I absolutely loved this book!!
Read if you enjoy sci-fi, time-loopy-ness, surviving an apocalypse book!

I just reviewed The Never-Ending End of the World by Ann Christy. #NEEW #NetGalley

This book starts off with a really intriguing premise: what happens in a world where nearly everyone is trapped in a time loop of their own?

Unfortunately, the writing didn’t fully do justice to this concept. In highly emotional moments, I was often left feeling indifferent, and some sections are rather stilted and awkward to read:

<blockquote>Lowering her hand before Ruth sees and asks about the scar, Coco decides she probably shouldn’t ask what happened to Ruth on the day the looping began.
Despite her resolve and almost without thought, Coco asks, “What happened?”</blockquote>

<blockquote>I’ll always think of that time in Salem as the calm before the storm. Maybe I’ll think differently later, but that’s my opinion for right now.</blockquote>

<spoiler><blockquote>When I think back to what it was like to meet the Chosen, I remember being afraid. Then, I just felt sad. Then, I wanted to kill them, or at least beat the shit out of somebody. Then, I wanted to kiss one person in particular, which felt very treacherous somehow. After that, I realized I knew nothing.<blockquote></spoiler>

On top of this, the rules of the world are often inconsistent and never fully explained. In the first half of the novel, we are constantly introduced to seemingly arbitrary rules about how ‘looping’ works, but we never learn why those rules exist (e.g. why do objects in loops only disappear half of the time when loops? Why can loopers not see reality? Why are different loops different time lengths? What determines the length of a loop? Why do loopers become violent when broken out of a loop? Why do static loops act like “roadblock[s] of some kind”? <spoiler>Why do children of parents who were exposed to loopers gain the ability to manipulate time?</spoiler>).

I wish so badly that this book could have been more fleshed out, since with a few more revisions, I could easily see myself having a great time reading this book. As it is now, however, this resembles more of a draft as opposed to a final product.

I generally read dystopian novels out of an interest in the psychology of the survivors, since I find it fascinating to explore different people’s reactions to coping with unimaginable situations. There are snippets of that element scattered throughout this book (I was very happy to hear from Forrest’s POV), but this book ultimately sacrifices psychological and emotional attachments for the sake of developing a unique world over a longer span of time. Rather than spending time <i>showing</i> us the emotion in certain moments, <i>The Never-Ending End of the World</i> instead is forced to tell us plot points quickly to accommodate for the length of time elapsed. And although this literary choice may not be my personal preference, I can still appreciate the creativeness of this book’s premise and respect the author’s ambition in attempting to encapsulate such a long passage of time (i.e. both Coco and Forrest’s lives from teenagers to adults in their fifties).

Also, I’m absolutely starved for any STEM-related content in books (even if the accuracy is questionable), so as soon as Jorge started talking I got extremely excited. What can I say? Jorge gets a star.



Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review! No matter what my personal opinions are, I have so much respect for all the hard work authors put in to their books and I’m so happy to be able to get an advance look at their efforts. I wish the best of luck to any and all writers—your story doesn’t have to be for everyone, as long as it’s for you.

Thank you to Jackson Dickert, NetGalley, and Ann Christy for the chance to review The Never-Ending End of the World. This is a sci-fi dystopian mystery novel about a young woman who hasn’t been around other people for years and one day begins to wonder what might be outside her small world of Manhattan where she is only surrounded by loopers. Loopers are what remain of the past but she is desperate for a future and that will only happen if she leaves her home. What happens next is an exciting journey for her and the reader.

4.5 rounded up to 5

The concept behind this book is incredible and unique (at least to me). When the end of the world comes, it doesn’t come for everyone. Most people are trapped in time loops, treating the same actions over and over, forever — unless the Loopers are touched by or otherwise disturbed by the unlooped — at which point they freak out and try to kill anyone nearby.

Coco is one of the unlooped survivors, who - at age 12 - stays in Manhattan, mapping the movements of the Loopers and scavenging to survive on her own.

I don’t want to give away anything about the plot, but I *LOVED* where Christy took Coco over time. There were some parts (from about the 80%-90% completion point) that got a little out there for me, but the ending brought it all back together and was perfect.

I’ve been telling everyone about “this crazy book I’m reading where people get trapped in time!” and can’t wait for more people to read this so I can talk about it!

