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End of the World House
Groundhog Day meets Ling Ma’s Severance in End of the World House, a thought-provoking comedic novel about two young women trying to save their friendship as the world collapses around them.
Bertie and Kate have been best friends since high school. Bertie is a semi-failed cartoonist, working for a prominent Silicon Valley tech firm. Her job depresses her, but not as much as the fact that Kate has recently decided to move from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
When Bertie’s attempts to make Kate stay fail, she suggests the next-best thing: a trip to Paris that will hopefully distract the duo from their upcoming separation. The vacation is also a sort of last hurrah, coming during a ceasefire in a series of escalating world conflicts.
One night in Paris, they meet a strange man in a bar who offers them a private tour of the Louvre. The women find themselves alone in the museum, where nothing is quite as it seems. Caught up in a day that keeps repeating itself, Bertie and Kate are eventually separated, and Bertie is faced with a mystery that threatens to derail everything. In order to make her way back to Kate, Bertie has to figure out how much control she has over her future—and her past—and how to survive an apocalypse when the world keeps refusing to end.
Bertie and Kate have been best friends since high school. Bertie is a semi-failed cartoonist, working for a prominent Silicon Valley tech firm. Her job depresses her, but not as much as the fact that Kate has recently decided to move from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
When Bertie’s attempts to make Kate stay fail, she suggests the next-best thing: a trip to Paris that will hopefully distract the duo from their upcoming separation. The vacation is also a sort of last hurrah, coming during a ceasefire in a series of escalating world conflicts.
One night in Paris, they meet a strange man in a bar who offers them a private tour of the Louvre. The women find themselves alone in the museum, where nothing is quite as it seems. Caught up in a day that keeps repeating itself, Bertie and Kate are eventually separated, and Bertie is faced with a mystery that threatens to derail everything. In order to make her way back to Kate, Bertie has to figure out how much control she has over her future—and her past—and how to survive an apocalypse when the world keeps refusing to end.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 19, 2022
83 people are currently reading
12481 people want to read
About the author
Adrienne Celt
9 books187 followersAdrienne Celt is a writer, cartoonist, and avid reader living in Tucson, AZ. Her debut novel THE DAUGHTERS won the 2015 PEN Southwest Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2016 Crawford Award. Her second novel, INVITATION TO A BONFIRE was a June 2018 Indie Next Pick, an Amazon Top 10 Book of the Month, and named a Best Book of the Year by the Financial Times. Her new novel, END OF THE WORLD HOUSE, will be published in spring 2022.
Winner of a 2016 O. Henry Prize, her short fiction and essays have appeared in Esquire, The Kenyon Review, Epoch, Zyzzyva, Ecotone, The Tin House Open Bar, Prairie Schooner, Electric Literature, The Lit Hub, and many other places. Also a cartoonist, her comics have been published by The Rumpus, The Toast, Bat City Review, Broad! Magazine, The Southeast Review, and other places, as well as appearing on her weekly webcomic: loveamongthelampreys.com. A collection of her comics, APOCALYPSE HOW? AN EXISTENTIAL BESTIARY was published in 2016.
Winner of a 2016 O. Henry Prize, her short fiction and essays have appeared in Esquire, The Kenyon Review, Epoch, Zyzzyva, Ecotone, The Tin House Open Bar, Prairie Schooner, Electric Literature, The Lit Hub, and many other places. Also a cartoonist, her comics have been published by The Rumpus, The Toast, Bat City Review, Broad! Magazine, The Southeast Review, and other places, as well as appearing on her weekly webcomic: loveamongthelampreys.com. A collection of her comics, APOCALYPSE HOW? AN EXISTENTIAL BESTIARY was published in 2016.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 382 reviews
April 19, 2022
**Many thanks to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Adrienne Celt for an ARC of this book! Now available as of 4.19!**
If you dumped out a bag of Scrabble tiles, tossed in some comics from the Sunday paper, and threw in a pocket watch stuck at 12:00, you'd have two things:
-a jumbled, odd, and incoherent mess
-a visual representation of this confusing and wholly unlikable book...which is itself a jumbled, odd and incoherent mess
The loose framework for this one is as follows: best friends Bertie and Kate have taken one last 'we're-the-best-of-girlfriends' trip to Paris. Bertie is a cartoonist, and paying the bills by doodling for a tech company...while Kate is...moving from San Francisco to L.A. (how this embodies her entire character, I'm still not sure.) A man at a bar named Javier promises them a magical special secret tour of the Louvre while nobody else is there...and at some point along the way, the two friends end up separated from one another, searching for Javier, locked in the museum, and stuck in a time loop (supposedly). And apparently the world is also ending. (There is a coffee shortage, which I DID find tragic, and honestly the saddest thing about this book.) Can the two ever break the chain and find one another? And can you keep yourself reading long enough to find out?
