An apocalypse that won't end, a teenaged girl on her own, and a world of people caught in a handful of moments...maybe forever. Though this story begins with one girl, it expands to show her whole life, the lives she interacts with, and the family she creates. All the while, the questions loom: what happened, can it be fixed, and (most frighteningly) what happens if the apocalypse actually ends.

An emotional, character driven story that asks hard questions and explores the decades following the end of the world.

[NOTE: Unless otherwise stated, my NetGalley feedback is not a blurb or endorsement. If a publisher wishes to use any part of my comments for promotional purposes, please contact me or my agent via email. I would prefer not to include star ratings but NetGalley won't let me post without one, so all will be 5 stars.]

Ann Christy has a very unusual apocalyptic tale. Coco Wells wakes up in Manhattan to find out that most living things are caught up in time links, where they repeat the same minions over and over. T first living in The Never-Ending End of the World (hard from Campfire Publishing LLC) she thinks she is the only survivor. Eventually venturing out of the city, she finds others and the beginnings of settlements. The tale follows two generations of people, who eventually discover the cause and a possible solution, but others are willing to go to great lengths to stop them. Fascinating. I hope this finds its way onto some award list,

The world as they know it is broken. Something unfathomable has happened and now most people are stuck in endless loops of time. Some of these loops last for seconds, minutes, or even hours. But for the people not stuck in loops, the world has become a much more hazardous place.

Coco, living in New York City, plans her day as best as possible. It’s all about survival now, finding food and supplies. The world started looping when she was just twelve years old. Learning how to navigate this new world, both literally and figuratively, requires much planning and attention to detail. Because to move around the city, she must avoid loops just to survive. If she breaks a loop, then the person stuck in that loop shrieks. Then, something violent and unpredictable happens before that person disappears forever (!)

Years after being alone in a world on endless repeat, she decides to leave the city to improve her odds of survival. She eventually meets people who are part of two groups with differing philosophies about looping and how to survive it. This chance encounter changes her life forever.

Embarking on a decades-long journey, the world changes around Coco and the society she lives in. However, all signs point to the world slowly accelerating towards entropy and the end of life for everyone as they know it. Can Coco and her ragtag group of friends and family find a way to stop this from happening and save the world once and for all? Or will others who disagree with their theories succeed in stopping them from doing so?

Most of the world is stuck in some kind of time loop of one kind or another. How can someone survive in such a world where people endlessly repeat one moment of their life over and over? And now twelve-year-old Coco is burdened with living in this world. How does she eat, keep warm, keep herself sane in a world where all infrastructure has collapsed, and you are on your own? What if you have medical problems and there are no doctors or hospitals to treat them?

Coco’s journey through the first years of the Loop alone makes for scintillating reading, as she develops skills to help her cope and survive. How can you even cross a street when there are loops of cars that could run her over at any moment? Scrutiny of their environment helps them manage quandaries like this.

When she encounters other survivors, they already split into two sects: those who are trying to discover the cause of the looping, live in harmony with their surroundings and avoid loops so they don’t break. They call themselves the Seekers. The other group, the Chosen, feels they need to break loops to survive in the best way possible. The Seekers consider this behavior reckless.

There is a negotiated treaty between their groups to protect society overall, such as avoiding nuclear power plants and people living within fifty miles of it. If they don’t, it could disrupt the loop, causing a meltdown that could destroy the area (!).

It’s a well-thought-out and complicated conundrum the author has created here. How do they acquire food? If they eat food caught in a loop, it disappears from their stomach. So, they must get food and supplies in some other way that sustains them more permanently. What about gasoline for their vehicles? If they break a loop, they can get what they need. But these differences in thought force each group to think differently about how to accomplish these goals.

It also makes them think: what happens to the people caught in the loops? Where do they go when their loop is broken, and they disappear? How do the survivors get electricity or running water? The author deftly explores all sides of each argument and the questions you might have about this world. Each group’s operating philosophy and how it impacts their actions has all been well thought out.

