Book Reviews & Giveaway: The End of Everything

The End of Everything

Author: Megan Abbott

Megan Abbott does not walk quiet as the doe. She treads with the fierce paw of the tiger, claws extended.

The End of Everything delves into the psychological realm underlying the Verver family. Evie Verver, 12, and her 17 year old sister Dusty, reside enthralled in their father’s narcissistic web. Dusty is the golden princess, whose existence sustains Mr. Verver’s huge ego. Evie tries to avoid her father’s emotional incest and her sister’s brutal jealousy, and both daughters go to the edge of sanity trying to protect him. Mrs. Verver never falls into the spider’s web, for she lies outside the door, watching but not watchful or caring.

Lizzie Hood lives next door, and is Evie’s best friend since childhood. The Hoods are a fractured family. Lizzie’s mother is divorced and her older brother is busy with his own friends. Evie and the Verver’s become Lizzie’s extended family as she dreams them into perfection. Then one normal day, Evie disappears. A maroon car has taken her away. It is Lizzie who discovers the clues that lead back to Evie. And Lizzie and Evie’s lives retract into the loss of innocence that permeates this deeply disturbing novel. Like “The Black Swan,” Evie, Lizzie and Dusty find themselves within their own shroud as the novel veers to the end. This magnificent portrayal of a family swimming against the current of their own undertow strikes hard and fast.

Abbott’s writing seduces as well. She is a quintessential writing phenomenon. And within the novel’s harsh pages, we find parts of ourselves as girls and women, a part that we generally deny. The novel is a voluptuous portrayal of one family’s destruction that collides into another. The characters’ portrayal is so honest that it hurts. In this intelligent and courageous presentation, Abbot steams up a novel that involves adolescence, fathers and daughters, and loss.

Brilliant and poignant, be prepared, readers. This is not a novel to take lightly. And like “The Black Swan,” it is hard to swallow and might leave a bitter taste at the end. But that is what art does. It tells the hard truths, and Abbott is certainly an artist by any standard.

The End of Everything: A Novel is available for pre-order on Amazon.com

Ratings are based on a 5-star scale

Overall: 5

Review by Broad “A” – Ava

We received a copy of this title for our book review. All opinions are our own.

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