At the End of Everything

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Is Where It Ends comes another heartbreaking, emotional and timely page-turner that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
The Hope Juvenile Treatment Center is ironically named. No one has hope for the delinquent teenagers who have been exiled there; the world barely acknowledges that they exist.
Then the guards at Hope start acting strange. And one day…they don't show up. But when the teens band together to make a break from the facility, they encounter soldiers outside the gates. There's a rapidly spreading infectious disease outside, and no one can leave their houses or travel without a permit. Which means that they're stuck at Hope. And this time, no one is watching out for them at all.
As supplies quickly dwindle and a deadly plague tears through their ranks, the group has to decide whom among them they can trust and figure out how they can survive in a world that has never wanted them in the first place.
Also by Marieke Nijkamp:
This Is Where It Ends
Even If We Break
Before I Let Go
Praise for Marieke Nijkamp:
"Immersive and captivating. Thrilling in every sense of the word."―Karen M. McManus, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us is Lying on Even If We Break
"With exceptional handling of everything from mental illness to guilt and a riveting, magic realist narrative, this well wrought, haunting novel will stick with readers long after the final page."―Booklist on Before I Let Go *STARRED REVIEW*
"A compelling, brutal story of an unfortunately all-too familiar situation: a school shooting. Nijkamp portrays the events thoughtfully, recounting fifty-four intense minutes of bravery, love, and loss."―BookRiot on This Is Where It Ends
From School Library Journal
Gr 9 Up-The guards and staff of the ironically named Hope Juvenile Treatment Center near Sam's Throne, AR, start acting strangely. Then one night they're gone, leaving the teens, who already felt forgotten and left behind, alone. After an initial escape, the group runs into a literal road block and are told about a virus. They head back to Hope to make another plan. Everyone is under lockdown orders; through some research, the teens learn that there has been an outbreak of pneumonic plague, which is extremely contagious with a high fatality rate. Some of the teens attempt another escape, while the rest choose to stay behind to try to create a sustainable living environment. Then the coughing begins. While this is not supposed to be a COVID tale, Nijkamp has crafted a story that is more realistic commentary on our current situation and less a thriller set in a post-apocalyptic future. There's lots of representation among the cast of characters, and while none really receives the deepest dive, readers are given the opportunity to see the situation through the cast's alternating perspectives. This story is unsettling and haunting but also filled with hope showing what happens when a group comes together to establish a community, a sense of belonging, and a certainty that didn't exist before. VERDICT A not-so-subtle nod to our current landscape that might be too soon for some teen readers.-Alicia Kalanα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.