I'm sorry, but even trying to write a synopsis for this was painful and brought back the days-long headache I endured trying to get through this book. Calling this novel "comedic" is a stretch...a Stretch Armstrong type stretch. Not only didn't I laugh once while reading this, I found the attempts at 'humor' incredibly odd and off-putting. It felt like the author was trying to be highbrow and literary, but it just came off as strange.
This book is also about 40% chock full of anecdotes about Bertie and Kate's LONG, LONG friendship...which all felt incredibly boring, like a long-winded elderly person rambling on and on. The timelines also don't make ANY sense, I honestly wouldn't have even known time loops or multi-verses were going on for about 70% of the book if it hadn't been mentioned now and again. Granted, sci-fi and speculative fiction aren't my genre of choice, but I have read plenty of time travel books that were executed well: this one just isn't. I am also not sure what the relevance of the 'end of the world' even had in this book: it certainly didn't add to the dramatic tension. There is also a LONG section in the middle where we get to hear extensively about Bertie's time at her obnoxious corporate job.
...Fun.
To make matters even stranger, the ending is so cliched, so bizarre, and so unfulfilling I have no idea what the author was going for, since 90% of the book is about how Kate can't live without Bertie and Bertie can't live without Kate....and the ending is about another character entirely and was cringe-worthy in its own way.
Every book has an audience, and I'm sure there are those who will enjoy this one...but as for me, I'll stick to watching Groundhog Day...over and over and over.
2.5 stars
If you dumped out a bag of Scrabble tiles, tossed in some comics from the Sunday paper, and threw in a pocket watch stuck at 12:00, you'd have two things:
-a jumbled, odd, and incoherent mess
-a visual representation of this confusing and wholly unlikable book...which is itself a jumbled, odd and incoherent mess
The loose framework for this one is as follows: best friends Bertie and Kate have taken one last 'we're-the-best-of-girlfriends' trip to Paris. Bertie is a cartoonist, and paying the bills by doodling for a tech company...while Kate is...moving from San Francisco to L.A. (how this embodies her entire character, I'm still not sure.) A man at a bar named Javier promises them a magical special secret tour of the Louvre while nobody else is there...and at some point along the way, the two friends end up separated from one another, searching for Javier, locked in the museum, and stuck in a time loop (supposedly). And apparently the world is also ending. (There is a coffee shortage, which I DID find tragic, and honestly the saddest thing about this book.) Can the two ever break the chain and find one another? And can you keep yourself reading long enough to find out?
I'm sorry, but even trying to write a synopsis for this was painful and brought back the days-long headache I endured trying to get through this book. Calling this novel "comedic" is a stretch...a Stretch Armstrong type stretch. Not only didn't I laugh once while reading this, I found the attempts at 'humor' incredibly odd and off-putting. It felt like the author was trying to be highbrow and literary, but it just came off as strange.
This book is also about 40% chock full of anecdotes about Bertie and Kate's LONG, LONG friendship...which all felt incredibly boring, like a long-winded elderly person rambling on and on. The timelines also don't make ANY sense, I honestly wouldn't have even known time loops or multi-verses were going on for about 70% of the book if it hadn't been mentioned now and again. Granted, sci-fi and speculative fiction aren't my genre of choice, but I have read plenty of time travel books that were executed well: this one just isn't. I am also not sure what the relevance of the 'end of the world' even had in this book: it certainly didn't add to the dramatic tension. There is also a LONG section in the middle where we get to hear extensively about Bertie's time at her obnoxious corporate job.
...Fun.
To make matters even stranger, the ending is so cliched, so bizarre, and so unfulfilling I have no idea what the author was going for, since 90% of the book is about how Kate can't live without Bertie and Bertie can't live without Kate....and the ending is about another character entirely and was cringe-worthy in its own way.
Every book has an audience, and I'm sure there are those who will enjoy this one...but as for me, I'll stick to watching Groundhog Day...over and over and over.
2.5 stars
December 27, 2022
Can you imagine being trapped in Louvre museum in the middle of the apocalypse, stuck in a time loop: trying to find your missing friend! That’s what Bertie is dealing with!
Most of the people in the world dealt with similar situation but they were not lucky enough to get trapped in one of the most inspiring museums of the world; they stuck in their own houses, living the same hellish Groundhog Day! So this book is easy to relate and the apocalyptic universe the author created has so many similarities with our modern world which makes this book more terrifying and jaw dropping.
At the first part: we’re informed about how the world slowly ends with detailed and extra realistic descriptions which make us think what if those depictions are just horrifying true premonitions. We’re also introduced two close friends who will part their ways in a few days, deciding to visit Paris as if this would be their last chance to see the city.
Bertie is a talented cartoonist who is doing mostly dinosaur avatar illustrations for a large tech company in Silicon Valley. She stuck in this job, procrastinating her dream to work on her own graphic novel. Kate works as fundraiser and publicist of nonprofit organization lobbied to improve the school lunches. But now she gets an offer from L. A. and her decision to leave the city immediately reminds Bertie of her own loneliness.
When they meet an eccentric stranger at a bar who promises them to provide an early entrance opportunity to Louvre museum, the girls get excited.
