Bertie and Kate are best friends - or are they? Throughout much of this book, Bertie questions her friendship with Kate, a woman she met when they were in high school and who was "out of her league" as a friend. They reconnected after college and eventually moved in together. But now Kate is moving on to Los Angeles leaving Bertie in the South Bay - and devastated by her absence.

In a not-too-distant future, with bombs going off in cities around the world and multiple international climate crises, the two women plan to buy an "end of the world" house where they can live out whatever happens together. But Kate crushes that dream when she announces she is moving to LA. The two travel to Paris to see the Louvre and eat pastries before Kate moves and the world ends but when they get stuck in the museum, suddenly, they can't leave. Separated, Bertie finds herself reliving the visit to the Louvre again - and again. But each time something different changes.

Eventually Bertie is reunited with a young man she had been seeing - or not? - in the museum and with a snap of his fingers they are back in northern California, seriously dating, and Kate is nowhere in sight.

To continue describing the plot of this story would be giving away many of the twists and turns. This book is designed to be felt rather than read - it's not until I finished the entire story and had some time to reflect did I understand how it was structured and what it all meant. It is sad and sweet and for so long I hated Kate but then I understood her and felt far more empathy.

I don't know anything about this book, its provenance, so to speak, so I'm not certain if this was written prior to or during the start of the pandemic. If before, the author was prescient in anticipating the dichotomy of reactions to massive crises: Bertie wants to ignore the world by continuing doing the same things with her life - go to work, see her friends, make her art, while Kate wants to stop time and close the world around her- keep out everyone and everything that remind her of the crumbling world. We don't realize this until the book's conclusion.

How many of us have discovered that the people we love and trust are vastly different from us when confronted by a crisis? People don't always expect the way you think they will - and you don't necessarily expect the way you think you will!

I loved this book. Haunting, thought-provoking, melancholy - and Paris! Oh my goodness, I want to travel to Europe.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc to review.

The premise of multiple timelines all connected was interesting for sure. It really broke down for me, though when both Dylan and Kate were such horrible people and so terrible to Bertie. Even her coworker Danzy couldn’t stand her. I wanted Bertie to find a companion to make the best of the end of the world, but not any of the characters in this book. I truly hoped at the end that the man she met at the airport was someone other than Dylan.

3.5 stars

This was a weird one, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Reading things on planes tends to make me feel a particular disassociation, but I think I would've felt that regardless of my setting. Should've known better given the premise, but though the magical realism/sci-fi elements were intriguing and disorienting, they were also annoying because of the way the characters used them. In a story like this, you need characters to ground you and to root for, and while I sympathized with Bertie and was desperately waiting for her reunion with Kate, I wasn't the greatest fan of her, Kate, or their relationship. I was even less of a fan of Dylan—an anti-fan, one might say—and while the manner in which the Kate plotline was resolved made sense in a not completely satisfactory way, I was left feeling adrift, and maybe that was the point.

This book is so unique! I think it will find an audience with millennials who also like the book Severance.

End of the World House
By Adrienne Celt

This is a very strange, but rather interesting, book. Two best friends, Kate and Bertie, are in Paris for a last vacation together prior to Kate's moving away from Bertie to start a new life in Los Angeles. One night, while in a bar, they meet Javier, who tells them they must visit the Louvre. Although the next day is their last day in Paris and the Louvre will be closed, Javier insists he has connections and can get them in for a private tour.

The women go to the Louvre and are admitted, just as Javier had promised. But then things start to go sideways. They become separated for a brief moment, only for Bertie to discover that she cannot find Kate again. The story now becomes a literary "Groundhog Day".

The day repeats for Bertie, with minor changes, but also the entrance of Dylan, who becomes her love interest. Together they search for both Javier and Kate with no success. From this point the story just gets weirder. Ultimately Bertie realizes that she is living in some kind of time loop which keeps her from aging but doesn't allow her to get back to her normal life. Dylan, of course, wants her to remain in the loop with him because he is in love with her. What decision will Bertie make? Is it better to live like this – forever young, never moving forward – or does she want her old life back? And what exactly has happened to Kate?

