What happens when the guards vanish? The residents of the Hope Juvenile Treatment Facility are used to the routines and rules, even the ones that leave them with bruises or time spent in solitary confinement. Told from the point of view of Logan, Emerson, and Grace, AT THE END OF EVERYTHING chronicles how the incarcerated teens deal with a mass pandemic that leaves them trapped at Hope and on their own. Can these teens who have been exiled from their families and society figure out how to deal with the world in chaos?

AT THE END OF EVERYTHING is not a COVID tale… and yet it easily could have been. While the setting of a worldwide deadly respiratory infection does make us immediately think of COVID, AT THE END OF EVERYTHING explores the teen incarceration system and the lack of adequate treatment or care, no matter the facility’s name. As a social worker, I particularly appreciate the efforts Marieke Nijkamp put into character development and exploration of the family backgrounds of her main characters. It’s easy to rush to judgement about characters with histories of anger, fights, fire setting, and other acts considered either criminal or socially unacceptable but it’s far harder to show the why behind the story- and that’s exactly what Marieke Nijkamp does.

Our three narrators each have very distinct voices, as we see events unfolding through their eyes. We have Logan, who uses a private sign language to communicate and exhibits characteristics of autism, Emerson who is nonbinary, and Grace who is full of anger but determined to protect others.  Marieke Nijkamp notes at the end that she purposely made her main characters white despite recognizing that incarceration is overwhelmingly skewed towards people of color. She includes recommendations from authors she feels are more equipped to tell the stories of teens of color who are incarcerated, as well as books discussing the racial inequities of our criminal justice system.

Marieke Nijkamp crafts yet another stunningly thoughtful tale that explores society and its treatment and response to crisis as well as the hardships of others. While reminiscent of some older classics such as THE GROUNDING OF GROUP 6 by Julian F. Thompson and THE GIRL WHO OWNED A CITY by O.T. Nelson, AT THE END OF EVERYTHING forges new territory as Marieke Nijkamp digs into some weighty topics, including the loss of family and friends, death, food insecurity, and gender identity. AT THE END OF EVERYTHING will ruffle some feathers as Marieke Nijkamp makes the reader think about topics often ignored.  Bravo!

Book Summary