I really enjoyed the first half of This is the way the world ends. The second part really didn't interest me as much. I enjoyed the characters well enough and Waverly's growth throughout the book is great.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this book in exchange for my honest review!

First, I loved the character building. I could fully understand, and sometimes relate to Waverly. She comes from a low income family and is both autistic and queer.
(The disability rep hits close to home-i so appreciate the author for this!)
The descriptions were also very good, going into beautiful detailing. I could "see" most scenes so clearly.
Secondly, I really liked that this book contains both mystery and sci-fi (my favorite two genres). There is a little romance in it too, but not much! All three fun genres.
Without giving anything away, if you love any of the three genres mentioned, you'll enjoy this book!
It was an awesome adventure packed with excitement. I will watch out for this author in the future!

This is the Way the World Ends

Autistic student, Waverly attends the prestigious Webber Academy on scholarship. She comes upon a murder at the schools masquerade ball and all hell breaks out from there.

I really enjoyed this story but especially the character of Waverly, she’s different and original, all at the same time. She isn’t like the other students who have everything handed to them. I liked the addition of the blackout and this giving Waverly her chance to shine.

Bonus points for the above because its one of my biggest fears after getting locked in a dark elevator with strangers for 45 minutes!

My thanks to St. Martins Press for this gifted DRC.

I enjoyed this book. It took me a bit to get into it but after I did it really took off. There were some twists and turns along the way and I really enjoyed them. Overall this book was a great read.

Unfortunately, I requested this one when my tastes were a bit different and this one just didn't hit with me when I got to it.

I wanted to love this book. I really really REALLY did. The story, the idea was fantastic!!! The execution, that fell flat.
I had expected this book to pull me right in, instead it didn't. Ok, so I figured this was a slow burning candle. The first half was slow, and I spent a lot of time putting it down, forgetting about it and then picking it back up a few days later.
But there as something off.
I loved that the main character is autistic. It really was a huge postive point for me, but the story, it was just a mess and all over the place.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

"Only rich white men would throw a party at the end of the world."

I have mixed feelings about this. As you may know, I have been obsessed with Jen Wilde books since I first read Queens of Geek in 2017. In my review for Going off Script , I even mention that I began anticipating their next release as soon as I finished it. Four years later, I was thrilled to get an ARC of that next book.

I hate to say that it didn't live up to my expectations. Maybe thrillers/end of the world stories just aren't my cup of tea. While this isn't my favorite Jen Wilde book, I still enjoyed it. Once I really got into it earlier this week, I finished it in a few days.

This book will make you anxious. I had to take a few breaks from reading once things started to get intense.

The point of this book was well done, and going back to the epigraph after I finished reading made me tear up. I loved the characters we were supposed to love, and hated the ones we were supposed to hate. There's one death that I know was meant to make us feel something, but I didn't feel close enough to the character to really care.

I enjoyed the mystery aspect of it! There were some things I kind of saw coming, but some I was genuinely surprised by.

Does anybody else feel like they need a map of this place? I was so confused by how rooms and hallways and elevators connected to each other. Also, I need a short story or sequel or something because I have so many unanswered questions!

Overall, while This is the Way the World Ends doesn't live up to the hype I've had for it, it was still a good book and deserves a chance!

Quote is from an early copy and may not reflect the final version.

Huge thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for an ARC of this!

This Is the Way the World Ends by Jen Wilde takes readers into the world of Webber Academy from the perspective of neurodivergent student Waverly. The gilded underbelly of the academy shows when a murder takes place.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

This had a lot of promise. I am not a big YA reader so when I read the premise I became excited. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me as it fell flat - the plot was all over the place and it took me a long time to finish.

This book is strange. It has a lot of different components; queer, autistic, disabled, thriller. That doesn't even get to the plot. Because of this, the book is just ok.

This was requested when I first found out about NetGalley and I had requested so many ARCs that I could not get to all of them before they were archived. I really wanted to get to this one, as it seemed interesting. If I can find this somewhere for a reasonable price, I will try to get it! I am giving this book three stars, as I don't want to give it a good or bad rating, since I did not get to it and we have to leave a star rating.

I was hoping for more from this one. I struggled a bit at the beginning, but really wanted to push through to see if the action would pick up. While it did about halfway through, this book just wasn't for me. I couldn't connect with the characters and felt the rest of the story to feel disjointed.

