This Is Where It Ends Download Free (EPUB, PDF)

                
              
This Is Where It Ends Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
10:00 a.m. The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve. 10:02 a.m. The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class. 10:03 The auditorium doors won't open. 10:05 Someone starts shooting. Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.
Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 6 hours and 18 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Audible.com Release Date: January 5, 2016
Whispersync for Voice: Ready
Language: English
ASIN: B018WJ5M1W
Best Sellers Rank:   #1 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Social & Family Issues > Bullying   #2 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Social & Family Issues > Violence   #3 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Survival Stories
This book is addictively readable, and yet also hard to read given this is about a school shooting live and in progress. At times, I questioned whether the book was too violent, but seconds later would remind myself of the countless actual school shootings happening in the United States. These mass killings, sprees, and "lone gunmen" have become so commonplace we, the public, are almost irritated when another one surfaces. AGAIN? This book brought the conversation back down to the individuals affected by such a senseless tragedy, and even explores, with a deft hand, that very idea of whether these tragedies are senseless, or if there is some sense in there, though convoluted and misguided.This is Where it Ends begins with a shot--the starter gun out on the school's track. This is such a brilliant way to open the book, with a student who is not inside the school when the shooting happens. The narration switches from four points of view, each with connections to the shooter and to each other. The entire story takes place over an hour of time, and it's gripping. I read this in 3 sittings--it would have been 1 sitting if not for the day job and life's responsibilities.As for the "too violent" thought that occasionally surfaced while reading, I want to stress this book is written very age-appropriate to teens. It is violent, but so are school shootings which our younger generation deals with. Gore is not glorified, but instead the humanity and emotion and reality of situations like this. Like how previous generations practiced air raid drills, the current younger gen practices lock-down procedures. It's a reality that a shooting could happen to anyone. No wholesome small town is safe.
Grade: A+Not much happens in the sleepy Opportunity, Alabama. In the auditorium at 10:00am the high school principal finishes a speech welcoming the students to a new semester. It's the same speech she gives every year. Meanwhile, 2 students have broken into her office to read student files. Elsewhere, on the track, 5 students and their coach are finishing practice. And one student is chaining doors, prepared to shoot up his school and take down those who have wronged him. Through the voices of 4 students including the shooter's ex girlfriend Claire, his sister Autumn, Autumn's girlfriend Sylvia, and Sylvia's brother Tomás, the shooting unfolds minute by minute, until the last bullet has killed the last person. 39 students, teachers and school personnel dead. 25 more hospitalized. These are their stories.Like the iconic sound on Law &Order, THIS IS HOW IT ENDS is filled with the tension of a breath tightly held, a heartbreak thumping loudly enough to ring ears. No one is safe. The narrators, shooter and minor characters had rich, unique backstories, multiple dimensions, flaws, strengths and I felt empathy even for the shooter. Not one character existed in a vacuum. I felt like I was in the auditorium and wondered if I would be able to rise to the occasion like some of the heroes. Could I have thought on my feet like those who tried to break the door chains or who ran for help.I preordered THIS IS HOW IT ENDS months ago, when it first became available on . From the moment I started reading, I wanted to both finish the book in one stirring and extend the enjoyment of the story for as long as possible.
“‘I wanted to fit in here.’ His voice rises and falls with a singsong cadence. He has the gun in one hand. His other rests on his waistband where, strapped over his dress shirt and slacks, he carries cartridges of ammunition, perhaps even another gun. ‘Instead, I lost everything.’”This read ended up being a major disappointment for me. I started out knowing, because of the subject, it was going to be dark and may hit a few sensitive marks. Unfortunately I never came to care enough about the characters to worry with the situation.The story flips back and forth through multiple characters in different places throughout the school, which could have worked, but they all have some kind of relationship to the others. I found myself having to go back multiple times to remind myself who was who and how they were connected to the others. Overall it just became annoying and contributed to why I never connected to the characters.There’s also a very severe lack of adults in this novel. Where the heck are all the teachers?! There’s a mention of one or two of the teachers, but as the shooter goes about his business where’s the trained leadership of the school staff in all this chaos? Maybe the author thought she could get away with it just being a “small” school, but small, country schools still have the same requirements as other schools. It’s clear the author wanted the teens to be heroes of the story, but don’t turn the book into a no-adults-exist super-teens story.The gunman was another point that was lacking. What motivated his actions? He talks a lot with not much to actually say. He has family problems, and he points out that he was lonely, but nothing even hinted on what drove him over the edge and why he chose to take out his pain/anger on the school.
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