I cannot say that I loved this book, but it is certainly a good choice for a reader interested in the unusual.

I received a free e-ARC of this book through Netgalley.
The premise was interesting about two friends who are going to share a house at the end of the world plus a groundhog day like phenonmenon happening. Unfortunately it was just a very confusing (probably for me and them) story that wasn't very satisfying. Maybe the author wanted the reader to feel the same unnverving feelings as the world shifts beneath their feet and memories start to layer.

This dystopian novel is part Groundhog Day mixed in with the multiverse and post-climate disaster movie all thrown together. It chronicles the lives of three 30-somethings who live in Silicon Valley and take a trip to Paris. All of the different time tracks converge on the Louvre where artwork comes and goes, and where each of the trio spends a lot of time trying to navigate the changing corridors of the museum while waking up each day in a new but slightly different world. My description seems like this could be a sci-fi novel, but it is a novel about relationships among the friends, how couples can have varying degrees of attachment over time and circumstances, and how we can take someone's love for granted when it is gone. It is about how our memories aren't always accurate, and how they can accumulate and transform into something completely different from reality. "No one would live their life over again if they have a chance," says one of the characters. And yet, you see how that could be possible, with just a small change you could be tracking down another path. I highly recommend this book.

Weird! Not to my liking. I don’t usually like books in this genre but I gave it a good try anyway. I got about half way through and had to give up. This is probably a great read for some folks but not my cup of tea. Sorry!

I’m truly not sure what to make of this book. I want to feel positively toward the premise, at the very least—it’s curious, unique and anchored me into a surreal Groundhogs Day environment at the Louvre. The characters were somehow the weakest point of this novel; for a book about loyalty, friendship and relentless codependency, we learn a startling little about the main characters’ inner life and workings. When the plot wasn’t playing with multiple realities, it was actually super dull. The mechanics of the time bending and the purpose the boyfriend character plays is speculative… The last page turns the entire book into a romance meet cute, why?

I enjoyed this book but I was turned off by the toxic masculinity and gaslighting. I liked the female friendship at the center of the story, but that gets pushed aside for a dark relationship which feels overwhelming for me. I know too many men like that.

This was a slow start for me. I got about 12% in when I went “wait a minute, what?” And really thought I was going to have to start the book over. Turns out- it was just beginning! Great book!

What an interesting concept and read to end my reading year for 2021.
We've got a slow burning apocalypse in the background keeping things going throughout.
Throw in a Groundhog Day situation in Paris at the Louvre, and the ongoing saga of two best friends and you've got a very solid read.
I enjoyed this twisty book, although it did take me a minute to understand what was happening when the groundhog day time warp stuff started, once it clicked it became more enjoyable.

Thankful for this ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for early access in exchange for an honest review. When I come across a book marketed as Groundhog Day meets Severance, I’m really not left with much of a choice. I appreciate a nice brain-bending read from time and time, being forced to relinquish control in anticipation that the end will provide at least some answers. It reminded me of Peaces, which I read earlier this year, in the way I had a difficult time determining what was real and what was imaged, but this book came across as a little more accessible and while I wasn’t completely satisfied with the way this wrapped up, I definitely felt like I understood the majority of what happened.

Here’s what I did like. Celt portrays the varying ways long term friendships can morph (and sadly grow apart) over time. I’ve felt these growing pains first hand and think the author did a good job of highlighting a lot of the emotions present in such a situation. I also resonated with Bertie’s inner conflict of being content with they way her life is while at the same time feeling too stationery while watching others change.

What I didn’t like so much. There was so much going on that I think some of the plot devices only scratched the surface of what they were meant to bring to the table. What was the importance of the Louvre as a setting vs any other location? The apocalypse and subsequent limited resources are brought up often but don’t majorly impact the main characters as they are both at cushy enough jobs allowing them to afford most of what they enjoyed before there ever was an apocalypse. Lastly, Dylan and Javier were, in my opinion, the worst part of this book and I wish the author would have found more creative obstacles for Kate and Bertie’s friendship.