As they arrive to the museum early in the morning, Kate performs secret knock she’s told and the museum workers let them in.
But the girls finally confront each other about their boiled up feelings and they have an argument. When Bertie leaves her friend alone to freshen up at the restroom, she doesn’t find her at the same place she left.
She keeps looking for her friend, trying to find her way out from the museum and she finally realizes this actual day turns into her own Groundhog Day she has to live over and over again.
I was a little worried how the story would conclude but thankfully time loop and romantic turn of the plot wrapped up adroitly.
I love the creative idea of plot but I had a little problem to connect with main characters.
It’s still one of the original, well written, post apocalyptic- fantasy- romance story I mostly enjoyed!
Special thanks to NetGalley and Simon Schuster for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.
Most of the people in the world dealt with similar situation but they were not lucky enough to get trapped in one of the most inspiring museums of the world; they stuck in their own houses, living the same hellish Groundhog Day! So this book is easy to relate and the apocalyptic universe the author created has so many similarities with our modern world which makes this book more terrifying and jaw dropping.
At the first part: we’re informed about how the world slowly ends with detailed and extra realistic descriptions which make us think what if those depictions are just horrifying true premonitions. We’re also introduced two close friends who will part their ways in a few days, deciding to visit Paris as if this would be their last chance to see the city.
Bertie is a talented cartoonist who is doing mostly dinosaur avatar illustrations for a large tech company in Silicon Valley. She stuck in this job, procrastinating her dream to work on her own graphic novel. Kate works as fundraiser and publicist of nonprofit organization lobbied to improve the school lunches. But now she gets an offer from L. A. and her decision to leave the city immediately reminds Bertie of her own loneliness.
When they meet an eccentric stranger at a bar who promises them to provide an early entrance opportunity to Louvre museum, the girls get excited.
As they arrive to the museum early in the morning, Kate performs secret knock she’s told and the museum workers let them in.
But the girls finally confront each other about their boiled up feelings and they have an argument. When Bertie leaves her friend alone to freshen up at the restroom, she doesn’t find her at the same place she left.
She keeps looking for her friend, trying to find her way out from the museum and she finally realizes this actual day turns into her own Groundhog Day she has to live over and over again.
I was a little worried how the story would conclude but thankfully time loop and romantic turn of the plot wrapped up adroitly.
I love the creative idea of plot but I had a little problem to connect with main characters.
It’s still one of the original, well written, post apocalyptic- fantasy- romance story I mostly enjoyed!
Special thanks to NetGalley and Simon Schuster for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 2, 2022
Taking place sometime in the future, End of The World House envisions a world in the process of collapsing. There are perpetual fires and floods, terrorist bombings in major cities, all leading to shortages and rationing. In the midst of all this, during a period of ceasefire peace talks, Bertie and Kate head to Paris for a vacation before Kate moves from Silicon Valley to LA. Once there, they meet a man who promises them private access to the Louvre. This is where the book launches into a Groundhog Day scenario, told from Bertie’s viewpoint. But unlike Groundhog Day, each re-start has minor differences and it became fun to pick up on each inconsistency.
Then the book takes a hard turn. I can’t go into much about the second part of the book without spoilers. Suffice it to say it's about Bertie’s life without Kate. The problem was I just couldn’t get invested in the story. There are some minor discussions about the multiverse (as opposed to the universe) and other philosophical thoughts meant to be deep.
I am not a big fan of Sci-fi, so others that are might be more invested in this story.
My thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this book.
Then the book takes a hard turn. I can’t go into much about the second part of the book without spoilers. Suffice it to say it's about Bertie’s life without Kate. The problem was I just couldn’t get invested in the story. There are some minor discussions about the multiverse (as opposed to the universe) and other philosophical thoughts meant to be deep.
I am not a big fan of Sci-fi, so others that are might be more invested in this story.
My thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this book.
April 18, 2022
End of the World House by Adrienne Celt is a dystopian science fiction fantasy novel set in a future version of our world. The world has been at war with fires and floods and bombings in the cities and of course shortages in the supplies.
Bertie and Kate have been best friends since high school and have gotten one another through this tough time but Kate has decided to move from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Bertie doesn’t want to see Kate go but Kate had made up her mind to leave the city.
Bertie decides that a girl’s trip is just what the pair need to take their minds off of the separation and there is currently a ceasefire going on in the world making it safer to travel. Bertie and Kate head to Paris but after arriving they meet a strange man and end up trapped in a time loop in the Louvre.
I’m one that is always up for a good science fiction or dystopian read so when I saw End of the World House by Adrienne Celt and noticed it was compared to Groundhog Day, which I enjoyed, I couldn’t help but be curious. Well, this one did not pull me in the way I completely expected it to. One wouldn’t think that maybe it was the repetitive nature that did me in but no, it just simply fell flat and I couldn’t not connect to the characters at all. Also sold as a humorous read I didn’t find that at all for me either so in the end I gave this one two and a half stars as it certainly had potential but could have been better executed in my opinion.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
Bertie and Kate have been best friends since high school and have gotten one another through this tough time but Kate has decided to move from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Bertie doesn’t want to see Kate go but Kate had made up her mind to leave the city.
