This Is Where It Ends By Marieke Nijkamp

799 Words2 Pages

“This is Where it Ends” is a young adult novel written by Marieke Nijkamp. It was originally published in 2016. The story is set at Opportunity High School, a fictional high school in a fictional town, Opportunity, Alabama. The entire story unfolds within the campus, mostly in the auditorium where an assembly takes place. The novel explains the terrifying events of a fifty-four-minute school shooting, exploring the themes of courage, grief, and resilience. "This is Where it Ends" is told from the perspectives of four different main characters. Autum Browne, Slyvia “Sylv” Morales, Tomas Morales, and Claire Morgan. Each perspective offers a personal insight into the unfolding events of the school shooting. Autum Browne is a popular student and …show more content…

Claire is in track practice and Tomas is in the principal’s office secretly looking for a file with his friend, Farred. Autum and Sylvia are in the auditorium listening to Principal Trenton’s speech. The assembly soon ends and students get up to leave the auditorium, finding all doors locked. Thats when Tyler enters, and his first victim is the principal. He then began to selectively choose students to be his next victim. Tomas and Fareed hear the shots still in the principal’s office and they come up with a quick solution. Their plan was to alert the police first, then attempt to break the locks. While this was happening, Claire was with her team at practice. Hearing the shots, she and her teammate, Chris, ran off campus to find a gas station and called for help. On this trip, they are met by police cars, who have already been alerted by Fareed’s call, and take them back to campus. Fareed and Tomas managed to budge some locks. Tomas alerts Sylv and she, Tomas, and Fareed quietly get people out of the auditorium row by row while Autum distracts Tyler. Arguing with Autum, Tyler hits her with his gun and turns around, seeing the now almost empty auditorium. Quickly, he rushes out the door to find students. Left in the auditorium, Autum cares for Claire’s brother, Matt, who is …show more content…

They find an unlocked classroom and use the window to get onto the roof. Fareed steps out first, and before Sylv steps out, she and Tomas apologize for being so distant from each other. At the last minute, Tomas jumps back into the classroom to distract Tyler, knowing it would give Sylv enough time to escape. He encounters Tyler in the hallway. After a quick confrontation, Tyler shoots and kills Tomas. Sylvia struggles to open the heavy window. Just as she gets into the classroom, she hears gunshots, knowing her brother is now

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