***Thank to you Netgalley and Wednesday Books for sending me an unsolicited advanced copy of This Is the Way the World Ends by Jen Wilde! All thoughts are my own!***

Waverly is an autistic scholarship student of a prestigious private school called Webber Academy in New York, who is used to masking herself to try to fit in. Most of her classmates are children of the one percent, but Waverly gets by as a tutor for her classmates and the generosity of the school's dean. The "it girl" of the school who she tutors offers her the chance to go to the annual fundraising Masquerade in her place disguised as her. Waverly jumps at the opportunity, knowing her secret ex-girlfriend and daughter of the dean will be in attendance.

The extravagant evening takes a turn for the worst when she discovers a secret meeting of the dean's most trusted donors and a brutal murder. Before she can notify authorities, a mysterious global blackout places the party on lockdown and Waverly has to try to find a way out after technology is wiped out across the planet. She has to determine what awaits them if they get to the other side.

The main thing I love about this book is the diversity of the characters. Between our main character Waverly being autistic, neurodivergent, and lesbian, her best friend Pari having a disability, this book is nothing short of LGBTQIA+ and disability friendly. Waverly's mother is also diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, so there is also representation for that as well. The characters have a great dynamic in the book, considering they are enduring a world altering event that they have to handle head on.

The concept of this book is definitely unique. Although I've seen a couple Doomsday books, this has been the most thought out. The only thing that I didn't like about the book was the ending. I think it was very quick for how long it took to get there, through all the challenges and obstacles to get there. I wish we could have found out what happened after they left the building and if she was able to get back to her parents or not.

If you are interested in world altering thrillers, you should definitely check out This Is the Way the World Ends when it releases on May 9th!

4 Stars.

Once I hit 30%, I did not want to put it down. This book is outside my normal reads, but it sounded interesting and honestly, I was intrigued from the start. This book takes place within 48 hours (besides a couple chapters that are flashbacks to give context), but most of it takes place within the span of just a few hours at a charity masquerade event.

Waverly makes a plan with Caroline, the "it" girl who she tutors, to take her place at the charity event. Caroline is sick of these events, and Waverly, the autistic, lesbian, scholarship student at their private school, has always wanted to go to, but would never have a chance with the $10k fee. Plus her ex-girlfriend, the daughter of the Dean, would be there, and she wants answers after being ghosted.

In a night that no one can expect, everything changes. Their phones are locked away, they're locked into this old factory with secret stairwells, rooms, and well, secrets. Waverly works to get to the bottom of everything and make it out alive, if there even is a world to make it out to.

This book really had a hold of me and I never wanted to put it down. I do wish there were more to it, I wanted to see further, but also understand where it left off. Some of it was predictable, but enough took me by at least a little surprise that it kept me interested.

This book was entertaining and funny and I read it in one sitting. I do recommend it. But I also have some hot takes on it.

Firstly, I was hooked on this story. I could not put the book down. Until the very end. There is THE SMALLEST DETAIL that had me wanting to throw the book across the room in frustration hahaha. In an early chapter, Waverly is lost in the basement and TAKES HER SHOES OFF and then in one of the final scenes on the roof, she LOSES HER SHOES. Shoes that she never out back on!! I don't know why that smallest detail bothered me so much but it pulled me right out of the vision of the story and I couldn't get back into it. It also was a little too far into the unbelievable territory that the entire second half of the book happened.

And don't get me started on Ash and how frustrating it was to watch that relationship unfold. Why can there never be a HAPPY queer romance? Why does one girl always have to be the villain (if even for a short time)? Why was this even a necessary plot point in the story?

It's a fun book, but is it on its way to being a cult classic? Definitely not.

Thank you to NetGalley for gifting me an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

This is the Way the World Ends is an action-packed and unputdownable thriller. Against all odds, autistic scholarship student Waverly is offered a Cinderella moment- switch with a classmate to attend an elite school masquerade. Waverly and her best friends Pari and Frank have never been widely accepted at their school. But tonight, they will need to use all of their skills to survive a cutthroat masquerade ball. Waverly must also decide how to deal with her ex-girlfriend who has reappeared. As the night goes on, deadly secrets are revealed and Waverly and her friends must fight to escape the school.