Bertie decides that a girl’s trip is just what the pair need to take their minds off of the separation and there is currently a ceasefire going on in the world making it safer to travel. Bertie and Kate head to Paris but after arriving they meet a strange man and end up trapped in a time loop in the Louvre.
I’m one that is always up for a good science fiction or dystopian read so when I saw End of the World House by Adrienne Celt and noticed it was compared to Groundhog Day, which I enjoyed, I couldn’t help but be curious. Well, this one did not pull me in the way I completely expected it to. One wouldn’t think that maybe it was the repetitive nature that did me in but no, it just simply fell flat and I couldn’t not connect to the characters at all. Also sold as a humorous read I didn’t find that at all for me either so in the end I gave this one two and a half stars as it certainly had potential but could have been better executed in my opinion.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
February 26, 2022
I didn’t find this gripping.
There have been bombings and other things that have halted travel and normal living, but when the world opens back up, cartoonist Bertie asks her friend Kate to visit Paris with her. Kate has accepted a promotion that will transfer her from San Francisco and Bertie to Los Angeles, something Bertie finds even more depressing than doing cartoons for her Silicon Valley tech firm. While there, they get an invite from a man in bar to visit the Louvre on a day it’s closed to the public, and they get stuck there, living a similar day over and over again.
You’d think it would be interesting reading about someone passionate about art whose goals to write her own graphic novels are thwarted by making money doing art on command for an actual paycheck to get stuck at the greatest museum in the world, but not a lot happens—it’s repetitious. That’s partly the point—that between our jobs and how we unwind from our jobs, the endless terrible headlines repeated day after day, many of us live most of our lives in a half-awake routine. The backstory of her and Kate’s friendship was more interesting to me than their present-day conundrum and more interesting than Bertie’s relationship with her boyfriend.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which a RELEASES APRIL 19, 2022.
There have been bombings and other things that have halted travel and normal living, but when the world opens back up, cartoonist Bertie asks her friend Kate to visit Paris with her. Kate has accepted a promotion that will transfer her from San Francisco and Bertie to Los Angeles, something Bertie finds even more depressing than doing cartoons for her Silicon Valley tech firm. While there, they get an invite from a man in bar to visit the Louvre on a day it’s closed to the public, and they get stuck there, living a similar day over and over again.
You’d think it would be interesting reading about someone passionate about art whose goals to write her own graphic novels are thwarted by making money doing art on command for an actual paycheck to get stuck at the greatest museum in the world, but not a lot happens—it’s repetitious. That’s partly the point—that between our jobs and how we unwind from our jobs, the endless terrible headlines repeated day after day, many of us live most of our lives in a half-awake routine. The backstory of her and Kate’s friendship was more interesting to me than their present-day conundrum and more interesting than Bertie’s relationship with her boyfriend.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which a RELEASES APRIL 19, 2022.
April 24, 2022
“We aren’t the same. But we are one person. I don’t know if that makes sense”. No, it does not make sense. And this book does not illuminate that statement in any way. It is a hot mess about a very close friendship and multiverses in a vague, post-apocalyptic world. I should have stopped reading but I stuck it out to the end. Do not believe the blurb’s comparison to Groundhog Day. That movie had charm and redemption. This book just has confusing, boring loops. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
November 13, 2021
QUICK TAKE: wanted to love it, liked a lot about it, but ultimately was turned off by the toxic masculinity/gaslighting subplot that felt a little off for me. I liked the female friendship at the center of the story, but that gets pushed aside for a dark and icky relationship story. Still, interested in reading more from this author, and I love the cover art.
April 25, 2022
Bertie and Kate are the kind of friends who reconnect in an instant, have inside jokes and their own universe when they are together. The world around them is falling apart with bombings and refugees, and Kate decides to move to Los Angeles instead of buying a house in northern California like they'd planned.
They end up in Paris on a last hurrah, where they meet a mysterious man who can get them into the Louvre even though it is closed for safety. And that's where the strangeness begins, or at least, when they start to notice it. Is it part of the apocalypse? Is someone experimenting with them? Is it the museum or the world? Regardless, days seem very familiar, and then Kate disappears.
This was a fun read..I'm not sure I'm satisfied by the ending entirely but I did enjoy the journey. I feel like this is a mix of Piranesi and the film Seeking a Friend for the End of World, but I liked it more than Piranesi. Another reading friend also found the tone to be similar to Leave the World Behind, and I thought that was a good comparison, the doom of the surrounding events that aren't entirely understood, and knowing that what is happening simultaneously has something to do with what is happening and that it wouldn't be happening without those events.
Thanks to the publisher for providing access through NetGalley. The book came out April 19, 2022.