Having read most of her bibliography to date, it is one of the many strengths the author features in her writing. Then she presents it to the reader in an engaging way and seamlessly infuses it into the plot. She does this in such a mesmerizing fashion that makes the book highly difficult to put down. And then there are the dilemmas each character faces over the course of the story.

Each problem Coco and her friends encounter is complicated and forces them to improvise and regroup. As time passes and people become used to the cautiousness that this world necessitates, people form societies, have children, and grow older. But being born into this world has an unforeseen impact on these children and creates unusual opportunities for them and has the potential to improve the odds of everyone’s survival.

The ruling governments of these societies come into conflict with one another, as differences between them make for some difficult decisions that put Coco’s life and the lives of those she loves at risk. Setting out on the most difficult journey of their life, Coco and her allies try to discover the cause of the looping to stop it once and for all. Armed with new knowledge acquired over decades of study, Jorge thinks he knows where to find it.

But some are complacent with the status quo and think that permanently stopping the loops will destroy them and their world. They will stop at nothing to kill them if it means the world stays as it is.

All these story threads come together in a harrowing journey over the final course of the novel. People will die, secrets will be revealed, long-standing questions will be answered, and time might change irrevocably. Who knows what will happen if the end of the world is stopped? Will it reset the world back to normal or will it change the world forever?

The finale culminates in the most powerful and tear-jerking moments of the entire story. It beautifully captures the emotional resonance built up between the characters and emphasizes their strong relationships with one another. By doing so, the impact of the finale and its momentous events captured my heart and squeezed it into a vice with what happened.

It was heartwarming and tragic at the same time. And it gave me goosebumps while also making me supremely sad about how it played out. Yet, this ending was inevitable and all fit together in a well-earned and highly satisfying way. I was stunned into submission at its majesty and devastated by the emotional power that it held over me. Then, as if I wasn’t wrecked enough, there is a series of epilogues that broke me all over again. It followed up on a small subplot where the seeds were cleverly planted throughout the entire story and it was overwhelmingly potent.

While the plot alone grabbed my attention from the first page, it is the characters that I came to care about. The author writes characters with such depth and beauty that we see them right down to their very souls. Their motivations are apparent in every action they take and every conversation they have.

This is heavily apparent in Coco, our protagonist. From the age of twelve, we see how she learns to adapt to her new and difficult environment as best as possible. Over the years and eventually the decades, we see how these experiences have shaped her.

The horror of this apocalypse becomes readily apparent from her first encounter with the loops onwards. She must live with the knowledge of what happened to her family, who got stuck in their loops. The awfulness of these memories alone is enough to haunt her for the rest of her life, however long it might be in this new and perplexing environment.

But she is true to her principles and what she firmly believes in. That character strength is admirable, even when she must choose between leaving a loop alone and breaking a loop for the sake of survival because of how it might affect the person or people caught in it. She has plenty of insight and wants to chronicle her difficult journey through journaling in the hopes that someday, someone will read it and understand what happened with the world. Her hopefulness for a better future for the world makes her optimistic but realistic.

There are other important people in her life, especially Jorge. He is the first to introduce her to a larger world outside of her isolation after many years. The loneliness derived from her lack of socialization with others has a deleterious effect on her ability to trust when meeting Jorge and his partner Tamara. His scientific curiosity is crucial in trying to figure out what caused the looping and how he might be able to stop it.

Finally, there is Forrest, who is a member of the Chosen. They believe in breaking loops for the betterment of their own society as well as in freeing the people caught in the loops from their captivity. The story switches between Coco’s point of view and his. As a result of the dual format, we come to understand his point of view as well.

All these characters and more are given humanity and each one is interesting, memorable, and someone I grew to care about. There are some newer characters who we are introduced to that add new dimensions to the story and we come to care about them too. Between the plot and the characters, it makes for an amazing and gripping novel.

At first, the title of this novel can be interpreted to be talking about living through the pandemic of the past couple of years. However, the title is much cleverer than that and captures the essence of the plot. Although the author’s notes at the end of the novel indicate that it was written during that period, its inspirations have a different origin.

