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The End: 50 Apocalyptic Visions From Pop Culture That You Should Know About...Before It's Too Late
You’ve probably heard rumors that the end of the world is going to happen in the year 2012. But people have been making predictions about how and when the world is going to end for ages. The End is a fun, comprehensive, pop culture read about the 50 top movies, books, songs, comics, artworks, and plays—from the movie Shaun of the Dead to the pop song "It’s the End of the World as We Know It"—that have been created about the apocalypse. Each item includes:
a synopsis of the apocalyptic work
information about the apocalyptic theory behind it (from alien invasion to meteors, nuclear war, and natural disasters)
an explanation about why this work is important in pop culture
Love doomsday talk and the art that is made about it? Check out this fun and entertaining read!
a synopsis of the apocalyptic work
information about the apocalyptic theory behind it (from alien invasion to meteors, nuclear war, and natural disasters)
an explanation about why this work is important in pop culture
Love doomsday talk and the art that is made about it? Check out this fun and entertaining read!
157 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
5 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
Laura Barcella
12 books23 followersLaura Barcella is an author and freelance journalist currently based in NYC.
She wrote "Know Your Rights!" (Sterling, 2018), Fight Like a Girl" (Zest Books, 2016), "POPULAR" (with Lauren Urasek; Sterling, 2015), "The End: 50 Apocalyptic Visions From Pop Culture That You Should Know About… Before It’s Too Late" (Zest, 2012), and "Madonna & Me" (Soft Skull Press, 2012). She has also ghostwritten a number of adult nonfiction titles.
As a journalist, she has covered pop culture, crime, and women's issues for the New York Times, PEOPLE, Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, and more.
She's also a professional cat lady -- she works part-time in a neonatal kitten nursery in Manhattan.
She wrote "Know Your Rights!" (Sterling, 2018), Fight Like a Girl" (Zest Books, 2016), "POPULAR" (with Lauren Urasek; Sterling, 2015), "The End: 50 Apocalyptic Visions From Pop Culture That You Should Know About… Before It’s Too Late" (Zest, 2012), and "Madonna & Me" (Soft Skull Press, 2012). She has also ghostwritten a number of adult nonfiction titles.
As a journalist, she has covered pop culture, crime, and women's issues for the New York Times, PEOPLE, Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, and more.
She's also a professional cat lady -- she works part-time in a neonatal kitten nursery in Manhattan.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 23, 2012
Society has a morbid fascination with the end of the world. And really, who can blame them? I certainly can't since I'm one of the many morbidly curious.
The End is a look at pop culture's many dooms day predictions, and how they continue to influence the masses and media. There were many pieces I had never heard about, or only had a vague concept of, and it was interesting to see how they connected to other more current works. I do have to admit that as a zombie fan, I was wanting them represented a bit more, but I'm sure I could come up with at least 50 pieces for them alone!
This was a pretty quick read, with each piece of work broken down into a summary, Inspirations for the piece, unforgettable moments, reality factor, and the impact it has had on our culture. The Kindle formatting I received through Net Galley did make it difficult to read, but I notice that at this time it's only available in paperback, which I think would be cool to see, as there are photos to go with each 'vision'. This is definitely a fun look at pop culture!
Check out more of my reviews on my blog Turning the Pages
The End is a look at pop culture's many dooms day predictions, and how they continue to influence the masses and media. There were many pieces I had never heard about, or only had a vague concept of, and it was interesting to see how they connected to other more current works. I do have to admit that as a zombie fan, I was wanting them represented a bit more, but I'm sure I could come up with at least 50 pieces for them alone!
This was a pretty quick read, with each piece of work broken down into a summary, Inspirations for the piece, unforgettable moments, reality factor, and the impact it has had on our culture. The Kindle formatting I received through Net Galley did make it difficult to read, but I notice that at this time it's only available in paperback, which I think would be cool to see, as there are photos to go with each 'vision'. This is definitely a fun look at pop culture!
Check out more of my reviews on my blog Turning the Pages
May 14, 2016
The End will resonate most with readers who have had little exposure to the apocalyptic / post-apocalyptic genres before reading this book. For lifelong movie geeks and word nerds, most, if not all, of the selections in The End will be familiar; in other words, these entries are about as mainstream as one could go. Having said that, if you're new to the "end of the world" genre, or just curious about what might be out there, The End will serve as a fun guide to movies, TV, plays, artwork, songs, and books. But be warned: spoilers everywhere! If you haven't read/ watched/ heard about an entry and don't want to know everything beforehand, skip it.
