I loved the idea of this one but the pacing felt very off to me. There wasn't enough character building for my liking. Also, Sunnyside is a middle class neighborhood so the way Waverly talked about coming up from poverty didn't ring true to me as a New Yorker.

I was so excited going into this book, but the ending is lacking so much. The author had this big build up and then it all came crashing down at the end. Very disappointing.

This is the Way the World Ends has an auspicious plot but the ending leaves you wanting more.
Waverly is used to not fitting in at the prestigious Webber Academy in New York City. Not only is she on scholarship but she is also gay and autistic. Waverly is getting by on tutoring gigs and the charity of the school’s kind dean. Thus, she never expects to go to The Masquerade—the school’s biggest and most prestigious fundraiser. But when one of her tutoring clients offers to let Waverly go in her place, Waverly agrees as her ex will be there.
At first, The Masquerade is the opulent party Waverly dreamed of. But there is something sinister in the air. She sees whispered arguments with a girl no one knows, the adults are all called away and the building is shut down. What was once a fantasy has become an apocalyptic event. And the people inside the building are in more danger than they know.
I enjoyed the setup of this story. Jen Wilde twists the stereotypical uppity high school ball giving readers more to care about than just the brats who live out our fantasy lives. I just wish that the characters had more depth. Several side characters grow but the main characters are only shown as their tropes: the queer autistic, the disabled girl of color. They never move past these descriptors. Waverly uses her neurodivergent talents to figure things out, but this is not the first (nor second time) I have read this plot creating an autistic cliché. As a reader with a disability, I wanted more from the characters than the stereotypes put on them by the writer.
I’m going to be honest; I knew reading this there was no way to have a conclusive and hearty ending. The setup is too huge. Even when the story just handles the problem at hand, there are so many loose ends. This wasn’t satisfactory as a stand-alone novel. But this needed to be a new series.
Wilde creates a mystery that leaves teens fighting for their lives. Though well-thought-out, the plot is much bigger than the book can be.

Pub date: 5/9/23
Genre: YA thriller
Quick summary: Autistic scholarship student Waverly is just trying to fit in at prestigious Webber Academy - but when she attends a doomed masquerade ball disguised as the school it girl, she'll uncover a huge conspiracy.

This book description sounded so good - I love a YA thriller. Unfortunately, this one wasn't quite what I expected. It took a while for the story to get going, and once it did, things got kind of confusing and over the top. The ending didn't really make sense to me. I do appreciate that the author had good queer, disability, class, and BIPOC representation in the characters.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm honestly sad that I didn't like this book. Gossip girl? Good. Apocalyptic thriller? Good. LGBTQIA+ and autism rep? Great! But somehow when it was all mixed together, things fell apart. I think part of it was that we spend the entire time trapped in a sewing factory, when all of the really interesting things are happening outside of it. It's possible that this was trying to set up a sequel in some form, but I can't be sure. I did like the female friendships throughout, though we maybe could've done with 1 less. The plot itself felt too fantastical for me to get really invested in it though.

*Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

"Fans of One of Us Is Lying and The Hazel Wood are cordially invited to spend one fateful night surviving an elite private school's epic masquerade ball in Jen Wilde's debut thriller, This Is the Way the World Ends.

As an autistic scholarship student at the prestigious Webber Academy in New York City, Waverly is used to masking to fit in - in more ways than one. While her classmates are the children of the one percent, Waverly is getting by on tutoring gigs and the generosity of the school's charming and enigmatic dean. So when her tutoring student and resident "it girl" asks Waverly to attend the school's annual fundraising Masquerade disguised as her, Waverly jumps at the chance - especially once she finds out that Ash, the dean's daughter and her secret ex-girlfriend, will be there.

The Masquerade is everything Waverly dreamed of, complete with extravagant gowns, wealthy parents writing checks, and flowing champagne. Most importantly, there's Ash. All Waverly wants to do is shed her mask and be with her, but the evening takes a sinister turn when Waverly stumbles into a secret meeting between the dean and the school's top donors - and witnesses a brutal murder. This gala is harboring far more malevolent plots than just opening parents' pocketbooks. Before she can escape or contact the authorities, a mysterious global blackout puts the entire party on lockdown. Waverly's fairy tale has turned into a nightmare, and she, Ash, and her friends must navigate through a dizzying maze of freight elevators, secret passageways, and back rooms if they're going to survive the night.

And even if they manage to escape the Masquerade, with technology wiped out all over the planet, what kind of world will they find waiting for them beyond the doors?"

Gossip Girl goes Escape from L.A.!

Thank you so much Netgalley for the chance to read this advanced copy in exchange for a review!
I was very excited when I was approved for this read! Could not put it down!

I love the representation in this book! The Character development was done so well.
The book did lose me a bit at times, but over all I did enjoy the read.

I love a good LGBTQ+ love story but this isn’t just that. It’s more end of the world survival while also trying not be a part of a cult. I was surprised how fast I got into this book it was funny, lots of woah moments, and even OMG moments throughout. However with all that I still kept thinking couldn’t Ash and Waverly make it and be together? I rooted for them the whole time. This was a really good I am fierce female hero. Also love that the main character is Autistic and that you see a much different side of Autism and how strong Autistic people are through all the things they deal with on a daily basis even just walking into a store.