The originality of this unique concept alone made me want to read this book. But add in the author’s careful attention to detail, some unpredictable plot twists, and complex characters, it makes for a novel where I wasn’t just a reader. I was living and breathing this world, dwelling in its dangers and experiencing the gravity and seriousness of each situation.

I’ve read many stories about the end of the world, and this is one of the most innovative and novel apocalypses I’ve ever read. It is a compelling tour de force springing from the darkest recesses of the author’s imagination. It also features a plot with the most complexity that I’ve ever seen from her yet. That is saying something, given the last couple of novels she’s written!

It’s a stunning narrative, with an inventive, never-before-seen apocalypse of staggering proportions. But it’s also infused with hope for a brighter future amidst the most impossible of situations where any kind of hope is hard to find. If you’ve never read a novel by Ann Christy, read this one. You’ll become a fan of hers once you do and you will want to devour all of her other stories as a result.

I love post-apocalyptic fiction. I enjoy watching characters solve problems and rebuild functionality without their usual trappings. I blame my fascination on The Disney Sunday Movie “The Swiss Family Robinson.” How cool was that tree house?

So, the unique and fascinating premise of #NEEW drew me in! Due to an unknown cause, most life on earth (people, animals, bugs, and fish) is stuck in repeating loops. Some loops are just a split second long; others could be hours. But all the living beings are stuck on repeat: walking their dogs, flipping pancakes, cracking their back, again and again.

Except for 12-year-old Coco, who was trapped in Manhattan when the looping started and has been trying to survive amidst the loopers. Because here is the problem. Loopers can’t see anything not in their loop, but any noise or touch startles them. They attack whatever broke their loop and then die. Coco learns how to map the loops, find food and shelter, and scrape out a living for seven years - when she discovers she’s not the only unlooped one.

We follow Coco and a group of survivors as they age, build a community, and try to figure out what caused the looping. The author does a great job explaining how they do so - where they find gas, hook up solar panels, and use CB radios for communication - Every time I had a “now, how did they accomplish that?” moment, she’d tell me. I enjoyed that.

The story wasn’t a fast-paced thriller. It was more of a literary speculative sci-fi post-apocalyptic character study with some fun science and creative survival skills.

Thanks, NetGalley and Campfire Publishing, for the digital review copy and advanced listening copy. Pub Date: 8 Aug 23

It's been a long time since I've said this, but I loved this book! It's the dystopian end of the world again, but this book doesn't explore it from the viewpoint of a climate disaster, or nuclear war or even a pandemic. "Something" happens and the world is stuck in a time loop. People experience over and over for years the same few seconds or minutes or hours. If any of the loops are broken, those stuck in them become extremely violent and eventually disappear. Forever? Who knows? But some people seem to be immune to this phenomenon and the story of these people finding each other and rebuilding community over the course of 40 years is fascinating. Beautifully written and fast-paced, this is a great story for sci-fi/fantasy lovers as well as those who like a very human saga. I can't wait to read more of Ann Christy's work!

In this post-apocalyptic novel, Coco is alone in the world as Manhattan is reliving the same moments on a loop. Coco avoids the loops as she tries to survive. As more time passes, she wonders what happened to the rest of the world and sets to find out. I wish there was more backstory about what caused the loop but I enjoyed the unique premise.

After a cataclysmic event where time freezes, a woman must learn how to continue living. As she starts exploring, she realizes there are others who have also survived but who may not have the same ultimate goal she does: to make everything right again. Science fiction author Ann Christy introduces a fascinating concept that is mostly successful in her compelling new book The Never-Ending End of the World.

On an ordinary Sunday morning, 12-year-old Coco Wells gets up to enjoy breakfast with her family in their Manhattan apartment. Without warning, the world experiences an extreme event and Coco makes a horrifying discovery. Her family members are stuck in time. Her mother is flipping the same pan of pancakes over and over again; her little brother is in bed on the verge of waking up. The next-door neighbor, people on the street, everyone is tracking back and forth between a set of moments and can’t seem to get out.