3 stars
3 stars
May 8, 2016
If you are a fan of post-apocalyptic/apocalyptic stories, make sure to have your TBR and TBW (to-be-watched) lists handy -- plus Google if you want to check into any of the non-book/movie suggestions featured in this book.
Despite being a long-time fan of the genre, there were tons of books and movies I either had never heard of, or had heard of but didn't know exactly what they were about. The format is the same for every entry -- it sets up the plot/scenario, and then includes notes about how likely such an apocalypse is, what impact the work had on the culture/later works, and what inspired the creator. The tone is casual and slightly ironic, clearly written by an enthusiast of the genre. Although mostly featuring books and movies, there are also some apocalyptic visions from artwork, theater, and music included. (The theater ones bummed me out a little because it's the hardest to get a hold of -- but now that I know these apocalyptic plays exist, I'll keep my eyes open for whether they are ever performed near me.)
It would be easy to criticize this book for all the stuff it left OUT, but one of its strengths is that it creates a somewhat manageable collection of apocalyptic visions, unlike the "1001 ..." book series that is pretty much overhwelming (which is why I guess you get "until you die" as the deadline). This book could serve as a handy guide to someone who is just getting into the post-apocalyptic genre, or a current enthusiast who might want to fill in the gaps. It also gave me a sense for why some of the books/movies in the genre became such classics.
The book reinforces the fact that there really aren't a ton of scenarios that have been explored for the world ending -- pretty much every piece in the book falls into one of the following categories: nuclear war, alien invasion, asteroid from space, zombies (zombies seemed a bit overrepresented), climate change, and plague. It's in the way these themes are rendered that you might glimpse something new.
Readers should be warned that this book is totally ruthless about spoilers -- it looks at each work as a whole, which usually includes giving away how the story ends. So if you are very anti-spoiler, you might want to skip entries for pieces you haven't read/seen or just read the first couple paragraphs. I have so many things on my to-watch/to-read list that I figure I'll forget the spoilers by the time I get to them, anyway. :p
This is not a long book, but I found it to be best enjoyed reading just a couple entries at a time -- otherwise, they start to blend together a bit.
Despite being a long-time fan of the genre, there were tons of books and movies I either had never heard of, or had heard of but didn't know exactly what they were about. The format is the same for every entry -- it sets up the plot/scenario, and then includes notes about how likely such an apocalypse is, what impact the work had on the culture/later works, and what inspired the creator. The tone is casual and slightly ironic, clearly written by an enthusiast of the genre. Although mostly featuring books and movies, there are also some apocalyptic visions from artwork, theater, and music included. (The theater ones bummed me out a little because it's the hardest to get a hold of -- but now that I know these apocalyptic plays exist, I'll keep my eyes open for whether they are ever performed near me.)
It would be easy to criticize this book for all the stuff it left OUT, but one of its strengths is that it creates a somewhat manageable collection of apocalyptic visions, unlike the "1001 ..." book series that is pretty much overhwelming (which is why I guess you get "until you die" as the deadline). This book could serve as a handy guide to someone who is just getting into the post-apocalyptic genre, or a current enthusiast who might want to fill in the gaps. It also gave me a sense for why some of the books/movies in the genre became such classics.
The book reinforces the fact that there really aren't a ton of scenarios that have been explored for the world ending -- pretty much every piece in the book falls into one of the following categories: nuclear war, alien invasion, asteroid from space, zombies (zombies seemed a bit overrepresented), climate change, and plague. It's in the way these themes are rendered that you might glimpse something new.
Readers should be warned that this book is totally ruthless about spoilers -- it looks at each work as a whole, which usually includes giving away how the story ends. So if you are very anti-spoiler, you might want to skip entries for pieces you haven't read/seen or just read the first couple paragraphs. I have so many things on my to-watch/to-read list that I figure I'll forget the spoilers by the time I get to them, anyway. :p
This is not a long book, but I found it to be best enjoyed reading just a couple entries at a time -- otherwise, they start to blend together a bit.
April 10, 2013
This book is copyright 2012, and I am glad it survived the recent Mayan apocalypse tied to that year! But yes, the movie "2012" is in here!
These apocalyptic visions are mainly from movies, TV, and books. Sometimes there are attempts at "scientific" explanations of the doomsday scenarios, with tips on when it is time to get out of Dodge.
Well, at least I *think* I understand the movie 12 Monkeys a little better now!
