interesting take on the Groundhog Day theme.

This book had so much potential, but in the end, I just ended up disappointed. What could have been a thrilling tale of two friends making their way back to each other after being trapped in the Louvre and made to live parts of their lives over and over again, wound up being a confusing slog of never-explained time travel and a creepy relationship with a random guy.

There really isn't much that I can say about this book. In the beginning, I was intrigued by the premise even though both of the main characters annoyed me to no end, but as I kept reading I found myself increasing feeling like abandoning it. I never once believed in the friendship between the two main characters, mostly because they were so petty towards one another and never really respected each other enough to express their true feelings. So I never once had an ounce of sympathy for them when they got lost in the Louvre and in the loop. The addition of some borderline obsessive and creepy guy from one of the girl's pasts was the breaking point for me. I never really understood why he was there; the purpose he served wasn't even explained well.

Overall, I just feel like the story really got away from itself and what it could've been.

I really enjoyed reading about how childhood best friends Bertie and Kate reached a strenuous point in their relationship—the world is balancing on an uneven scale that might just lean towards apocalyptic by the next morning, and Kate is moving. In effort to ignore the doom and gloom of the world, and Kate’s soon-to-be distance, the two embark on a Paris vacation, which leads them to the jewel of the city—the Louvre. Their chance visit to the museum seems too good to be true (read: they’re the only visitors that day), but things quickly take a turn, and so does time.
End of the World House is a unique and original story about how we fight for and sometimes have to let go of different relationships in our lives. The bond between Kate and Bertie was beautiful and felt deeply realistic, especially with all the small insecurities, gestures, and inside jokes they shared. Books about dealing with grief over losing a friendship are rare, even though it's such an important part of life, so it was great to see the characters struggle with that. I also felt very connected to the setting; the end of the world that doesn't happen in a single monstrous event but is a sum of smaller ones, ones that we more or less get used to. It was very strange to read about that while basically living during similar circumstances - there's a scene where Bertie uses a handkerchief both as a fashion statement and as a breathing filter.