I really enjoyed This is the Way the World Ends. While the plot and villains were a little extreme at times, my favorite part was the fantastic characters. Waverly, Max, and Pari were my three favorite characters! I loved how Waverly’s autism was depicted including: masking, tools she uses, and what her experience throughout school has been. There is lots of LGBTQ+ rep (bisexual, lesbian) and disability rep (Pari uses a cane/chronic pain, Waverly’s mom has MS). The pacing was fast, but it makes you feel like you’re frantically running around the school with the characters. There are plenty of tense and scary moments, along with flashbacks to a calmer past. This book was a very fun, queer, autistic, and fast-paced read! If you love books that make you feel like you're in an escape room with a ticking clock, check this out!

Readers who enjoy Wendy Heard (She’s Too Pretty To Burn), Diana Urban (These Deadly Games), and Karen M. McManus (Nothing More to Tell) should definitely read this book.

This is the Way the World Ends releases on May 9, 2023. Thank you so much to Jen Wilde, Wednesday Books, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Instagram, Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, and Barnes & Noble etc

Waverly is a scholarship kid at a fancy school in New York City. When one of her friends asked her to go to the school masquerade disguised as her, Waverly jumps at the chance. When Waverley accidentally enters a room where a private meeting is going on it seems the dean as well as some parents of the school are hiding something,  

Not sure how I feel about this one.  I didn't love it but I didn't hate it either. It was slow to get going and the plot wasn't very exciting.  I did enjoy the characters and inclusive representation though. The story took a weird turn that I didn't expect or like that much.  I think lovers of Karen McManus or ya thriller lovers will like this one a lot.

When I heard about the premise of This is the End of the World as well as Waverly being the autistic protagonist, I wanted to check it out. While I did want to like this book more than I did, I did appreciate the payoff in the second half of the book and the character growth for Waverly and her friends, as well as the spectacle of the whole situation.

Based on early reviews, most people like either the cozy first half or the survival second half of the book better because there's a huge contrast between the two. I'm in the latter camp. The first half of this book was mostly setting up the relationships and the party itself, and while having some insight and backstory to Waverly and her friends, was sluggish, with the feel of a story like Gossip Girl or The Thousandth Floor (rich NYC kids making trouble). After it got to the halfway point and things REALLY start getting bad (the world ending), I got invested in the apocalypse plot with a very escape room type vibe like All Your Twisted Secrets, but the world ended. The last few chapters were my favorite, with tons of payoff built in, and I'm so glad I stuck around for the whole thing when I was debating stopping early on.

The biggest reason I kept on reading was the clean prose, which was great for quick reading (I finished this book in 24 hours, which rarely happens), and made the first half didn't feel as bogged down as it could have been. Plus, the book is on the shorter side, so it didn't take too long to get to the more interesting second half.

While I did appreciate the varied backgrounds of the characters and how they were represented well with some personality, it felt like their personalities were told instead of shown more often than not. Many of the characters that weren't in Waverley's group felt one dimensional (especially the bad guys), and even the characters around her I wished had more character depth, which was disappointing for me. Waverly herself was interesting to an extent, and I loved how her autistic traits were on center stage and explained as we went through the plot line, and yes, they do affect her choices, which is another plus. I do like how she learns and grows throughout the book, and she does do a lot of social justice explaining as it's her special interest. Her relationship with her girlfriend Ash was rather interesting and was fleshed out the most in this book, and was enjoyable.

The world building, I admit, probably isn't hyper realistic, but as someone that has a fringe interest in end of the world type scenarios, I had a fascination of the setup and how it was all going to work. To be honest, I don't mind that there's a couple of holes, and actually liked that it was over the top and almost ridiculous, in a way, it makes the shift that much more dramatics. In the end, it's not about the technicalities of the plan, but more about the personality masks we wear and what happens when we are forced to take them off. Which makes sense as many autistics are masking and Waverly has to discover hers and how to unmask in order to grow.

The ending is sorta bittersweet, but in a strange way, I would like to see a follow up in this world to see what happens after this book, but more distant. If you're looking for something short and unique in YA, this might be for you.

Wow, this book was a ride! I didn't realize it was a thriller/science fiction-y until I started reading it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free e-ARC.

Set mostly at an elite private school's fundraiser and private gala, Waverly and her friends stumble upon murder and a high-level power scheme after a dystopian event.

