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All the Ways the World can End by Abby Sher is at times heart wrenching while at others hilarious.
Lenny (short for Eleanor) feels like the world is about to end. Her best friend is moving to San Francisco and her dad is dying. To cope with her stress Lenny is making a list of all the ways the world can end--designer pathogens, blood moon prophecies, alien invasion--and stockpiling supplies in a bunker in the backyard. Then she starts to develop feelings for her dad's very nice young doctor--and she thinks he may have feelings for her too. Spoiler alert: he doesn't. But a more age-appropriate love interest might. In a time of complete uncertainty, one thing's for sure: Lenny's about to see how everything is ending and beginning. All at the same time.
"Expressing the same type of magical thinking explored in Sher's memoir, Amen, Amen, Amen, the novel delineates destructive and healthy responses to loss, and shows that beauty and continuity can exist amid tragedy." - Publishers Weekly
"The supporting characters lean towards the wacky-but-good-hearted type, supplying that witty banter so loved by John Green's fans...Lenny's story is both poignant and hilarious, reminiscent of the dark humor in Jesse Andrew's Me and Earl and the Dying Girl." - Booklist
"A strong choice for fans of relationship fiction, who may appreciate a lovingly irreverent approach to grief." - School Library Journal
"The novel's pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lenny's grief feels palpable and honest." - Kirkus Reviews
This information about All the Ways the World Can End was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Abby Sher is a writer and performer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Self, Jane, Elle, and Redbook. She is also the author of Breaking Free: True Stories of Girls Who Escaped Modern Slavery, Amen, Amen, Amen: Memoir of a Girl Who Couldn't Stop Praying, and Kissing Snowflakes. Abby has written and performed for the Second City in Chicago and the Upright Citizen's Brigade and Magnet Theater in New York. She lives in New Jersey with her family.
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