This was my first book by Ann Christy, and I’m excited to read her backlist and anything else she writes in the future. LOVED IT.

A must read if you're a fan of sci-fi. The concept is a newer approach to world-ending catastrophes.

Someone messed with time and now the world is stuck in a never-ending loop that freezes individuals for seconds or hours. Don't touch the "loopers" or interfer in their loop or they become violent and then they die. Coco is one of the few not frozen in time and it's her story of searching for others and the how and why to possibly restart time. The writing is clear and explanations easy to follow. Finding others not caught up in a time and the complications involved in just trying to survive makes the book fascinating. I felt the book ran on at times, but I was too interested in the outcome to slow down. Worthwhile to read.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC for review.

Interesting concept, but a letdown of an ending. All that work to end the looping, only to not turn back the clock and correct everything, instead leaving the loopers to fend for themselves after almost forty years had passed. Everything that could have been…but no.

Move over, zombies, there's a new kind of apocalypse in town.

One morning, 12-year-old Coco wakes up to find that everyone around her has "looped" - they're stuck in time, repeating cycles as short as a few seconds and as long as a few hours. Disrupt a looper and they will violently attack before vanishing. Dead? Freed from a living hell? She doesn't know and the stakes are too high for her to experiment. Instead, we follow her journey over decades as she struggles to survive, eventually meets other people who aren't stuck in loops, begins to build a life for herself, and quests to understand how the world broke. Only when a new generation arises do answers begin to come clear - they might be able to save the loopers, but at what cost to themselves?

This is a fabulously innovative book with fascinating worldbuilding, well-developed characters, relatable philosophical differences on how to deal with the end of the world, and (eventually) incredibly high stakes. While some people may find the pacing too slow, I thought it was just right to bring us along on Coco and her family's journey from isolated survivors to people who hold the fate of the world in their hands. A great read.

The begin I of this book reminded me a lot of the Walking Dead but instead of “walkers” we have “loopers”. I think the amount of time that passed throughout the book was perfect! My biggest issue with this book was the ending. The ending felt a little sudden and I wish that I found out what happens to more the characters from the book.

This is the first book by Ann Christy I've read and based on it, I know I have found a new author to follow. What an amazingly plotted story--from start to finish.

Coco has been surviving in a world where something has caused time loops: people all around her continually repeat their actions. Alone in Manhattan, she has learned to navigate these loopers because interrupting the loops kills the person. Coco questions why she is different and wonders if she is truly alone. She eventually ventures outside of Manhattan where she meets Forrest, Jorge, and Tamara and learns there are two distinct beliefs for survival: Chosen and Seekers. She must pick a camp.

I admit I was a bit puzzled when I began the book, trying to figure out what was happening. When I realized that Coco also didn't have a clue, I settled back and let the story unfold. As told by Coco and Forrest, this is an interesting take on humanity when it essentially resets. Guided by differing belief systems, these two protagonists handle daily life-or-death situations differently and have strong convictions that would seemingly put them at odds. The lesson they learn is that compromise is the key to survival. This is a wonderfully written novel whose pacing and intricate plot and subplots are excellent. It's a story I sank my teeth in and thoroughly enjoyed.

Thank you, NetGalley and Jackson Dickert for an advance copy of this book for review. The publication date is August 8, 2023.

I received an advanced reader’s copy thanks to net galley in exchange for an honest review.
I broke all my own rules and I’m glad I did to read this one. I don’t normally go for dystopian / end of the world fiction. But honestly, I could not put this down for 2 days- had strange dreams, and once I finished I had to just sit and be sad it was done and really unsure I would be able to just pick up another book again soon. IT WAS THAT GOOD!
It’s about for all purposes the end of the world, time is sorta broken and most of the world (humans, animals, fish…) are stuck in these time loops doomed to repeat the same moment in time over and over again. (Some loops last a matter of minutes while others might be a couple of hours). If a loop is broken the person(animal…) react violently and then die and disappear. A small amount of earth’s inhabitants never end up being in a loop, but there’s no reason as to why some people are looped and others are free and clear and able to age. Just like in any good apocalyptic story there are pockets of people who find each other and have to decide to remake society. There are 2 main factions seekers- who hope to find the answer to what happened and whether it can be fixed/reversed and the Chosen – who are more interested the here an now.
Book is told through multi pov; the girl (Coco) is kinda the main character- she has to learn how to be alone for more than a decade before she finds anyone else like her. It’s also told through Forrest who starts his journey as more of the chosen camp where also nomadic he at least isn’t alone. Then it’s told from a 3 person standpoint. I loved loved this book. I definitely wrestled with what the right choice was all along, I cried and I felt it all very deeply. Highly recommend