In this short and fast-paced novel, you'll find an amazing cast of characters and tropes:
- Waverly- our MC - a lesbian scholarship student with Autism
- MS & chronic pain rep in Waverly's mom & how disability impacts their family and income earning abilities
- Pari- Waverly's bad ass mized South Asian best friend who is bisexual and has EDS & chronic; she also often uses a cane & has quite the collection
- sapphic longing
- dark academia meets tech dystopian science fiction
- found family
- lots of death and murder
- mannequins
- a horror maze

My favorite thing about this book was the disability and queer rep. At its core is a queer and disabled centric core friend group/found family & love for blood family. Though the characters did face some discrimination and comments from the able bodied and minded and cisheternormative side characters. So CW for that.

I found the story to be a bit unbelievable at times and a bit uneven in plotting. But I think it's aimed for a relatively young YA age, and overall, I thought some of the twists on dark academia were quite fun.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC of this title ahead of publication.

I enjoyed the variety characters. The autism, disability, and lqbtqia+ rep were all really great. I wasn't really into the romance but the friendships were excellent. The critiques of white cis-hetero patriarchy and capitalism were right on the nose. Maybe too on-the-nose but who can say?

An enjoyable story overall!

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
This is the Way the World Ends is kind of an odd book, because I feel like the blurb doesn’t give the right expectations. On the one hand, it is a claustrophobic “survive the night” book. But the twist being of the apocalyptic nature is only vaguely hinted at in the blurb, and while it worked for me, I know it won’t work for everyone. As for me, I liked how it had a sort of dark-academia-secret-society vibe to it, while also having deeper connotations with the big twist, feeling very relevant to the present-day political landscape.
Waverly is a great protagonist to follow for the story, as she’s a scholarship student whose only hope for Ivy League admittance is a school like this. She and her parents have been recipients of the dean’s kindness, but that makes her an outsider unprepared for what is to come. Her growth of figuring out which of her fellow students she could trust was great, especially when so many, including her ex-girlfriend and the dean’s daughter, seem to have secrets of their own.
Ash was a great love interest, and I truly felt for her being a pawn in all of this. The way it impacted her relationship with Waverly hurt in particular, especially as Waverly began to understand what was truly going on with her. The rest of the ragtag group was interesting, but I have a soft spot for Caroline, who was a really nice surprise compared to what I initially thought she was going to be at the start of the book.
Despite its relatively short page count (under 300 pages), it does take a bit for the story to set up. But once it does, it’s definitely one that you won’t be able to put down. I was in constant awe with each new development.
This is one of those books where it really depends what you’re looking for. If you’re in the mood for a typical, run-of-the-mill YA thriller, you may be disappointed. But if you are interested in one that incorporates elements of the apocalyptic and dystopian subgenres, I’d recommend checking this out!

It wasn't for me... I didn't like the gossip girl vibe to it. It's for the younger crowed for sure. I got through 10 chapters and I was bored and couldn't finish it. I'm sorry...

I really enjoyed the setup of this story. I related to Waverly as an autistic girl from a poor family trying to find the best way to secure her future. I liked the forbidden love story and how tight her friend group was.

I also really liked the idea of a bunch of crazy millionaires trying to avoid the fate of the rest of the world when something catastrophic happens. It seemed entirely plausible and sadly likely if/when something like this occurs.

I did feel like the ending felt rushed and ended on an abrupt note, leaving me curious if this is the first book of a series.

Overall, this was a quick and enjoyable read and a unique approach to the dystopian genre. Thank you so much to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

Eh...I had high hopes for this one as the premise sounded pretty interesting. Overall though, this was just okay.

It's very slow to start, but was interesting enough for me to keep reading. After the first part though, it changes direction and turns into an unbelievable and pretty far-fetched scenario. At least the second half picked up, and I was able to finish.

Not sure who would enjoy this one honestly. It's a mixed bag with a lot, and nothing, going on. This one didn't work for me, but I'm sure others will enjoy it. I sincerely appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

Dnf @ 20 percent. The long winded diversity explanations were frustrating. Too much telling instead of showing made it feel like it was his there for points and not actual representation

I LOVED this book and finished it in one sitting. This doomsday story was so unexpectedly adventurous and intriguing. It gave me the same vibes as “Pretty Little Liars” and “Ace of Spades”. The plot continued to build from simply being about a girl in private school to much larger themes of privilege and white supremacy. It also incorporated climate change and brought attention to various disabilities. I could easily picture this as a movie and I hope it becomes a book series!