Coco tries to move between those stuck, but she makes her second awful discovery. If she touches anyone in a repeating pattern or speaks to them, that person breaks out of the pattern, becomes violent, and then dies. The ones stuck in shorter patterns—what Coco quickly deems “loops”—disappear without a trace.

For more than a decade, Coco tries to figure out how to move between the loopers. After careful observation and with nothing but the regular movement of time on her side, Coco realizes not everyone is stuck in the same length of loop. Some, like her little brother, are in short loops that last mere minutes. Others are in loops that can go an hour or more. All of the loopers perform the same tasks again and again, and none of them know she’s there.

She meets one other unlooped person, but when Coco loses her she makes an important decision. She needs to leave the city and look for others free from the looping. Her travels lead her to Jorge and Tamara, two other unlooped people who tell Coco about a settlement of people called the Seekers. The Seekers are dedicated to figuring out how the time freeze happened and how to fix it. Soon enough, Coco joins their community and their cause.

She learns the Seekers are at odds with another group called the Chosen who believe some great cosmic force handpicked them to survive the Loop. The Chosen aren’t as concerned with figuring out what happened; they want to know how to live through it and come out on the other end. Friendships and relationships between the Seekers and the Chosen spring up, but neither group acquiesces to the other’s beliefs.

As decades pass and people start getting comfortable with the “new normal,” Coco, Tamara, Jorge, and other Seekers realize they’re at a crucial decision point. If they ever want to end the Loop, they’re going to have to take a huge gamble. The solution to fixing the Loop may lie with one of them, but it may also cost them everything.

Author Ann Christy’s invention of a post-apocalyptic event is unique. Her descriptive scenes and consequences of interacting with the loopers show a great deal of thought and consideration for her main premise: what would happen if time stopped for the majority of people on Earth? Readers will follow Coco as well as Forrest, one of the Chosen, through journal entries and narratives that set up a fantastic read.

The science behind the reason for the Loop feels a little lightweight at times, and the small cast of characters may leave readers wondering about secondary characters on the periphery. Those characters are often referenced but don’t appear on the page much, even though the narrative indicates readers should be worried about them. In some places important events are mentioned in passing even as the characters agonize over them.

The book may have worked better as a duology or even as a series, but it’s a mostly satisfying read. Those who like science fiction to challenge them a little and don’t mind turning a blind eye to the lack of the science part will definitely enjoy this one.

I wasn't expecting this book to be so good! I'm so glad I picked it up!
Imagine a world where everyone did the same things again and again, like a loop. Imagine a world where everyone did the same things again and again, like a loop. Imagine a world where everyone did the same things again and again, like a loop. Imagine a world where everyone did the same things again and again, like a—
Like a loop.
That's the world Coco has to live in, but she's the only one that isn't stuck in a loop—or so it seems. Could she find more people like her? Can the looping be stopped?
I loved the way the loops were used in the story, and how the characters were able to discover more about them in a way that felt natural.
I really liked the evolution of Coco as a character and how she managed to overcome all the obstacles that were put in her way. I also liked the dual POV in which the story is told, although at times it felt a bit forced.
I loved how the story shows the things people are willing to do in order to survive, as well as the thin line between what is considered good and what is considered evil.
Also, that ending almost made me cry. Tears.
If you'd like to read a character driven sci-fi, post-apocalyptic novel, you should check this one out!
I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very enjoyable read. I love both post-apocalyptic and time-bending fiction, so the premise of this captured me right away. Christy's time loops were something I'd never seen before, and they made for some fascinating character and plot development. I'll be recommending this one widely.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC before publication in exchange for my honest review.

The concept is unique and unlike anything I've read before. The execution, however, is very lacking. I had a hard time reading this book. The POV is 3rd person but struggles between being 3rd Person Objective and 3rd Person Limited.

The writing was subpar and reminded me of a 10 yr old trying to write like an adult.

I think the concept is great, but the writer needs to work on their craft and hire a decent editor.