The world has ended leaving select people alive. They wake up one morning and find that all the other people are caught in time loops. These loops are broken by touch or loud sounds. The people caught in them become vicious and attack then disappear. The remaining people divide up into two groups creating settlements. There are the Chosen who believe it is their duty to make a new earth better than the previous one and they think those caught in loops are sentient and in pain. Breaking the loops sets them free. On the other side are the Seekers who believe something happened that caused this break in time and it is their job to learn and study, to figure out what happened and fix it. They believe the loopers are caught in time and when the cause is fixed they will return to themselves a second after they froze. Breaking the loops physically kills them.

This was a fantastic, beautiful book. One of the best TEOTWAWKI books I've read in a couple of years. The characters are so real I felt for them. I felt their heartbreaks, their joy and their confusion. I just loved every one of them. Coco is such a darling person and a delight to know through the story. The plot is a slow burn dealing with the day-to-day of this new life building slowly to the point where they found out what happened. The answer was too sciency for me to truly understand but told in layman's terms which gave me the gist of knowing. I had a fabulous journey with this book and recommend it to those who like post-apocalyptic and slice of life survivalism.

It’s been a few days since I finished The Never-Ending End of the World and I still can’t get it out of my head or stop this book hangover I’ve had ever since.

This book is being described as Station Eleven meets The Last of Us, but that’s not quite right. There are no monsters, but the incredible love between found family is definitely there in a post-apocalyptic world.

I would say this felt more like my two favorite books in this type of apocalyptic dystopian genre (magical, scientific, speculative fiction?) which are The Book of M and Wanderers.

All I can say is, I. Loved. This. Book!! I think it will definitely be my top read of 2023!!

Coco has been living in Manhattan completely alone for the last eight years of her life. When she was 12, there was an “event” where all of the people (and animals) became “looped”, where they kept reliving the last few seconds, or minutes, or even hours of their lives… Over and over and over.

Coco found out the hard way that if you touched or even made noise to pull someone from their loop, they would become vicious and attack, and then would poof… Disappear. Forever.

After eight years of being completely alone (the loopers don’t count as she can’t interact with them or risk being killed by them) she finally leaves the city.

The story continues for another 3 decades as Coco learns to navigate the loopers and survive through this apocalyptic dystopian.

I started this story by ebook but quickly switched to the audiobook after listening to a sample. The narrators were absolutely brilliant and between the story and the performances of Therese Plummer and Ari Fliakes, I stayed up until 3:45 am on a work night because I couldn’t stop. I listened to the entire book in 2 days! It typically takes me about a week to listen to an audiobook, but not this one. It was amazing!!

The concept and the characters are everything I look for in a story. I’ll be preordering the hardback for my shelves as a trophy book.

*Thank you so much to Campfire Publishing and to NetGalley for the early copies!*

I went into this book hopeful but came out slightly disappointed by the end.

First, the good stuff. I was really excited when the book first started and our protagonist is 51 years old. Older characters are severely underrepresented in sci fi and I for one am tired of reading about the 19-year-old trying to survive the apocalypse. That excitement was somewhat tempered in the next chapter when we travel back to when the MC was a teenager (of course). But at least throughout the book we get to see her over a span of years and not just her nubile beginnings. I also liked the philosophical exploration of what survivors should do next. Two sides were presented and fully explored, and it was refreshing to read about different thoughtful approaches to how to live in this new reality.

Now, the not so good. Cozy fantasy seems to be the new buzzword, and I would categorize this story as cozy post-apocalypse. Nothing feels very dangerous or serious. The stakes don't feel high enough to really get invested in the plot. Part of the problem is the POV characters. Very little actually happens to them. We see changes occurring in their world and interesting developments with other characters, but we are removed from those events. It doesn't draw me in as a reader if the only action is taking place with perspectives that I don't get to see. Next, this book was way too long. A hundred pages could have been edited out, easily, without sacrificing any plot or development. There's just too much repetition. We read the same philosophical thoughts and discussions over and over again. This was intriguing the first time. 200 pages later I've got all the nuance down and I'm just dying for something to actually happen. My favorite part of the entire book was actually the epilogue. That felt like the most action and character depth of the entire story. My final critique is the lack of any real answer in the end. There's really no explanation of what happened to cause this pause in time and there's no explanation of what's done to fix it. For the cause we get some science mumbo-jumbo that doesn't actually say much. And the solution almost veers into the magical. I'd like a little more science in my science fiction reading.