Jen Wilde's "This is the Way the World Ends" is a dynamic story of a queer, neurodivergent girl on scholarship at an elite private prep school. There is a lot to love in this book, Waverly, the main character and her small group of true friends are fun and funny, and engaging, Additionally, the concept of the book is a lot of fun. However, I think this is one of those stories where you either love the first half or the second, as it's very different. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the story's first half, but the second fell short for me. I do see a lot of promise in Jen Wilde's work, and will definitely be checking out her next novel.

This is the Way the World Ends is a YA apocalyptic thriller. When Waverly, an autistic scholarship student at the prestigious Webber Academy in NYC, plays Cinderella and goes to her schools masquerade ball as Caroline, a rich socialite, not everything goes as planned. What should be Waverly’s dream night quickly turns into her nightmare when a murder and a blackout caused by a solar flare throw the night into chaos.

I had high hopes for this book at the beginning and was really getting into the whole Cinderella theme with Waverly masquerading as Caroline at the ball, but the book took a few twists and turns that weren’t for me. I enjoyed some of the characters, but when the storyline started turning apocalyptic it was a bit much for me. About halfway through the book I’m lost interest and found myself wondering how the beginning of the book had devolved into this. I feel like a lot of the time I was having a hard time keeping up and following along with what was happening and then the ending kind of left me hanging. It isn’t a cliffhanger, but there really isn’t any resolution to the chaos that is taking place. I’m not sure if another book is planned, but the way the ending was left open definitely gives this potential.

Overall, I enjoyed the beginning of this book and would have loved to see the Cinderella-esque theme played out in a different way, it this book took too much of a sci-fi turn for me that didn’t interest me. It’s not a bad book and it was a quick read, but it’s not my cup of tea.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book!

What was most intriguing to me was that this book is like Gossip Girl taking place in an Escape Room - I was hooked from the beginning! I will also read and recommend anything with a cult in it, and those details about its inner workings were some of my favorites as they were uncovered. I will definitely be recommending this as something more diverse in the YA thriller space that can especially feel overwhelmingly homogenous. More sapphic thrillers like this, please!

I picked up this book because I saw the MC was autistic and kept turning the page as I was drawn into a fast paced story. Waverly is a scholarship student in the world of the elite, trying to find a way to beat the system and help her parents who are struggling financially and, in the case of her mother, physically. When one of her friends Caroline, one of the elite and most popular students, suggests that Waverly go in her place to an exclusive party being held by the dean of their school Waverly does it when she finds out her ex-girlfriend Ash is going to be there. They ended things on a very sour note, Ash disappearing across the pond without so much as a goodbye, and Waverly looks at this as a way to get answers.
But what starts as a way to get closure in her love life, turns into a night of murder and apocalyptic nightmares.
I LOVED this book so much. The diversity of the characters was refreshing, from characters with physical disabilities, neurological disabilities, different ethnicities, etc. The villains of the story were almost stereotypical, but at the same time I can think of twenty real life people I could 1000% doing the same thing so the stereotypical becomes chilling.
The story does start off a little slow, as we get to know Waverly and the world around her. But once she arrives at the party, hold on because holy shit.
The romance is there, but it's definitely not the forefront. This focuses more on Waverly's growth and damn does she. Never does she lose the fact that she has panic attacks, meltdowns, that she is autistic, but she shows the rich and powerful that she isn't someone to be messed with. Especially when they hurt her friends.

Thank you so much @prhaudio & @wednesdaybooks for the Alc & eArc! I love a book about the end of it all.

Review:

This is a story about the way it ends, not with a bang, but with champagne and beautiful dresses.

I’m very torn on this one, because the first half of it was aggressively meh for me.. it was a lot of pining, relationship development & angst, which while fine, wasn’t super interesting to me. Then, it rapidly switched gears into being a book about a party at the collapse of society! Once it picked up it didn’t stop and I was all in until the end. I think I would’ve enjoyed it as a whole more if it had been 20% world & character ground work and 80% action.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️. 💫 rounded to 4!

This book was okay. It was a quick read. I think high schoolers would really like it. I enjoyed some of the surprises, but others I saw coming. This is not your typical thriller.