Title: How it EndsAuthor: Catherine Lo
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult Fiction
Publication Date: June 7, 2016
Rating:
How it begins…
"You're in my English class, right?"
I almost checked behind me to make sure she wasn't talking to someone else.How it unravels…
“You can be my best friend without being my only friend."
Her words were knives raked along my skin. I could hear the goodbye in every syllable.How it Ends.
Why should I keep her secrets when she didn't keep mine? All it would take was one little click and a carefully worded message.
How it Ends is an honest, heart-wrenching tale of a friendship from first meeting to breakup. Told through alternating points of view, it is about two best friends’ tumultuous sophomore year of bullying, boys and backstabbing and what can happen when friends choose assumptions and fear over each other.
❃ I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. ❃
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Book Review: How it Ends by Catherine Lo
How It Ends by Catherine Lo is such a touching story about friendship. This book has a realistic representation of two friends who slowly drift apart and is very relatable. What I especially enjoyed was the main character and the believable way that her anxiety was shown.
❀ A book of friendship
How It Ends is the story of a friendship, from beginning to end. Two girls quickly become best friends, but their friendship slowly falls apart over the course of a year. I loved how this book focuses on friendship, as I prefer a strong group of friends to a couple any day. I definitely enjoyed reading about Jessie and Annie’s adventures together.
❀ Relatable Characters
What I most enjoyed about How It Ends is that it is relatable and realistic. Jessie and Annie’s friendship isn’t perfect and their pasts get in the way of their bond. One of my least favourite things in books is the perfect friendship where nothing every goes wrong. I’m sure that many people will be able to relate to the characters in the book and the struggle of having to choose between your friends.
❀ Anxiety is portrayed realistically
I really enjoyed the main character in How It Ends, Jessie. She is such a complex character with plenty of flaws. Jessie has anxiety, which makes her friendship pretty tough. I absolutely loved the way Jessie’s anxiety was portrayed in the book. It is serious and not romanticized. I find a lot of the time in books, anxiety is used to make female characters seem like they need rescuing, or just thrown in to make them seem more complex. I really appreciated how strong Jessie is, even with her anxiety, and the fact that her anxiety was shown realistically.
❀ Enjoyable Story
How It Ends by Catherine Lo is a great friendship story that is very relatable. The main character has anxiety, which I found to be portrayed very believably. The only part of the book that I didn’t enjoy was the ending, but I still liked the book overall.
Book Quotes: how it Ends by Catherine Lo
“So basically, what I have learned about the wold of work is that it’s depressingly like high school. There are still cliques, everyone does the least amount of work possible to get by, and the beautiful people are in charge.”
About The Candid Cover
Olivia ❀ Canadian YA book blogger, Starbucks lover, & professional bibliophile.
I have heard a lot of mixed things about this one so I’m kinda iffy about if I still want to pick it up. I have a pre-order but IDK. I am glad the anxiety is portrayed in a good way but the rest sounds like it has a bit of weirdness to it. Thanks for a great review!
I am interested in hearing your opinion on this one. I always have a hard time not going with the pack when it comes to books like these. <3
I love stories that revolve around a friendship. And I am crazy curious about these two and what happened for them to drift apart!
I love how the story revolves around an imperfect friendship. This sounds like such an interesting read. I’m not normally a fan of characters with anxiety issues so I’m not sure if I’ll be picking this one up. Thanks for the fantastic review!
This is one of the books I’m really looking forward to although I was not quite sure about it at first because I don’t know how the issue would be handled. Luckily, I heard a lot of great things about it. Thanks for this lovely review!
I would ssooo love to read this!! Thanks for the review =)
Sounds like a realistic story.
Ths sounds so good. I also love friendship dynamics so this is now on my TBR. Thank you.