Overall, this book was okay. I started off really liking it, but it was just too long with not enough action to sustain my interest. If I could give a 2.5 stars I would, but I'll round up to a 3. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Solid 3.5 or maybe even 4 stars. Overall really enjoyed the idea of this book - the idea of people just stuck in loops was so interesting and unique. I also liked the characters and their journeys. I just kind of lost the thread with the super special kids and all their new fab ways of interacting with the glitches. Felt too convenient to drive the plot. And the pacing changed a lot towards the end. Skipping ahead but then not. Still a solid read and really enjoyed the plot a lot.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy!

The Never-ending end of the world is a unique take on the dystopian future that I’ve never seen before. The solitary life, seeking to discover how to live and why this happened, plus the family dynamics were very interesting. The transition from the older, cautious adults making way for the next generation and the fear of letting it happen was nuanced and believable.

If you’re a fan of the Last of Us, you’ll likely enjoy this story. The ending took a bit of air out of the sails for me but most would be hard-pressed to think of a better way to end things.

This was an enjoyable sci-fi read that read as a bit of slow burner, but contained enough twists to keep me entertained. I found the time jumps to be effective in the development of the plot and by the end, I understood why the characters, particularly Coco, was conflicted for most of the story. The ending was not at all what I expected.

Coco is alone and hasn't seen another living person for years. All of Manhattan is reliving the same few seconds, minutes or hours on a loop. From a distance everything looks normal, but up close its a living nightmare. But Coco is a survivor, she scavenges for food, reads, and most importantly, avoids the loopers. The loopers ignore her, but only if she stays silent. She learned that breaking a loop can lead to disastrous consequences the hard way. After surviving this way for 8 years she decides to leave Manhattan to see what's beyond. But she cannot help and wonder, 'Am I the only one left?'

When I first discovered this book and saw it described as The Last of Us meets Station Eleven I was immediately sold and knew I had to read it, and I am glad I did. It lived up to my expectations, had fun characters and the sciency parts did not go straight over my head like sometimes happens in hard sci-fi. I do have a few questions left after the ending, and honestly I'd be really interested in a sequel just to see the fallout of everything that happened.

Thank you to Netgalley, Campfire Publishing and of course Ann Christy for allowing me the opportunity to receive a free eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review will be crossposted to Goodreads and will remain up indefinitely.

3.5/5: First off - what a unique and interesting premise! I read a lot of dystopian, post-apocalyptic books and haven't really stumbled upon anything like this. I loved Station Eleven and the comparison in the description is what drew me at first. I really think a lot of creativity and late night thinking went into the formation of such a unique and well thought out world, where any questions I had about the loopers/fragments was answered by the end.

I genuinely would have read a duology/trilogy of this world and I think I maybe would have enjoyed it more that way. I found that what brought it down to a 3.5/5 stars for me is simply that I felt jarred by the large timeskips and where the time taken to describe what was going on was used. With how interesting the topic of the Looping is, I think a duology would have been perfect and would have allowed the really awesome world to shine a bit more, and given the characters some more development so I would feel some more attachment to what happens to them. As it stands, I just wasn't really attached to anyone and felt no stake in their survival game...

Overall, I did enjoy the book and it kept me reading, but I wish we had a little bit more either in the form of just more pages in this book to flesh out some of the time skips, or 2 shorter 300-ish page books to make it a series.

The Never-Ending End of the World
by Ann Christy
Science Fiction Dystopia Apocalyptic
NetGalley ARC
16+


Coco Wells was a teenager when the looping started. Every person in NYC she saw was stuck in a loop from anywhere between a few seconds to hours, repeating the same activity over and over again until something disrupted them: a noise, a touch, then the looper would scream and become violent and then disappear.

Spanning many years, this dystopian story is one of those that is hard to review because it would be so easy to drop spoilers. It is a typical end-of-the-world story where the survivors fight to survive, but the difference is while there are no 'monsters', they have a different type of struggle. Not all food is food. Also, the survivors aren't cutthroat like other stories are. These people, even those with different beliefs about the looping help each other, which is a very nice, even though far-fetched, idea.

At first, I wasn't sure about the narration of the story, diary and third person, but as the story progressed, it worked and merged the storylines of the characters with the plot really well!

Now to the main plot of the story, the looping. Wow! That was creative thinking! Kudos to the author for keeping it all straight. It is a complex idea. And the food idea, double wow!

But the ending, eh. I was disappointed. With all of the build-up, I was expecting a lot more 'science', 'drama', and closure, either a happy or not happy ending, as is, it just ended without any fanfare as if the author couldn't think of anything interesting or mind-boggling.

If the ending had been better, there would be one more star.

3 Stars

Ann Christy’s latest novel is bold, ambitious, and unlike anything I’ve read before. A mind-blowingly complicated plot with labyrinthine turns somehow reels the reader into a world no one could imagine. Well, no one but Ann Christy.


FIrst, let me say I love the story of how the story came to her. After a very long bout with writer’s block, “The Never-Ending End of the World” came to her one night. By morning, it was all fully formed inside her head, ready to be captured on paper. Many words were deleted during the long process of revising, but the story, the characters, sprang into being in this one writer’s mind, and I am in awe of the imagination and world building.

That said, let us revisit E.E. Giorgi’s disclaimer: if we reject an author’s premise as too incredible, we may miss out on an incredible story. The reader may raise various objections to the scenarios that play out, but “How can this be” and “No, this couldn’t happen” have no place here. Above all else, this is a story of family, friends, love that endures, hope, and our futures, and how much we might sacrifice for the sake of others.


A 12-year-old girl named Coco leads us into the crazy, convoluted, richly imagined dystopia of The Never-Ending End of the World. Coco is utterly alone in a place filled with people, but she cannot interact with a single one of them. Not for five years, anyway, when she finally encounters a real, live (but dying) woman who is not trapped in a deadly “loop.”

What is a loop?

Let’s just say time is broken, and some people are unaffected by it, but most people are trapped in a never-ending cycle of reliving a short segment of their lives. The same maid carries the same basket of laundry from one room to another, ad infinitum, for years. Presumably, the same cars drive without running out of gas and the same chef stirs a kettle that never runs dry, and the “unlooped” must avoid entering the loop, or at least avoid letting the loopers hear them, because if they do–

–Hey, for only 99 cents, you can pre-order this novel (release date August 8, 2023) and see for yourself what happens. Even if you scoff at the premise, it’s still fascinating and yes, fun, to imagine.

Me, I’d eat everything I could possibly eat while in a loop, all the more so because the food isn’t “real” and survivors like Coco would starve to death if not for the canned food that exists outside the loops. Let us not think about packaged food with expiration dates of 5 years, 10, 20… how many years will Coco make it in this wacked up world? And why doesn’t she take up gardening, even in Manhattan? People grow vegetables from seed in containers. It takes a long, long time, but Coco does eventually learn she is not the last person on earth, and that there are many others. They have gardens. And colonies.

They fall into two main camps: The Chosen, and the Seekers.

The “chosen” are willing to clear paths no matter how many loopers may blink out of existence. They are not willing to “fix” time, if it’s even fixable at all, because that might remove them and their children (born after time got broken) to vanish from this world.

Children born after time got broken tend to have special gifts, and watching them unfold and evolve is part of the magic of the novel.

Tough decisions lie in wait for those who figure out how time broke and what it might take to fix it.


Normally I avoid post-apocalyptic, dystopian fiction, but some authors have a special storytelling gift that pulls me in. I enter their world. If it’s full of bloody battle scenes and casualties, I’ll exit. If the characters are authentic and likable, though, I’ll stay, no matter how awful their world becomes. I’m there with them, feeling their pain, dreaming their dreams. World-building and plot always take a back seat to character, when I read.


Survival, hope, family, friends, love ….
It takes me days or weeks to decompress after a sad movie or book. Which is one reason I avoid them in the first place. But this one - no spoilers, I promise! - delivers just the right amount of hope and warm fuzzies along with a terrifying what-if scenario.


Well done!