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of The Never-Ending End of the World by Ann Christy from Jackson Dickert/NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

This is not going to go down in the record books as one of my best years ever, not the least of which why is because our sweet, sweet Lemmy cat died of cancer at the relatively early age of 11 in May, leaving behind his littermate brother Orange Ethyl, who out of grief almost starved himself to death in the immediate aftermath of our collective loss.

In one of many attempts to get Ethylene (long story, I wanted a cat named Ethel and he turned out to be a boy) to continue living, we got him some kittens……much, much earlier than we wanted to get any new animal/s after Lemmy’s passing. Having had such a wonderful run with Merlot (black), Lemmy (black), and Ethyl (orange), we procured Beaumont (black) and John Henry (orange). Another matched set, in other words; also, my daddy’s father’s (PawPaw’s) sister was my Great-Aunt Ethel who lived out on Stouts Mountain with her husband, John Henry. (The Naming Of Beaumont is a story for another time.)

Anywhoodles…..

My Precious Nephews (twins, 14, almost 6 feet tall, arrrggghhh!!!) came to visit shortly after we got the kittens. Toward the end of their time with us, I felt it only right and proper to tell them that every time I get new animals, I hold them very close to me and speak to them sweetly whiled cuddling them, saying, “I love you so much, I love you so much, I love you so much! But make no mistake—when the war comes I will not hesitate to cook you and eat you.”

Also, I told the boys, I would not hesitate to cook you and eat you, should that be necessary.

And then?

Then one of them said, “But what if we cooked you and ate you first?”

OH! BE STILL MY HEART!

I then said, “That. Was. Awesome. Also? You guys need to understand this—I am so much older than you that were the war to actually come, I would do everything in my power to keep you alive, because you have so much more life to live. That’s how it works; the grownups sacrifice everything to keep the children alive so that they can ensure the future.”

And that’s basically the message of this book.

Which was a combination of interesting and dreadfully boring at the same time. Pretty much the only reason I kept reading it was because I have been obsessed with The Large Hadron Collider Weasel Incident Of 2016 since, well, 2016.

You just tell me we aren’t living in an alternate universe……one of the multiverses……

DESCRIPTION
Station Eleven meets The Last of Us in this post-apocalyptic sci-fi epic from USA Today and Wall Street Journal best-selling author Ann Christy.

Coco Wells hasn’t seen another living person since she was a teenager. All of Manhattan is reliving the same few seconds, minutes, or hours on a loop…and they have been for years. Everything looks normal from a distance, but up close, it’s a nightmare.

Coco is a survivor. She scavenges for food, reads, and—most importantly—avoids loopers. They ignore her, but only as long as she’s silent. She’s learned the painful lesson that a broken loop can mean death.

After eight years of solitude, learning to survive and precisely timing the loops that weave around the city, Coco wonders what lies beyond New York and what has become of the rest of the world.

As she leaves home for the first time, one question haunts her above all: “Am I the only one left?”

Speculative sci-fi, dystopian apocalypse, and scientific mystery coalesce into The Never-Ending End of the World—a gripping tale of survival, hope, and love from retired Naval Officer Ann Christy.

Advance Praise
From start to finish, Ann Christy’s The Never-Ending End of the World held me in its grip, with a terrifying yet beautiful global apocalypse - the Looping - whose effect is uniquely personal for every living thing caught in its wake.

<>The Never-Ending End of the World' is a moving story of hope, despair, acceptance, and triumph, reflected in the intertwined stories of Coco and Forrest. As the two traverse the post-apocalyptic world - separately, together, and apart - what they discover about themselves and each other will illuminate the heart of all humanity, and lead to a destiny for the world that none of them could have foreseen. An absolutely astounding book, an astonishing triumph of Gaiman-level imagination, a mic-drop! Bravo Ann Christy!
- Samuel Peralta
Wall Street Journal & USA Today bestselling author

Brilliantly balancing sci-fi concepts and gut wrenching emotional stakes, Never-Ending delivers a beautiful journey that will leave readers with tears in their eyes and a new fear of time itself.
- Daniel Greene
Author, Creator, and Disheveled Goblin

I remember loving character driven post-apocalyptic movies like "The Road" and "Finch". These are not my norm since I usually favor action but I found there's an immense enjoyment to this genre when it leans on a few leading characters.

