Marieke Nijkamp's This Is Where It Ends

All it took was 54 minutes for everything to change in Marieke Nijkamp’s thrilling novel, This is Where It Ends. In four harrowing perspectives, Nijkamp paints the story of a shooting within the small town high school of Opportunity. The four characters, Tomas, Sylv Claire, and Autumn, are all connected and negatively impacted by the ‘villain’ of the story, Tyler Browne. Autumn, his sister, is the only family Tyler has after their mother dies and their father turns to alcohol. After Sylv falls in love and “corrupts [his] sister,” Tyler assaults her, and is in turn attacked by her brother, Tomas (Nijkamp 52). Claire was previously Tyler’s girlfriend, until he assaults Sylv. Tyler justifies his reign of terror with how poorly his family and peers treated him. The payback, he

In the aftermath, many blame themselves for not seeing the warning signs of his mental state sooner. The blood and horror reaches its climax when Tyler confronts his sister Autumn, and in a gruesome turn, takes away her ability to walk and turns the barrel to himself. Although This is Where It Ends is often viewed as commentary on the mental health of teens and its effects, it can also be analyzed as a text that shows the benefits and dangers of arming teachers in schools. In short quips and realistic plot points, This is Where It Ends offers an interpretation of the critical debate of arming teachers in schools. Instead of jumping right into the main topic right off the bat, she eases the reader in with related issues. Within the book, a security guard named Jonah is found dead, lying “at an unnatural angle” under Tyler’s car (Nijkamp 57). With his radio and transmission damaged, the school is no closer to salvation with his presence. In this text, it seems his death is a plot device to learn more about the history of Claire and her brother Max as she recounts fond memories