They end up in Paris on a last hurrah, where they meet a mysterious man who can get them into the Louvre even though it is closed for safety. And that's where the strangeness begins, or at least, when they start to notice it. Is it part of the apocalypse? Is someone experimenting with them? Is it the museum or the world? Regardless, days seem very familiar, and then Kate disappears.
This was a fun read..I'm not sure I'm satisfied by the ending entirely but I did enjoy the journey. I feel like this is a mix of Piranesi and the film Seeking a Friend for the End of World, but I liked it more than Piranesi. Another reading friend also found the tone to be similar to Leave the World Behind, and I thought that was a good comparison, the doom of the surrounding events that aren't entirely understood, and knowing that what is happening simultaneously has something to do with what is happening and that it wouldn't be happening without those events.
Thanks to the publisher for providing access through NetGalley. The book came out April 19, 2022.
May 21, 2022
"The thing that made the world's collapse so hard to parse was the regularity that persisted, in spite of everything."
It's not often that a writer pulls a four-or-five-star rug out from under my feet ten pages from the end of their book, but damned if it didn't happen here. I'm never not going to inhale alternating timelines, especially those set against a slow-moving apocalypse and I adored the deep friendship of Bertie and Kate. I was hoping that Celt had a non-disappointing finale up her sleeve, especially since the basis of the fraught, clandestine trip to the Louvre (and really Paris in general) was based around the concept that the two women were separating and Kate was okay with that while Bertie was not, but alas, especially after the revelation that I'm not sure where she was going with the confusing and, to borrow a word from Chrissie's far superior review, unearned ending. I grouse about endings a lot in my reviews, how I don't get where authors are going or how I always wish I could've had a bit more info to flesh things out, but I hereby take all of that back because THIS is the book that I was absolutely loving and really needed to stick the landing more than almost any I've read this year and it just did not.
It's not often that a writer pulls a four-or-five-star rug out from under my feet ten pages from the end of their book, but damned if it didn't happen here. I'm never not going to inhale alternating timelines, especially those set against a slow-moving apocalypse and I adored the deep friendship of Bertie and Kate. I was hoping that Celt had a non-disappointing finale up her sleeve, especially since the basis of the fraught, clandestine trip to the Louvre (and really Paris in general) was based around the concept that the two women were separating and Kate was okay with that while Bertie was not, but alas, especially after the revelation that I'm not sure where she was going with the confusing and, to borrow a word from Chrissie's far superior review, unearned ending. I grouse about endings a lot in my reviews, how I don't get where authors are going or how I always wish I could've had a bit more info to flesh things out, but I hereby take all of that back because THIS is the book that I was absolutely loving and really needed to stick the landing more than almost any I've read this year and it just did not.
May 29, 2023
Kate and Bertie have been best friends since high school. Kate has decided to move from San Francisco to Los Angeles for a new job. Bertie tries to get Kate to stay but her mind is set in stone. They decide to go on a trip to Paris as a final way to celebrate their friendship. They are also in the middle of a world apocalypse with war, fires and bloods, and shortages of supplies.
In Paris they meet a man who offers them private tours of the Louvre. The women find that the day continues to repeat itself. The book alternated between the girls friendship in the past and their current situation in Paris. I was super excited to read about females trying to navigate not only an apocalypse but also their possible crumbling friendship. Instead, I found it extremely boring honestly and a little repetitive. Obviously the whole ground hog day thing can be repetitive but I don’t like the way it was written. I found myself bored and then of course a man comes in and it becomes all about him. The man also can change the future with the snap of his fingers? Like what are you, Thanos? Cliche and unoriginal. As you’ve guessed, I was sorely disappointed.
Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy of this book. Side note, this cover is amazing.
In Paris they meet a man who offers them private tours of the Louvre. The women find that the day continues to repeat itself. The book alternated between the girls friendship in the past and their current situation in Paris. I was super excited to read about females trying to navigate not only an apocalypse but also their possible crumbling friendship. Instead, I found it extremely boring honestly and a little repetitive. Obviously the whole ground hog day thing can be repetitive but I don’t like the way it was written. I found myself bored and then of course a man comes in and it becomes all about him. The man also can change the future with the snap of his fingers? Like what are you, Thanos? Cliche and unoriginal. As you’ve guessed, I was sorely disappointed.
Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy of this book. Side note, this cover is amazing.
March 5, 2025
I haven't rated a book 1 star in a while, so maybe I'm just excited. Great premise; horrid, putrid, nasty, filthy, stinky execution.
Kate and Bertie go on one last hurrah to Paris, France, before Kate moves town. Today, their plan is to visit the Louvre! All is well until the day starts repeating itself, unbeknownst to either woman, which is my gripe #1. Exit synopsis, enter criticism. The mechanics of this time loop attempt novelty but deliver nothing. I am all right with fiction incorporating sci-fi elements in their stories with little to no explanation, and that’s the approach author Adrienne Celt should have taken. Don’t try to explain your magic system to me… when it’s clear… you haven’t thought about it much at all! Sigh. This fictional time loop bends itself at Celt's will, its only purpose to tell the story she wants.
The unfortunate thing about this poorly constructed science fiction is that Celt's story isn't even compelling. Instead of time looping, it... literally... doesn't. Okay well, the first half does, but as I mentioned, the women don't KNOW they're in a loop. Wow! What a talent it is to kill the most intriguing element of the concept. Once we reach the latter half of the book, after some random shoddy exposition from Bertie's boyfriend (where did he come from?) that says everything and nothing, the girls are not. in. the. Louvre. anymore. Matter of fact, Kate's disappeared from the equation completely, and instead, we follow Bertie's life working as a cartoonist and living with her boyfriend. Okay...
I am not usually one to take issue with a plot. Usually, I want to read a story as the author intended. So that is the lens through which I resumed the rest of the story, with faith in Adrienne Celt, thinking, there is a valuable nugget in here, I'm sure. And there is! The remainder of the novel explores Bertie’s Kate-shaped hole… poignant, yet unfulfilling, as you spend the entire 300 pages assuming the reason they’re separated is the fault of Bertie’s manipulative boyfriend, not because you’re stupid, but because Celt repeatedly writes hints that this is truth. Once you reach the end, and you realize Kate had been hiding from Bertie not because of any boyfriend, but simply because she wanted to be alone, you’re confused as to why you spent so much time thinking the former. I’m sure this was intentional, but my disappointment arose from Celt giving very little indication that this was the lesson we were meant to learn. Okay? Friends come and go, I guess. Why did this end up being more about her boyfriend than her friend? Why was I poorly marketed to?
I am so upset with this clickbait of a synopsis that I feel compelled to write a fix-it fic. What would have wiped is if the time loop examined the women’s relationship under a microscope. Let’s really analyze why Kate is moving. Why Bertie is so upset about it. Imagine the frustration Kate would feel having to spend yet another identical day with Bertie, when all she wants to do is move away from her. THAT’S interesting.
Alas, Celt’s interest in the friendship dies as Bertie’s boyfriend becomes prominent character. She seems to conclude that Bertie and boyfriend are cosmically intertwined. Sweet, but why not write that same storyline with the friend? I’m confused as to why Kate even came in the picture, since boyfriend took the reins in second half. Here are two completely different plot lines. They barely intersect. You think that they might for a second….! And then they don’t. Trying to make meaning of this book is defeatist.
Okay Uzma, did interesting prose at least save this novel? No. I wrote down some good quotes here and there, hoping that I could piece them together come the end, but I fear I was wasting my time. AND I TOTALLY FORGOT to bring up the fact that this whole story is occurring at the end of the world??? Like there’s some climate change, global apocalypse type thing occurring, but never expanded upon? Should I spend time analyzing all this or should I just give up? Because I feel like giving up. Maybe this was about becoming too comfortable with people you don’t mesh with, maybe this was about romantic love, maybe this was about all the different ways your life could go, but I can’t pick one and be sold on it. Because the fact that they’re all presented at once makes the individual weak.
Sorry for this rant. Hiding because half of this is spoilers. I might have to revisit this review and flesh it out more. Maybe not. I’m done with it <3
Kate and Bertie go on one last hurrah to Paris, France, before Kate moves town. Today, their plan is to visit the Louvre! All is well until the day starts repeating itself, unbeknownst to either woman, which is my gripe #1. Exit synopsis, enter criticism. The mechanics of this time loop attempt novelty but deliver nothing. I am all right with fiction incorporating sci-fi elements in their stories with little to no explanation, and that’s the approach author Adrienne Celt should have taken. Don’t try to explain your magic system to me… when it’s clear… you haven’t thought about it much at all! Sigh. This fictional time loop bends itself at Celt's will, its only purpose to tell the story she wants.
The unfortunate thing about this poorly constructed science fiction is that Celt's story isn't even compelling. Instead of time looping, it... literally... doesn't. Okay well, the first half does, but as I mentioned, the women don't KNOW they're in a loop. Wow! What a talent it is to kill the most intriguing element of the concept. Once we reach the latter half of the book, after some random shoddy exposition from Bertie's boyfriend (where did he come from?) that says everything and nothing, the girls are not. in. the. Louvre. anymore. Matter of fact, Kate's disappeared from the equation completely, and instead, we follow Bertie's life working as a cartoonist and living with her boyfriend. Okay...
I am not usually one to take issue with a plot. Usually, I want to read a story as the author intended. So that is the lens through which I resumed the rest of the story, with faith in Adrienne Celt, thinking, there is a valuable nugget in here, I'm sure. And there is! The remainder of the novel explores Bertie’s Kate-shaped hole… poignant, yet unfulfilling, as you spend the entire 300 pages assuming the reason they’re separated is the fault of Bertie’s manipulative boyfriend, not because you’re stupid, but because Celt repeatedly writes hints that this is truth. Once you reach the end, and you realize Kate had been hiding from Bertie not because of any boyfriend, but simply because she wanted to be alone, you’re confused as to why you spent so much time thinking the former. I’m sure this was intentional, but my disappointment arose from Celt giving very little indication that this was the lesson we were meant to learn. Okay? Friends come and go, I guess. Why did this end up being more about her boyfriend than her friend? Why was I poorly marketed to?
I am so upset with this clickbait of a synopsis that I feel compelled to write a fix-it fic. What would have wiped is if the time loop examined the women’s relationship under a microscope. Let’s really analyze why Kate is moving. Why Bertie is so upset about it. Imagine the frustration Kate would feel having to spend yet another identical day with Bertie, when all she wants to do is move away from her. THAT’S interesting.
Alas, Celt’s interest in the friendship dies as Bertie’s boyfriend becomes prominent character. She seems to conclude that Bertie and boyfriend are cosmically intertwined. Sweet, but why not write that same storyline with the friend? I’m confused as to why Kate even came in the picture, since boyfriend took the reins in second half. Here are two completely different plot lines. They barely intersect. You think that they might for a second….! And then they don’t. Trying to make meaning of this book is defeatist.
Okay Uzma, did interesting prose at least save this novel? No. I wrote down some good quotes here and there, hoping that I could piece them together come the end, but I fear I was wasting my time. AND I TOTALLY FORGOT to bring up the fact that this whole story is occurring at the end of the world??? Like there’s some climate change, global apocalypse type thing occurring, but never expanded upon? Should I spend time analyzing all this or should I just give up? Because I feel like giving up. Maybe this was about becoming too comfortable with people you don’t mesh with, maybe this was about romantic love, maybe this was about all the different ways your life could go, but I can’t pick one and be sold on it. Because the fact that they’re all presented at once makes the individual weak.
Sorry for this rant. Hiding because half of this is spoilers. I might have to revisit this review and flesh it out more. Maybe not. I’m done with it <3
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 14, 2022
Having to hit this one in the middle with the rating. Ooof. One of those where a solid grouping of stars just doesn't cut it. I need two ratings — one for the first 90% of the book and another for the last 10%.
End of the World House started out strong. A couple of women, thirty-ish in age, on a trip together in Paris. Fresh off a night out and headed to the Louvre, Celt sets up a story of a dynamic female friendship on a mid-point climate and political crisis stage. But the friendship, once strong and life affirming, seems to be heading into trouble. Bertie is trying hard to not be angry with Kate, and to enjoy this trip, before Kate moves to another city and leaves Bertie behind.
But the outing to the Louvre isn't a typical one. Kate met a man named Javier the night before while she and Bertie were out, and he offered to get both women into the Louvre on a Tuesday — the day of the week when the museum is typically closed. And as the women cross the courtyard to enter the Louvre by way of giving Javier's name to the guard behind the door, there are ominous sounding lines woven into the text: Later, she would remember...but in the moment.... The atmosphere was ripe with the possibilities promised in the book's blurb: Groundhog Day meets Ling Ma’s Severance. (And now, having read the book through, I'd add The Truman Show to that for extra layers.)
The time spent in the museum is thick with an argument waiting to drop — or the tension from steadfastly avoiding a fight. It's thrillingly quiet — they are alone in the Louvre, but they can't seem to enjoy it with the personal betrayals so close to the surface, valiant efforts aside.
The two get separated. The chapter ends, and the next chapter begins with a replay of that Tuesday, with slightly different variables, leading them back to the Louvre. The slightest hint of questioning awareness scratches at Bertie's mind, but she ignores it and shrugs these strange feelings off.
What follows is a series of events that sheds Kate from the story and brings about a new character into the picture: Dylan. Suddenly he's at the museum at one point when Kate seems to have disappeared. He's Bertie's boyfriend. It resets. Bertie and Dylan meet in California. They work at the same company. They start dating.
Bertie struggles to put the pieces together from her memory recall overload that slowly creeps its way in — something that only gets worse for her as the story continues — and her time, place, location, and known friends come together in her mind like ill-fitting puzzle pieces, a near fit but they're from different puzzles. Dylan steers her back to him — and she does seem to find comfort and love from knowing him. Still, Kate exists for her and pulls at her mind, even when they no longer know each other in Bertie's current reality. Bertie's thoughts return to Kate again and again — the need to find her, even when Bertie doesn't remember that Kate is missing somewhere in Paris, maybe still in the Louvre.
The constant examination of their friendship, the need for companionship, and the way that dynamic is set up in the story is incredibly compelling. Kate and Bertie feel like a matched set, a complementary pair if there ever was one. But where Celt lost me was very late in the book, and without giving away spoilers, what constituted an ending made the entire journey fruitless and frustrating. Dylan as a character is interesting, but because of his particular role by the time the story closes, his relationship with both Bertie and the story's plot overall, feels like the antithesis of the actual design behind the majority of the writing and character development for Bertie. Or at least the intention presented by the novel's first eighty to ninety percent.