The Never-Ending End of the World is also very character driven told through the journals of Coco and Forest's POV. The concept of this scifi piques my interest with an event that occurred some 40 years ago when Coco was twelve. People including her family are caught in a time loop.

These are "loopers" and they are reliving and doing the same thing over and over. Some are caught in seconds long loops while some are hours long. We learn along the way that bad things happen and are not to disturb those in the loop!

Why are some people in the loop while others aren't? How did it happen? There are so many questions! I enjoyed this survival adventure and learn about the "new world" with the characters through the years.

Then there are settlements. The Chosen and the Seekers and how different they view the new world and their ways to fix it. I'm not a fantasy reader normally and this part feels like many overdone YA dystopia factions and what I like least about the novel. It felt dragged somewhat for me.

On a positive note, the audio was excellent with my favorite narrators Therese Plummer and Ari Fliakos. If you're into this genre and are looking for different post-apocalyptic scenarios, this one is pretty unique and might be the one you're looking for.

Thank you Campfire Publishing and Netgalley for my advance copies.

In this thought-provoking work of post-apocalyptic science fiction, 12-year-old Coco is one of the few survivors of an unknown event that left most of the world's living creatures stuck in short time loops. Coco must battle the elements to find other survivors, and as the years pass she and the other survivors must balance rebuilding the world with living their own lives.

The Never-Ending End of the World did many things well, combining an engrossing survival story with an intriguing science-fiction mystery and, near the end, elements of suspense. I enjoyed reading about the new society that the survivors built, and the author's exploration of the different ideologies in this fictional world was detailed and compelling.

What I did not find compelling was the nature of the apocalypse itself: individual time loops of widely varying durations, which when disturbed result in flashes of irrational violence and then death. This seemed designed purely to horrify both characters and readers, and I almost didn't get past the first handful of pages because of it. The rest of the book is written in a much more thoughtful and subtle way, and I'm very glad I kept reading, but I lowered my rating because this issue nagged at me throughout the book.

A fascinating dystopian novel, and a new author for me to follow. Living in endless "loops" of their activities, many people in the world are destined to do this forever. The minority of people, Coco included, strive to miss becoming part of these loops and to find the meaning of their new lives.

This is similar to a typical zombie story, where only a small percentage survive and must search for shelter, food and other trustworthy humans. What's different in this story is the people aren't infected, they are stuck in time loops. On a Sunday morning, as people fix breakfast, go to work, shop, etc., they become stuck in that action, repeating it over and over and over. 12 year old Coco was somehow spared. For 8 years, she doesn't see another non-looped human. She finds out through trial and error not to make noise around the loopers or touch them, that will cause the loopers to panic and disappear. When she finally finds a group of humans, she finds out they are divided into 2 groups and she must decide which group to belong to. The book jumps ahead when Coco and her husband must decide what path they will follow. The ending was moving and tied up stories of people Coco knew when time was looped. I thought the looping was a unique topic but had a hard time wrapping my mind around it at first. Also I was confused how some people's loops were short and some were long. Wouldn't the people in the long loops realize something happened when the short looped people were already looping on the day it happened?

When a strange event causes most of the population to relive a single moment on a loop those that are left behind must learn how to survive and maybe even save the world.

When I read the synopsis for this book I was so excited! It is such an interesting and fun idea that is right up my alley! Unfortunately, the story did not live up to the synopsis.

Books like these that are building whole new worlds or realities need to have a strict set of rules so that the reader understands how this world works. While there were rules set forth in this book, they were not comprehensive and at times even contradicted themselves. I had so many questions about how the loops worked and the “main character” Coco’s answer was “I have no clue”. A character that has been living in the world for 5 years would know the rules. If they didn’t they would be dead.

