This Is Where the World Ends by Amy Zhang

Janie and Micah, Micah and Janie. That’s how it’s been ever since elementary school, when Janie Vivien moved next door. Janie says Micah is everything she is not. Where Micah is shy, Janie is outgoing. Where Micah loves music, Janie loves art. It’s the perfect friendship—as long as no one finds out about it. But then Janie goes missing and everything Micah thought he knew about his best friend is colored with doubt.

Using a nonlinear writing style and dual narrators, Amy Zhang reveals the circumstances surrounding Janie’s disappearance in a second novel. 

Goodreads Summary

This book warns the reader that there everything ends and it's not kidding.  If you're a perpetual happy-ending type then you may want to skip this one.  Micah and Janie were best friends (in secret).  They were polar opposites but were more like yin and yang than oil and water.  When Micah doesn't know what happened to Janie and why he can't piece certain things together he decides that he must try to figure out the events that led up to Janie's disappearance.  Unfortunately, some things are really difficult to face.  

The two aren't perfect characters.  They have obvious flaws.  Janie is overly magnetic and sometimes pushes Micah into things that he may not want to do.  Micah is too much of a "sheep."  I wished he thought more of himself and made more of his own decisions.  Date rape is also touched upon and handled delicately in the book.  It's up to the reader, with Micah's guidance, to make up his/her mind about what truly happened and the ethics behind it all.  The author has a unique writing style that I will always appreciate.  This is a book worth picking up-particularly if you're a young adult/teen reader!

3 1/2 Stars

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