Interesting to see Day of the Triffids mentioned in the context of the 1951 book, 1962 movie, and 1981 TV series.
Dr. Strangelove? Yes, that crazy guy is in here!
From the recycling of urine in Waterworld to zombie-killing in Walking Dead, this book explains the apocalypse and how to survive it!
These apocalyptic visions are mainly from movies, TV, and books. Sometimes there are attempts at "scientific" explanations of the doomsday scenarios, with tips on when it is time to get out of Dodge.
Well, at least I *think* I understand the movie 12 Monkeys a little better now!
Interesting to see Day of the Triffids mentioned in the context of the 1951 book, 1962 movie, and 1981 TV series.
Dr. Strangelove? Yes, that crazy guy is in here!
From the recycling of urine in Waterworld to zombie-killing in Walking Dead, this book explains the apocalypse and how to survive it!
November 25, 2012
The book started off interesting, but then got a bit mundane. It is written for a younger audience, which means it explains what everything is, i.e. the Cold War, the Cannes Film Festival. Also there's only so many ways people have depicted the world coming to the end. By reading the fifth reality check that zombies weren't going to happen it became redundant. Could have used colour photos when she's describing paintings, or art. Also if you're thinking of reading any of the books, or seeing the movies listed, do it before reading unless you don't mind spoilers. She recounts the entire story, including who dies and survives in the last scene.
July 25, 2012
Enjoyable and easy read. Nonfiction, would give to grades 5 and up (7th for less mature).
November 10, 2024
DO NOT READ!
This was a high school honors English class project and you cannot convince me otherwise. Listen, 2 classes of 25 students were given an assignment to choose an apocalyptic story. Then it was combined and bound in the school resource room into a book of 50 apocalyptic scenarios. Most people picked movies so that they could watch a movie for homework, and like 4 overachievers from each class picked something interesting like a song or piece of artwork. It was so formulaic that I could make up a rubric because every single entry was the exact fuckin same.
1. 3 pages (no more, no less, it MUST be 3 because god forbid you take any creative license to give one of these stories more or less text if there’s more info to include)
2. ONE black and white picture included. Oh, your apocalyptic piece is the 4th painting out of a famous set of 5? No worries, just leave out all the other paintings and describe them in one sentence - readers will LOVE that
3. One “reality factor” blurb (doesn’t have to actually be related to reality if you don’t feel like it though)
4. One “unforgettable moment”
5. The “impact” on the world
And the meat of your three pages? Just summarize whatever apocalypse movie you watched over the weekend. Beginning, middle, end, and it’ll suck because who can do a good job summarizing The Day After Tomorrow in 3 paragraphs? NO ONE (see #1)
The only reason I finished this was because I spent $5 on it and the guy who sold it to me made a comment about how I have to read it “cover to cover” to count it towards my reading goal, like DUH?? fuck off. I’m so mad I read this.
Other gripes:
* Why would the picture you include for a play be a random picture from a not-notable performance years after the play debuted? Or was the 2011 performance of a 2004 play notable? I don’t know because YOU SURE DIDN’T TELL ME IF IT WAS
* Don’t get me started on the snarky photo captions. Why is the picture representing Children of Men just a pointless picture of Julianne Moore in a room with men in ski masks? Is that actually an important scene? Well I wouldn’t know after reading this fucking book because the caption is just a joke about skiing
This was a high school honors English class project and you cannot convince me otherwise. Listen, 2 classes of 25 students were given an assignment to choose an apocalyptic story. Then it was combined and bound in the school resource room into a book of 50 apocalyptic scenarios. Most people picked movies so that they could watch a movie for homework, and like 4 overachievers from each class picked something interesting like a song or piece of artwork. It was so formulaic that I could make up a rubric because every single entry was the exact fuckin same.
1. 3 pages (no more, no less, it MUST be 3 because god forbid you take any creative license to give one of these stories more or less text if there’s more info to include)
2. ONE black and white picture included. Oh, your apocalyptic piece is the 4th painting out of a famous set of 5? No worries, just leave out all the other paintings and describe them in one sentence - readers will LOVE that
3. One “reality factor” blurb (doesn’t have to actually be related to reality if you don’t feel like it though)
4. One “unforgettable moment”
5. The “impact” on the world
And the meat of your three pages? Just summarize whatever apocalypse movie you watched over the weekend. Beginning, middle, end, and it’ll suck because who can do a good job summarizing The Day After Tomorrow in 3 paragraphs? NO ONE (see #1)
The only reason I finished this was because I spent $5 on it and the guy who sold it to me made a comment about how I have to read it “cover to cover” to count it towards my reading goal, like DUH?? fuck off. I’m so mad I read this.