I’m assuming Coco was supposedly the main character, but I guess one could argue it was both Coco and Forest since we get both of their perspectives. The problem is we didn’t get to know either of these characters very well and neither had a distinct voice.

I honestly couldn’t tell you much about any of the characters because they were all so generic and we really didn’t get to know anyone. Whenever something bad happened to a character and we were supposed to be sad about it I just didn’t, because I literally had no idea who the character was. And there weren’t that many characters, so I should’ve known every single one.

I understand why the author chose to have the book span decades, but in doing so we lost so much character development. People change massively from age 17 to age 60 and if we’re not growing with that character as they age then they might as well be a brand new character and we need to be reintroduced to them.

Also, because of the timeframe most events were being told to us instead of shown. When it would skip to the next time period we would somewhat get caught up in what happened in the last 5 or so years, but it was always so much exposition which is probably the least interesting way to let us know what happened. And it felt like the time periods we did get to live in were chosen almost arbitrarily. A diary entry would tell us about an event that happened that was super interesting and consequential and then we’d get into the present and barely anything would happen.

A lot of the story is told through diary entries, which would’ve been the perfect opportunity for us to really get inside the character’s head and get to know them, but instead it was more generic exposition most of the time.

I also was confused as to why the non diary entry chapters weren’t in 1st person. I just didn’t see the benefit or reason for changing from 1st person to 3rd person over and over again when we’re still in that character’s perspective.

I felt the two different groups were unnecessary and didn’t add anything to the story. If there would’ve been some real opposition throughout that was threatening our main characters that would’ve served a purpose, but as it is now they are just there as an intellectual debate in the character’s heads and nothing more.

I feel like this story would’ve been better told through three or four books instead of one. We could’ve gotten so much more character development and just had a deeper dive into the story. But if it needed to be one book I don’t think there should’ve been split perspectives. It should’ve stayed just in Coco’s so there was more to that story and her character. As well as maybe not spanning so many years.

I think this one had a lot of potential, but it just fell short.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and statements are my own.

First off...DISCLAIMER: this book was up for grabs on NetGalley (in the Read Now section) and Edelweiss (where it was free to download as well). Thanks to Campfire Publishing for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE

For once, I'm going to be that person and start my review with a "target audience" caveat: I don't usually gravitate towards post-apocalyptic stories (though I've enjoyed some in the past), because while I love a book that makes me think, I'd rather not read a book that has the potential to make me suffer. With all the doom and gloom going on in my life (and, well, the world), what I need most - and look for in a story - is the chance to escape. But the (clever) title of this book caught my eye, and its (exciting) premise called to me, so I downloaded it before my mind made the leap to "post apocalypse"...and I'm so glad that I did, because it blew my socks off. The survival aspect turned out to be inextricably intertwined with the exciting premise I mentioned above, in ways I couldn't even have started to imagine; so, for all purposes, TNEEOTW is far from your average story about struggling to survive in a world gone to pieces - which is why you needn't worry about not being a post-apocalypse kind of reader, as long as broken-time-centered speculative fiction, moral dilemmas and ragtag bands of heroes are your jam.

BOTH SIDES OF THE STORY

If, on a surface level, the premise is already intriguing enough, Christy uses it for a much broader scope. For a reason that will become clear late in the story, the majority of the population is stuck in a loop - or better, in an endless series of them, since they mostly affect single individuals - and so are the objects they were interacting with when what happened happened. At the same time, the rest of the world gets old/decays, but also perpetuates the generational cycle. Interacting with the loopers can be deadly for the unaffected, but it never fails to end with the loopers' annihilation, and if those in critical/key roles are removed from the equation, this can ultimately cause the infrastructures they "maintain" to crumble and destroy what's left of the world. Then again, the loopers take up space - and consequently, resources - that are vital for the unaffected, not to mention that it's easy to see them as "not real", and therefore expendable. This creates a series of problems, both practical and ethical, and ultimately a great divide among the survivors (with some gray areas as well) that somehow reminded me of the response to the Covid threat, so I wasn't surprised to learn (via the About section) that the author had written this book in the thick of the pandemic. Anyhow, I loved the moral dilemmas the story poses, and how it deals with choices, sacrifices and (possible) heartbreaking consequences - and mind you, there are always consequences when you try to fix the world...