While not a 5 star read, this book offers a definite change of pace if you’re looking for something just a little different.

End of the World House is unlike anything I’ve ever read. It’s the end of a friendship, during the end of the world, in the Louvre, and also it’s like Groundhog’s Day. It is both incredibly easy to read and incredibly thought provoking. I’m still trying to unpack my thoughts on it.

Bertie and Kate have been friends since highschool and they finally make it to Paris. They’re invited to visit the Louvre privately, and on their trip somehow they’re looped into the same day. It’s a soliloquy to friendship. It’s about growing up and growing apart. It’s about the choices we make in our lives and questions what choices we would make if given different opportunities. It’s beautiful, it’s peculiar, and quotable. Enjoy.

The story was so great in unexpected ways. The story plays on tropes and cliches but it is told in such a new way that it feels refreshing.

If you've ever been stuck in a rut, you'll appreciate this book. But if you know a mansplaining control freak, you won't.

I really was jazzed about the construct of friends caught in a multiverse in the Louvre, but having Bertie be controlled by her boyfriend ruined it for me.

I'll read more of Celt's work as she really nailed the ideas of art and women's friendship

3.4/5

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.

I initially enjoyed the thrill of being trapped alongside Bertie and Kate in the Louvre and experiencing (what I imagine is) the magic of Paris on repeat. I especially loved the dynamic between the two women; Celt absolutely nailed the growing pains that accompany maintaining a childhood friendship as both parties mature into adulthood. Her description of Kate is so realistic and relatable, I felt she was describing my own high school relationships.

Though the redundancy is integral to the plot, the repetitiveness ultimately made me incredibly anxious. How many times can we watch Bertie make the same, stubborn mistakes and deal with the rejection of her closest friends? Not a single sympathetic character remained by the second half of the novel, and I was eager to see Bertie commit to a decision, and found myself hoping it would be that she would re-enter her apocalyptic world, if only to put an end to the madness.

End of the World House begins with a familiar dynamic: two female friends, one a little more confident and outgoing, the other a little more needy and insecure; the former starts moving on from the friendship, “growing up,” and the latter feels sad and resentful. In this novel, these two women are Kate, who is about to move to Los Angeles from Silicon Valley, and Bertie, the sympathetic protagonist. Bertie and Kate are on a trip to Paris and, when the novel begins, about to enter the Louvre even though it’s not open—a favor from a guy that Kate met at a bar the previous night (classic!). There’s also sort of a slow-motion apocalypse that’s been unfurling around them—bombings, floods, etc.—but it’s not yet dire enough to not fly to Paris. In multiple ways, then, this is Bertie and Kate’s last hurrah—before the end of their friendship, and before the end of the world.

The plot quickly turns sci-fi-adjacent: the Louvre is eerie and empty, and Kate and Bertie get into a fight, and Bertie loses Kate in the halls… and then the day starts over again, although neither of them realize it. It’s creepy and mysterious and genuinely exhilarating. Other reviewers have said that the first half is better than the second half, and I will admit that this first half—when Bertie is stuck in the same day, and then starts to kind of realize what’s happening, and it’s all very hazy and disorienting and threatening—is really exciting. The second half of the novel shifts gears a bit, and while the “time loop” still exists, it fades into the background, and instead we follow Bertie through an ordinary year in Silicon Valley—working at a tech company, struggling to make friends, meeting and falling in love with a guy. (Celt is as good at writing young love and the beginning stages of a relationship as she is at capturing the insecurities and asymmetries of friendship.) And yet of course this isn’t actually an “ordinary year,” and this second section is permeated, again, with a haze of confusion and danger. I can understand a reader being like “How does this all fit into one book? What’s this book even about?” We’ve got a time loop, romance, friends drifting apart, apocalypse, tech billionaires. But I liked that Celt didn’t let the book just fall into one story structure or genre. I think the book has a really attractive ambiguity that is partly a function of the unclear sci-fi mechanics at work (it seems like most reviewers didn’t understand how the time loop worked; I didn’t either) and partly because the book raises questions like “What does it mean to really live your life?” and “What makes a life worth living, what makes the world worth saving?” which don’t exactly have clear cut answers.