Other gripes:
* Why would the picture you include for a play be a random picture from a not-notable performance years after the play debuted? Or was the 2011 performance of a 2004 play notable? I don’t know because YOU SURE DIDN’T TELL ME IF IT WAS
* Don’t get me started on the snarky photo captions. Why is the picture representing Children of Men just a pointless picture of Julianne Moore in a room with men in ski masks? Is that actually an important scene? Well I wouldn’t know after reading this fucking book because the caption is just a joke about skiing
August 24, 2021
This was... okay. Not that I had particularly high hopes for it, and it DID feature information about 50 different depictions of apocalypse, from movies, books, TV, comics, and even paintings and music. But I wasn't really cracked up by the author's attempt at MST3K-style humor in the captions and elsewhere, plus she picked as her "quotables" some of the least memorable lines in several entries. Also, an editor would have been nice, because it bothers me when misspellings like "encouter" make it all the way to publication.
September 21, 2018
I was so surprised and overjoyed to see Josė Saramago's novel Blindness included in this fun little coffee table book. I'm part Portuguese and this book was one of few I could find from Portuguese authors when I began explore more about my cultural heritage. It should be more well known!
October 2, 2019
Informative breakdown of media depicting the end of times. I was surprised by how many of them I had never even heard of. The captions were funny.
November 7, 2016
I thought this book was good, and prepares me for almost any type of apocalypse. Especially considering the election looming. But of course, I'm not here to talk about politics. I saw this book at my library, and since I've always found "the end of the world" idea interesting, I knew that I had to read this book. It was a good book for references of books, plays, movies, tv shows, songs, artwork, etc. about apocalypse scenarios. There were zombie apocalypses, virus apocalypses, war apocalypses, asteroid/meteoroid apocalypses, but the one thing I noticed was that there wasn't any political apocalypses, which I found to be somewhat unhelpful, considering the looming election. But, all in all, this book gave really good references to apocalypse writings and art and good synopsises for them. I didn't even know that World War Z was a book before it was a movie. I recommend this book apocalypse and pop culture junkies.
February 8, 2016
Total "meh" book to read pretty much only if you're bored in the bathroom. The short "articles" about each of the pop-culture media discussed are mildly entertaining in a blog-post sort of way but not much of the information is really very informative and the entries are arranged alphabetically by item title instead of by any sort of genre/apocalypse groupings so you get very tired of seeing some variation of "Zombies! Not gonna happen, folks!" in the "Reality Factor" boxes. Glad I got it from the library and marked down one item I might want to read out of the entire list but mostly it was not that great.
February 24, 2014
I love books that begin with the Earth as a radioactive blue cinder. Nothing celebrates humanity's meanness and altruism, stupidity and ingenuity, despair and resiliency like a good post-apocalyptic novel. This collection looks at movies, books, paintings, and music that contain visions of the end of the world. Each entry includes a summary, a reality check, possible or known inspirations, and the impact it had on our culture. I knew most of these, but I am going to need to read "V is for Vendetta" and rent the series "Jeremiah".
November 26, 2012
The best part of the whole book were the quotables in the back of each section. I also found the inspirations for the works interesting as well when they were available. I just don't like it when the author talks directly to the reader. I think this will go even if I am not a huge fan. A YES vote with resistance.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 4, 2015
interesting list of plays, movies, books, & songs if you've already seen them. gigantic spoilers for the movies & plays so if you haven't seen something in the TOC then skip those until you've seen them. I think that the description and opinions could have been longer and more in depth but the given info is interesting, even if I didn't agree with all of them. :-)
March 22, 2013
The problem with the book is that since it was written for teenagers, they expect them to know nothing about the past cultures of a different generation. So the book tries to explain everything, which most of the 50 visions I already knew all the information the book presented already.
April 16, 2013
3 1/2 stars - very interesting encyclopedia of end-of-the-world scenarios. I would like to have seen the justification of choosing the items that were included. It seems to me some very good works were excluded for some that are more obscure and not as relevant.
November 17, 2016
This was an informative book. I have seen/heard about several of the apocalyptic visions, but there were several that I haven't heard of before- probably should be read before the zombie apocalypse does arrive.
May 8, 2012
Reviewed for professional publication.
May 1, 2015
not really my cup of tea, I prefer more upbeat books myself.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews