Junah at the End of the World

by Dan Leach

Set in Upstate South Carolina in the months leading up to Y2K, Challenger follows twelve-year old Junah Simmons as he confronts the iconic catastrophes of youth—falling in love, finding one’s self, and surviving public school—while wrestling with the notion that the world itself could end in December. Junah’s odyssey through this existential landscape is kicks off with an assignment from his teacher to convert a shoebox into a time capsule and fill it with “things that tell what it was like to be alive in Carolina at the end of the world.”

224 pages, Paperback

Published June 17, 2025

Reviews

[morgan! · Rating 4 out of 5]

rip junah you would’ve loved superman (2025)

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was both hilarious and poignant. Leach humorously navigates both the “normal” challenges of middle school (first love, bullying, difficult family moments, weird teachers) as well as the exceptionally heavy (a classmate dying, potential apocalypse, knowing about the real dangers Sadie faces) with humor and a quirkily charming narrator. Each of these things become “the real apocalypse all along.” Perhaps middle school is inherently a time of miniature apocalypse, and all any of us can do is grab a pair of sunglasses and document it to survive as best we can. While Junah’s mom stockpiles food and water, he stockpiles stories to face these end times with, and there is something so meaningful in that.

Also, I love that Junah gets a tattoo.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Camus opened his essay An Absurd Reasoning by saying "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide." What good is philosophy if it can't explain why life should continue, why you should go on? I was introduced to this vein of thought by Walker Percy whose Catholicism was as much capital E Existentialism as it was official dogma.

Here, in his excellent debut novel, my friend Dan Leach draws heavily on Walker Percy's peculiar southern and Christian existentialism to great effect. The book also reminded me of Nick Hornby's best novel, About a Boy. Leach is as funny as Hornby and as Southern and philosophically probing as Percy, but the voice is entirely his.

It's a coming of age story set in the lead up to New Years Day 2000 and the panic about the computers crashing and the world ending. An eccentric teacher has her students create time capsules to remember the world to whoever might find them years after the apocalypse.

Junah is 12 years old and in sixth grade but his own eccentricities keep him distant from his classmates. He takes to the time capsule project with a level of obsession that is concerning to everyone in his life. The book is the capsule, and the conceit allows Leach to philosophise in fine style as Junah navigates his parents' divorce, falling in love with a punk rock girl, and his own search for meaning, seeking out an answer to Camus' question about why life is worth living.

And it's hilarious.

I'm biased as Dan is my friend, but Kirkus gave this a much deserved starred review, so don't just take my word for it.

[Greg Janicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmmm…

[Linda Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

"When I arrived into Miss Meechum's class for the first day of sixth grade, there were shoeboxes on all the desks and a message on the chalkboard that read: THE END OF THE WORLD IS HERE". Thus begins a journey into the mind of a 12-year old facing the potential apocalypse of Y2K. The shoeboxes were an assignment to create a time capsule. Some of the kids scoffed at this project, but Junah took it very seriously. This book shares his additions to the shoeboxes, because Junah would never stop when one box was filled. His mother became more fanatic about her religion and tried to save Junah's soul every day. He was still a skeptic. Mom also filled the garage with canned food and bottled water. (My mother did the same thing.) His divorced Dad thought that all would be well. One reviewer claimed that this book was "awfully damn funny". I don't agree. Junah at the End of the World is a poignant look at a period in time that most of us remember and it was enlightening to see it through the eyes of a child.

[James Passaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dan's novel will make you cry and make you laugh if you let it. It will also make you want to cry but endear you quickly in the next vignette of the musings of a tender and inquisitive young man trying to make sense of the world and its apocalyptic leanings. Whether we talk about the subjunctive mood or longing I found myself relating to Junah so many times on so many levels, myself not looking for a way out of the story but a way into life here and now in a world that may always be losing something.

I found myself constantly thinking is Junah getting what he wants? In some ways he does seem to get everything he wants, but he also finds that everything he wants has additional weight that he did not anticipate. A boy with many questions is given many answers along the way and as a reader I am left wondering with Junah if any of us in fact will live forever.

Do yourself a delight and read this beautiful book.

[Mackenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absurd. Witty. Filled with nuggets of wisdom and emotion.

Leach has written a novel so delightful to read I could hardly put it down!

The best stories for me are the ones that make you ask questions throughout and leave you with even more. What stories are worth saving? How would my life read as a box of mismatched moments? What have we lost to time?

I couldn’t stop highlighting passages and scribbling in the margins. I love books like this that blend pessimism and optimism, that look death in the eye and fight to stop from blinking.

There’s real heart and growing up amidst Junah’s bouncing narrative and a few sucker punches to the gut that got me good.

Can’t recommend this one enough!

[Steve Tripp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Captivating and entertaining short book. Highly readable. It has a Wonder Years feel to it (told by a 12 year old boy) with a bit more of a adult overtone (lots of discussion about death, religion etc). The only negative I can point to is that I was 12 once (a long time ago) and I had two kids who went through that age (15+ years ago) and people that age don't talk or think in the way the dialogue is written. Minor complaint. Enjoyable nonetheless.

[Melber · Rating 3 out of 5]

A humorous look of growing up and finding meaning in the world from a 12-year old's point of view in the shadows of Y2K.

Read my review/interview in SELn - https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/s...

[Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

12-year-olds do not talk like that