I obviously don’t think this book is perfect. It seemed a little juvenile to me. I love stories about female friendship, especially the dynamic depicted here. But there are so many flashbacks to literal high school! Like this is supposed to be a novel for and about adults, how many times can you be like “I remember Kate’s shock of blue hair in sophomore math class”? I’m a pretty nostalgic and sentimental person, but I’m years away from thirty (Bertie’s age) and I barely think about high school at all. It just seems a little unambitious and juvenile to me on the part of the author, like this is a debut novel written by a woman in her mid-twenties—who doesn’t have much else to write about yet—instead of someone’s third novel.

That said, I thought the book was well-written, exciting, engrossing, and surprising—on a formal, structural level, not just in terms of plot. Maybe it’s not the best literary achievement I’ve ever read, but it’s thinky, and I don’t think other reviews are giving it enough credit! I was between 4 and 5 stars and for that reason—and because I couldn’t put it down—I’m giving it five.

Bertie and Kate are best of friends, but Kate has decided move away. As a sort of good-bye trip, they vacation in Paris. This is likely not just their last trip together, but the last trip either will be making in a world that has momentarily paused a slow-rolling apocalypse of limited nuclear war and increasingly harmful climate change.

While in Paris, they are invited to visit the Louvre on a day that it is closed, for a private visit. During this visit, they confront one another about the flaws in their friendship. Bertie leaves her friend alone, but then cannot find her.

If you have seen "Groundhog Day", you are familiar with the Many-Worlds Interpretation that holds there are many worlds which exist in parallel at the same space and time as our own. This is where these two young women find themselves.

This book has a creative and interesting plot, and it is definitely a must-read for fans of "Groundhog Day", although I don’t know if I ever really figured out Dylan’s (Bertie’s love interest) role.

"Who knows who you’ll meet, in Paris. Anything was possible there, in a city so old, so full of ghosts, that the ground could shift beneath your feet without appearing to change at all…"

Science fiction is my sweet spot, especially books that deal with time warps, time travel, or other similar paradoxes. So when I read the synopsis for End of the World House, with its seemingly infinite, Groundhog Day-esque time loop, I was sure it would be a hit.

"Is it easier on you if I pretend you’ve never been here before? Never lived through this day?"

I was expecting something similar to In a Holidaze , or in the same vein as some of Rebecca Serle’s writing - something light, romantic, and fun, with the added sci-fi twist to make it feel innovative and unexpected. I usually really enjoy books like that, and was so excited to read this one!

"It became hard, in waking life, to know which things were too strange to be real, and which were just strange enough."

Unfortunately, End of the World House didn’t live up to those expectations, and ended up being sort of a miss for me. With its unusual, not-fully-explained apocalyptic backdrop, a la Leave the World Behind , and its hallucinogenic descriptions of the repeating day in the museum, it almost reminded me of All's Well - kind of cringey, a little uncomfortable, and super confusing.

"We’re all trapped here…. There’s no way out. Even when I manage to leave, they bring me back again."

When the characters started to recall (false?) memories from their previous lived experiences through the day, I thought the story might redeem itself and become something like Recursion , but it never really got there. And then in the second half, it almost becomes a… different book altogether, about corporate ethics? Honestly I was left with more questions than answers. (view spoiler)

"This place draws us in, from all the different lives we’ve lived. All the different versions of us who found a reason to be in this museum."

And ultimately, I don’t think I understand the larger point the author was trying to make here, and that’s probably what bothered me the most. Most time-travel / repeating-day stories tend to say something about missed opportunities, do-overs, or second chances; I didn’t pick up on any deeper message here. So basically I’m just very confused, and my head hurts.

——

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!