When 22-year-old Kat Bird wakes up from a coma, she sees her mirror image: Jude, her twin sister. Jude’s face and name are the only memories Kat has from before her accident. As Kat tries to relearn her history and identity, she trusts Jude will provide all the answers. But as the months progress, Kat begins to fear that, maybe, Jude has been lying to her.

Recruit. Hunt. Perform or Perish.

Growing up in a sophisticated New Age cult, isolated from society, the girls studied poetry and literature—but also played dangerous games of cunning and savagery, games with dark lessons that followed them into adulthood. Now, with Kat’s mind as a blank slate, Jude invents an idyllic childhood in the hope of erasing this history, and all the threats it still holds.

As Kat pulls at the threads of Jude’s elaborate tapestry, those threats draw closer. When the past and present finally converge, the twins must risk everything to save both their unique bond, and each other’s lives.

Intensely creepy and beautifully written, Abbott Kahler’s Where You End is an unforgettable tale of intrigue, revenge, and moral ambiguities in the quest for redemption.
This is a great wild ride. I was guessing evey couple of chapter but if you stay with the story you will love it. Great writing and will read more from this author. Thanks NetGalley for allowing me to read!

This book was interestingly descriptive in ways I didn’t need it to be. Since I read an arc, and it is subject to change, I will not quote it directly. However, I will say that the beginning was a turn off from me, and i did struggle with that. This did slightly change as the book went one, but almost to the point it felt like different writing.

I love a good thriller, and mainly stick to thrillers and the occasionally horror. Psychological thrillers are my favorite, so I thought that this would be a fantastic read. That wasn’t the case. I found the pacing to be incredibly slow. Nothing really happens, and nothing is really thrilling. I guess at this point I expect more from thrillers after having read so many. This read to me more like a literary fiction, and I think that had it been labeled as such I would have enjoyed it more.

I did enjoy the past and present chapters, yet Kat’s “now” chapters felt a little off, not sure if that was intentional, while Jude’s chapters were where the story happened. I never did connect with the characters in a meaningful way, so I really didn’t care what happened to them. As a reader I need to find something to connect with in order to enjoy the book, it doesn’t have to be big, but it needs to be there, and this book didn’t do it for me.

I think that this book would have been better as a shorter succinct novella with a lot of the middle left out. I also feel that this might have helped the pacing. While it wouldn’t have fixed all the issues I had with this book, it would have at least made it slightly more enjoyable.

I do love the cover and that is what drew me into this book.

While this one was a miss for me, I do appreciate the publisher for sharing an e-arc copy with me.

Where You End is a wild ride (in a good way.)
The chapters alternate between Kat and Jude’s points of view, revealing a tug-of-war between what Jude wants Kat to believe about their childhood and Kat’s determination to discover the truth. Flashback chapters reveal the truth about their childhood and the reader begins to understand why Jude makes the choices she does. But those choices backfire, and their lives begin to spiral out of control.
This novel went in a direction I didn’t anticipate, which kept me turning the pages until I was done. I completed this book in one sitting. The alternating chapters combined with the flashbacks can be a bit confusing at first, but eventually I got used to the format. Where You End is a hard to put down debut novel.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #HenryHoltandCompany for providing a copy of the book in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you, NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company for the copy of Where You End by Abbott Kahler. The problem with reading ARCs is we don’t always get to read the acknowledgements because I would have liked to know more about the inspiration for this book. I’m not sure why this book fell flat for me because I usually enjoy cult books and books about twins, but I was often confused because some plot points weren’t explored well. The mirror twins aspect didn’t feel important to the story, and the ‘twin language’ was just distracting and didn’t add anything. This book had a lot of potential but didn’t work for me.

My head is still spinning form this book! I changed my guess every couple of chapters as to what was really going on! very strange story , but stick with it! Talented writer, will certainly be looking for more by Kahler!
Thank you to the author , publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Warning: may induce severe cravings for Italian hoagies.

Thrillers aren't my preferred genre (I'm more of a horror girlie) but I do love a cult story and the premise of this book - mirror twins, amnesia, and unreliable narrators - piqued my interest. Told in alternating perspectives - "now" Kat, and "then" Jude - the story slowly unravels in parallel as Kat works to untangle the truth of their past, while the reader simultaneously learns the truth through then-Jude's eyes. I thought the parallel narration was well done, and particularly intriguing as neither of the sisters were particularly reliable narrators.

For a story more or less centered on a cult, the cult-related details were rather sparse and I would have appreciated that aspect of the story being better developed. I was left with many questions about The Plan - ex. how did they fund their operations, and what was the point of the recruitment of all the wayward children? Was it solely for the exploitations - for the photographs? Many of Jude's chapters felt like a hazy fever dream, especially the Games on the Island, but I'm not sure if that was intentional? It would be a boon to the story if done purposefully.

I took issue with a few scenes/aspects of the book, particularly a wholly unnecessary spicy-ish scene near the beginning - what was the point of including it? - and the insta-love between Kat and Sab - they met twice before she professed her love for him? - that I think could have been eliminated without any detriment to the plot. It felt like a man writing women, so I was surprised to learn that Abbott Kahler is actually a pseudonym for a woman.

It's a quick read and engaging enough. If you're a big thriller fan I'd say you'll probably enjoy it. I thought it was just okay - could've used more cult material.

This is the story of mirror twins Kat and Jude. They are inseparable and even have their own language. Kat is recovering from a horrific car crash and has lost her memory. With Jude's help, Kat is relearning the detail of her past and is trying to make a new life for herself. When Kat catches Jude telling her lies, she starts to wonder if what she is learning about her past is really true and questions what reasons Jude would have of altering her past.

I was first drawn to this book by the cover art. I absolutely love it. The story is written in a dual timeline and the narration switches between Kat and Jude. This worked really well for this story because the reader is learning what is happening in the present and at the same time learning the past that Kat is missing in her memory. The author had me guessing the twists until the very end. Several times I thought I knew what was going to happen but I was wrong. I also liked that the author introduced me to mirror twins. I had never heard of this before and found it very interesting. The reason my rating is three starts instead of four is that I thought the middle of the book dragged a bit and a few times I got confused and had to go back and reread a few pages.

I would recommend this book for people to like psychological thrillers.

For a thriller, I guess I expected more.
Twins are always fun and I really liked the premise
Unfortunately there was a lot of irrelevant info dumping and unnecessary confusing scenes that I found I couldn't enjoy the book as much

This one missed the mark for me. I didn’t connect with the characters at all. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me.

Overall, I thought this story was unique and definitely very engaging at times. This story did drag a bit at times, but once you get to the end you can see all the layers that go into to story. I felt the romantic storyline was a bit lacking though and wish we would have learned more about them before announcing they were in love.

In reading other reviews for Where You End I found that several others felt the way I did while reading this—confused! The premise for this book is one that I found interesting. Kat and Jude are mirror twins. Twins are always a fascinating topic to write about. Kat and Jude are in a car accident and Kat loses all memory except knowing that Jude is her twin.

As Kat struggles to regain her memory she feels that Jude doesn’t want Kat to regain her memory. Is that true and if so why? The more Kat discovers the more questions she has. Is Jude answering her questions truthfully?

Jude tells Kat about them growing up in a cult. Again this should have been an interesting twist but was difficult to follow.

This book will appeal to many people but unfortunately didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

I received an ARC of Where You End in exchange for an honest review.

Although an intriguing premise, I found that I was confused for much of this story. The beginning definitely grabbed my attention, but the majority of the middle was disjointed and there were a lot of threads that ended up being irrelevant. Normally I am totally game for cults, amnesia, and twin-related thrillers, but this one didn't work for me.

Past and present timelines.....Mother issues.....Amnesia.....Twins.....a past life with characteristics of a cult.

It really doesn't get any better than this book. I loved the way the past weaved into the present but poor Kat doesn't remember the past due to an accident. She has to depend on what her twin feeds to her. But we all know that when someone else is building your memories they can morph them into they truth they want you to believe. The path for Kat to find the truth is one that you are happy to hold her hand on, even through the mountains and valleys.

Interesting story about twin sister and identity - a gothic tale of sisters - one with amnesia after a brutal accident A who is telling lies and who is telling the truth

✨Where You End by Abbott Kahler✨

Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Pages: 336
Pub date: Jan 16, 2024

📚 When Kat Bird wakes up from a coma, she sees her mirror image: Jude, her twin sister. Jude’s face and name are the only memories Kat has from before her accident. As Kat tries to make sense of things, she believes Jude will provide all the answers to her most pressing questions:

Who am I?
Where am I?
What actually happened?

Amid this tragedy, Jude sees an irresistible opportunity: she can give her sister a brand-new past, one worlds away from the lives they actually led. She spins tales of an idyllic childhood, exotic travels, and a bright future.

But if everything was so perfect, who are the mysterious people following Kat? And what explains her uncontrollable flashes of violent anger, which begin to jeopardize a sweet new romance?

Duped by the one person she trusted, Kat must try to untangle fact from fiction. Yet as she pulls at the threads of Jude’s elaborate tapestry, she has no idea of the catastrophe she’s inviting. At stake is not just the twins’ relationship, but their very survival.

📝After an accident, Kat wakes up from a coma with no memory of her past. She relies on her twin sister, Jude, to fill in the gaps. But Kat soon realizes that her sister is hiding something from her.

This was definitely darker than I anticipated. What if the only person you thought you could trust was lying to you?

To keep this spoiler-free, all I’ll say is that there are additional elements that add to the creepiness of the story.

💫Thank you @henryholtbooks for my egalley💫

I was very intrigued when I read the description of Where You End, but WOW this book truly exceeded my expectations. Admittedly, I'm not a twin but I truly think there is an exceptional bond between twins (especially identical twins). In this case, throw in an accident and some memory loss and see how *exceptional* that bond really is. This was the perfect domestic thriller to cap off the year!

Having enjoyed Kahler's nonfiction work, I was excited to see that she had a novel on the way, and this did not disappoint! This author has such an engaging style that it's hard not to stay interested. The settings were painted so vividly, from the rich interiors of the cult complex to the creepy abandoned amusement park, and I really felt invested in Kat and what exactly her deal was.

One thing that didn't work for me was the way the narrative sort of...circled around certain plot points while never fully getting into them. We see all this stuff happen with regard to the cult but it's never super clear what the end game of all of it is, and then we never get to find out what exactly ended the cult or how the people running it really felt about it all. I could see this being the result of having traumatized unreliable narrators, but I'm not sure that's how we were supposed to being viewing it. Was the cult trying to create a weird generation of warrior children? Were they really financing the whole thing with [will NetGalley ever get spoiler tags?!]? I also kept wondering what the day-to-day was for these characters, the cult kids clearly weren't going to school but I have no idea what they were doing instead. And when Kat was staying at Jude's apartment for what seemed like months, what was she doing while Jude was at work? Just staring at the wall?

There were a lot of interesting ideas in this novel and I do like where it all ended up, even though I was left with questions. I'll look forward to Kahler's next venture into fiction!

My thanks to Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley for the ARC.

Where You End was a quick read for me. It took me a little while to get into it, but once I did, it flowed. I was hoping for more twists and turns and surprises, but overall I recommend it

Thank you Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.
I felt the same as a few others about this book. I really wanted to like it but I had a hard time getting into it.
The quirky words they used as children but are still using as adults seemed strange. The characters were not drawing me in. It was just an odd book for me.

I should probably have known better from the start - amnesia AND twins in one book?? - but this one was not for me... It started out really strong. I found the concept of mirror twins and one having to be rebuilt from the memory of the other to be an intriguing concept, but the way it played out just felt utterly unbelievable - even given amnesia plus twins as the essential formula. Add in the cult and it just lost me... Kat's actions did not make any sense to me, and Jude irritated me. The backstory moved in unfortunately all too predictable directions, and I just didn't want to see where it was all going. I couldn't find my way into this one and gave up about a third of the way in...