LET'S TALK ABOUT LOVE

I have to admit that, while I was committed to reading this book because of the premise, the cover was giving me "romance at the end of the world" vibes...and you know I'd rather have little to no romance in my reads; so, I was hoping that there would be much more to the story than that, but I was bracing myself for such a turn. Instead, Christy pleasantly surprised me again. TNEEOTW isn't a romance in any sense, though it's a love story in more than one, with its strong accent on parental love and found/blended family. But the fulcrum of the narrative - as I said above - is the courage of making hard choices for the sake of a greater good, without knowing how they will affect you and those you care about, all while asking yourself "Am I - and everyone around me - the anomaly? am I supposed to be here at all? should the world get fixed - and can it?" Without giving too much away, I can say that Coco's story comes full circle (at least in a way) in a touching finale that will make even the thickest-skinned readers tear up a bit. If you're looking for a soulful, yet thought-provoking novel that spans decades and will surprise you at every turn, with beautiful imagery to boot, this is the thing.

In some ways this was much like a typical post-apocalyptic survival story. The “time loop” aspect isn’t actually much different from zombies or creatures that need to be avoided. But the story is satisfying and the relationships are refreshingly healthy in a way that makes this a very pleasant read. 4.5 stars, rounded to 4 because it was a little slow in the middle, although I may go to 5 after some further thinking.

I can see why this book has been compared to The Last of Us. It definitely starts off with that vibe. Coco, a 12 year old girl, wakes up in the middle of NYC to find out that everyone is stuck in a repeating time loop. If they (known as Loopers) are disturbed via sound or touch, then they become violent before disappearing from existence. It is a rather interesting premise that definitely piqued my interest.

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The book itself can be broken down into five sections, or story arcs, that roughly coincide with the five parts of the book. I came up with the names myself for reference. I am going to keep spoilers to a minimum, but if you don’t want any hints, you may want to leave now.

1-The Survivor Arc
Coco has to navigate NYC and survive in a world where one wrong step can get her killed.

2-The Community Arc
Coco has joined a community of other survivors and has to navigate some… family drama.

3-The Kid Arc
This is where it starts to get weird. The kids born in this post-apocalypse have odd powers, and these are explored.

4-The Chase Arc
Totalitarian government hunting the main characters.

5-The WTF Arc
Let’s just say that there is a lot of what I have heard described as “sci-fi gook.” It got weird…

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Overall, I enjoyed the story very much. I did not expect the book to go the way it did though, and towards the end, it felt like a different book entirely.

For example, it felt like the point of the Loopers shifted throughout the book. In each section:

1-Loopers are a threat and dangerous
2-Loopers are a nuisance or an obstacle
3-Loopers are a convenient supply cache
4-Loopers are not of any concern
5-Loopers are victims needing to be saved

This is similar to how The Last of Us infected are not the main threat of the series as people learn to handle them (humans are much worse threats at times). In TLOU though, the infected are always dangerous.

Here, the Loopers eventually become an inconvenience at the worst. I felt that they were wasted in this aspect. It would have been interesting to have the problem evolve and get worse.

But in the end, I found the book quite interesting, and unlike some people I know, I happen to like the “sci-fi gook” at the end. It wasn’t what I was expecting out of this book, but it followed a logical progression to get there. It is definitely worth the read if you like dystopians (like The Last of Us) and are a fan of weird science stuff (like Interstellar).

Loved the first 20-30% as the premise was fleshed out, but as more characters were introduced it began getting bogged down. They're mostly drawn thinly, and the huge time jumps do not have the impact you'd want for a story spanning 40 years.
The plot gets a bit too weird for me near the end but I really enjoyed the epilogue.