This book has good autistic rep, along with the lgbtq+ rep. I enjoyed the characters in this book, lots of people to know and like.

Where this book went wrong for me was how outlandish the premise was for me. I don’t know if it’s my age maybe, but I had such a hard time believing the plot of this book. So much going on in one evening.

I would put this novel in my classroom as I feel my students would love it.

I wanted to like this book, but I felt like it started very slowly and didn't pick up at all until almost halfway through. I would have been okay with that if I felt like the action and ending was worth the build up, but I didn't. This book has a lot of diversity, which I appreciated, but the plot just wasn't strong enough for me.

DNF. Very Messy. I'm disappointed—This author cares more about being "woke" and catering to every person on the planet than writing an authentic story from her heart. I probably won't read another book by this author.

This Is the Way the World Ends by Jen Wilde had me drawn in from the very beginning. I finished the book quickly because I wanted to find out what happened. I appreciated how layered and complex the characters were for a YA novel and it grapples with some pretty heavy themes beyond the end of the world. Waverley especially felt vey real and like a girl you would find in any school and I was immediately hooked on her adventure at the ball.

Thank you NetGalley for the free book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I am going to try and write this review as well as I can without any spoilers because I had no idea the book would turn out the way that it did when I first picked it up.

Three sentence summary:
Prestigious Webber Academy in New York City where Waverly, a scholarship, kid gets to attend. She tutors Webber's "It" girl, Caroline, and Caroline wants a day off from her life so she allows Waverly to use her ticket to attend the annual Masquerade Ball. The Masquerade is everything Waverly dreamed of until it quickly becomes a nightmare filled with murder, secret passage ways, mazes and scary elevators - all while they are just trying to survive the night.

The first half of this book reminded me of Gossip Girl and I am a suuucker for Gossip Girl. Add in murder? And I am full on ready to read a YA book. I thought the character development progressed nicely. Waverly is a queer, autistic, scholarship kid, coming from a low income family and attending a school full of wealthy rich kids. Her best friend is Pari who is South Asian, bi-sexual, disabled, badass, outspoken and smart. Frank is their genius friend, who was sought out by Mr. Webber (the Dean) and was given a scholarship to attend the school. The characters that we meet along the way are developed really well, too. (IE Max!! & Caroline grew on me.)

The second half of the book took a turn that I was not expecting...I really don't want to say more as I don't want to give anything away. But, I also feel like the ending didn't provide closure for everything so I feel like there may be a second book eventually?

Overall, I thought the author took a common story and made it incredibly unique. I think that most of this story worked and definitely had me hooked but some of it was incredibly far fetched and hard for me to believe. I think that this was a good read and if there's a second one, I will read it, just to see wtf happens next.

This book is full of surprises and really packed a punch at the end (literally). Wilde has turned out a thrilling and entertaining story that is hard to put down. The diversity of the characters brought a new dimension to the plot that many teens will identify with. You can't help but to fall in love with Waverly! I'm hoping that this quirky and loyal cast of characters turn up again in a continuation of the story. Thanks to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. It was a great read.

A young adult catastrophic dooms day set during a high school formal?

Just writing that sentence makes me think of the prom scene in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie!

(Even though I just referenced Buffy, this has nothing to do with the paranormal or supernatural.)

The cast of characters is so diverse, and the representation of those with visible and invisible disabilities truly adds to the complexity and layers of the overall plot.

Perfectionism and social class will ultimately divide the characters in their own visions of right and wrong. To say the plot is complicated is an understatement, but I won't go into that as I don't want to spoil the plot twists!

What I will say is I'm left wondering if this is the end or if there will be more?

I thought I would be into This Is the Way the World Ends because I love reading about neurodiverse queer characters, but this was not at all what I expected...

The cover was VERY misleading. I’m not sure what I was expecting from the book, but it was 100% not what it actually was. It honestly felt like a Riverdale storyline. I hate to say this, but after reading a few other reviews, I know I’m not alone in this: the diversity in this book felt like ticking boxes. It felt very awkward and disingenuous to me. I never got to a point where I felt truly invested in any of the characters or what was happening to them. The villains were super cartoony. The pacing was all over the place honestly. And then the plot just got more and more far fetched and not in a fun, “let’s suspend a bit of reality” sort of way. The ending was super abrupt and left me with a ton of questions. I’m sorry, but this one was not for me. It was a really interesting idea, once I figured out where it was going, but the execution didn’t work for me.

Thank you to NetGalley Wednesday Books and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was.... weird. I did enjoy the MC being queer &autistic, giving us an excellent view of her life being both. However, after about the third character it seems like the author was just grabbing every mental health/disability/quirk/race/sexuality out of a hat and giving everyone something to hit all the marks. It got real weird.

And the second half.... the second half of the book was like a weird cartoon apocalypse and nothing was even a little bit realistic or made any sense.

I'm widely thankful for the arc copy, but my goodness this was... something.

What a wild ride!

Waverly is an autistic scholarship student at a prestigious NYC school. There's a ball happening, and the girl she tutors suggests Waverly go in her stead. As the ball progresses, Waverly uncovers a wild plot with the help of friends new and old and her ex-girlfriend.

I was not expecting an urban sci fi thriller, but I'm not unhappy about it. Waverly goes through A LOT in a short amount of time. I still have questions about what happened next.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review!