3 stars, which is being generous. This had the opportunity to be a great story but sadly, the follow-through just wasn't there. The pacing was very slow for the first half and just okay for the 2nd half. I found the story had a few things that were spoken of or shown to us that seemed like they would be of importance later on but they just ended up disappearing into oblivion. I GREATLY appreciated having an autism main character and that is where most of my rating comes from. I knew this was a Dystopian type novel but I feel like it was all just a little too much.

What do you do when the person you admire turns out to be a monster. Waverly is autistic and a scholarship student, which sets her apart from 99% of her classmates at the prestigious private high school, the Webber Academy. Not only has Dean Webber provided her with the scholarship that lets her attend the school, but he provided jobs for her parents and arranged for her mom to get the medical workup she needed to obtain the diagnosis of MS, providing an answer for the years of pain and suffering that so many doctors had ignored or inadequately addressed. Waverly gets the opportunity to attend the school’s annual masquerade ball fundraiser, impersonating fellow student, Caroline, who is wealthy and whose father is part of Dean Webber’s inner circle; Caroline wants a break from the pressure placed on her because of who she and what she represents. Attending the masquerade ball will also give Waverly a chance to see Ashley (Ash) Webber, who was her secret girlfriend for a while before disappearing to London unexpectedly and ghosting Waverly.

However, the masquerade ball will turn out to be a nightmare when a catastrophic worldwide disaster strikes, and it turns out Dean Webber had advance warning and a contingency plan in place — one that is disadvantageous to most of the rest of society. Waverly and her friends Pari and Frank, as well as Caroline’s best friend Max and a mysterious woman in a green mask will have to try to save not only themselves but as many of the other guests as they can and try to stop Dean Webber and his cronies, not knowing who they can trust or what exactly is happening.

Waverly is a great character, but Pari is probably my favorite because of her personality and her determination not to let her handicap (She has Ehler-Danlos syndrome) limit her.

A YA masked-gala, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it, teenagers-band-together-and-sort-of-save-the-day-but-not-really-cause-the-world-is-still-going-to-hell-in-a-hand-basket type of book.
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There were parts to this story I liked, our main character for example, but overall, this wasn’t a home run for me. It was a bit slow and drawn out for me, and so completely far-fetched that it was hard for me to get into. Though I’m all for a doomsday, end of the world book, the “great escape” these teenagers were trying to pull off never got me excited. ⁣
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However, I’ll acknowledge that I haven’t been in love with any book I’ve finished lately so it’s entirely possible I’m just a reading grouch lately. Here’s hoping my current reads will fare better!

I requested this for consideration for Book Riot's All the Books podcast for its release date. After sampling several books out this week, I decided to go with a different book for my review.

This is such a difficult review for me. I was so hooked on this book from the start - Waverly and her friends were such an easy group to root for. I'm a sucker for a high school setup, especially when it involves an exclusive academy and a big event, so the plot was very promising.

However, I found that it very quickly went off the rails. I appreciated the author's attempt to take a very normal setup and turn it into an unexpected dystopian plot line, but each new reveal began to lose me even more. I'm not one to search for believability in everything I read, but it was even too outlandish for me by the end. I wish Wilde had reigned things in a bit to create a sharper, more nuanced sequence of events vs. escalating things non-stop for the sake of excitement and surprise. While the pace was quick and kept me reading to the end, I was ultimately unsatisfied with the storyline and how it built to the end.

Wow! This book was so incredibly captivating. I was sucked in and thoroughly taken aback by the mystery at the center of it. This is a must read!

3 / 5 ⭐️'ˢ

“This is the Way the World Ends” By Jen Wilde

📕 Edition: ebook & Audiobook

While I didn't exactly fall head over heels for it, I didn't despise it either. The story took its sweet time to pick up speed and felt a bit scattered. The action didn't kick in until halfway through, which had me craving a faster pace.

My main gripe was the repetitive emphasis on the protagonist's identity as an "autistic lesbian." It was repeated many many times, like, I get it already.

Overall, this one was just a “meh” for me.

Thank you @NetGalley, Jen Wilde and Wednesday Books for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have to give major props to the author writing a queer autistic teenager as her protagonist. It is amazing how real and flawed this character is and I loved that she's giving rep this way. I cannot speak for how well it is done - while I am bi, I am not autistic - but I thought it was one of the well done parts of the book. Great friendships throughout as well as the setting. I think this is where her background as a YA contemporary author really shines in working in this new genre. Sometimes you want a mystery where you're going to care about the cast and this is it. I'm not sold on the romance or the ending, but I'm willing to keep an open mind to try more of this author's works.