The beautiful confusion and the taut need of a friendship that seems to be preordained that swirls around Bertie throughout much of the novel made me think I was headed for a five-star book. The untangling of all that was built as the foundation of the End of the World House seems to have been as suddenly and swiftly forgotten as Kate's initial disappearance around a corner in the Louvre. I thought Celt's writing throughout was lyrical and weighty, but the hammered in resolution was puzzling and disappointing. Even after I finished the book and the sharp sting of betrayal to the story, I struggled to categorize my thoughts on it. The events and confusion of the ending reminded me exactly of Bertie's feelings when she'd emanate confusion about her newly reset circumstances — which she'd only allow to intrude for the briefest of moments. If that is the intention, it was not an earned ending for me.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.
End of the World House started out strong. A couple of women, thirty-ish in age, on a trip together in Paris. Fresh off a night out and headed to the Louvre, Celt sets up a story of a dynamic female friendship on a mid-point climate and political crisis stage. But the friendship, once strong and life affirming, seems to be heading into trouble. Bertie is trying hard to not be angry with Kate, and to enjoy this trip, before Kate moves to another city and leaves Bertie behind.
But the outing to the Louvre isn't a typical one. Kate met a man named Javier the night before while she and Bertie were out, and he offered to get both women into the Louvre on a Tuesday — the day of the week when the museum is typically closed. And as the women cross the courtyard to enter the Louvre by way of giving Javier's name to the guard behind the door, there are ominous sounding lines woven into the text: Later, she would remember...but in the moment.... The atmosphere was ripe with the possibilities promised in the book's blurb: Groundhog Day meets Ling Ma’s Severance. (And now, having read the book through, I'd add The Truman Show to that for extra layers.)
The time spent in the museum is thick with an argument waiting to drop — or the tension from steadfastly avoiding a fight. It's thrillingly quiet — they are alone in the Louvre, but they can't seem to enjoy it with the personal betrayals so close to the surface, valiant efforts aside.
The two get separated. The chapter ends, and the next chapter begins with a replay of that Tuesday, with slightly different variables, leading them back to the Louvre. The slightest hint of questioning awareness scratches at Bertie's mind, but she ignores it and shrugs these strange feelings off.
What follows is a series of events that sheds Kate from the story and brings about a new character into the picture: Dylan. Suddenly he's at the museum at one point when Kate seems to have disappeared. He's Bertie's boyfriend. It resets. Bertie and Dylan meet in California. They work at the same company. They start dating.
Bertie struggles to put the pieces together from her memory recall overload that slowly creeps its way in — something that only gets worse for her as the story continues — and her time, place, location, and known friends come together in her mind like ill-fitting puzzle pieces, a near fit but they're from different puzzles. Dylan steers her back to him — and she does seem to find comfort and love from knowing him. Still, Kate exists for her and pulls at her mind, even when they no longer know each other in Bertie's current reality. Bertie's thoughts return to Kate again and again — the need to find her, even when Bertie doesn't remember that Kate is missing somewhere in Paris, maybe still in the Louvre.
The constant examination of their friendship, the need for companionship, and the way that dynamic is set up in the story is incredibly compelling. Kate and Bertie feel like a matched set, a complementary pair if there ever was one. But where Celt lost me was very late in the book, and without giving away spoilers, what constituted an ending made the entire journey fruitless and frustrating. Dylan as a character is interesting, but because of his particular role by the time the story closes, his relationship with both Bertie and the story's plot overall, feels like the antithesis of the actual design behind the majority of the writing and character development for Bertie. Or at least the intention presented by the novel's first eighty to ninety percent.
The beautiful confusion and the taut need of a friendship that seems to be preordained that swirls around Bertie throughout much of the novel made me think I was headed for a five-star book. The untangling of all that was built as the foundation of the End of the World House seems to have been as suddenly and swiftly forgotten as Kate's initial disappearance around a corner in the Louvre. I thought Celt's writing throughout was lyrical and weighty, but the hammered in resolution was puzzling and disappointing. Even after I finished the book and the sharp sting of betrayal to the story, I struggled to categorize my thoughts on it. The events and confusion of the ending reminded me exactly of Bertie's feelings when she'd emanate confusion about her newly reset circumstances — which she'd only allow to intrude for the briefest of moments. If that is the intention, it was not an earned ending for me.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.
October 31, 2022
Two best friends go on a trip to Paris and get trapped in a time loop whilst visiting the Louvre at night. Eventually, they become separated and reminisce about their friendship whilst attempting to survive the apocalypse.
Not for me.
This was such a mess. I think the premise was super interesting and I am in love with the cover, but the story was a letdown. Whilst the whole reminiscing about their friendship and what being friends in your 30s is like was okay, the time loop stuff, the impromptu romance, and just the structure were a disjointed mess. I appreciated the ending, I guess. It didn’t surprise me, but it was okay.
April 19, 2022
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
End of the World House is a trippy literary page-turner with a great premise and an ending I’ll be thinking about for a long time. It manages to be very readable and also very smart.
For you if: You like novels that border commercial and literary fiction with a weird, speculative premise.
FULL REVIEW:
Thank you, Simon & Schuster, for the review copy of this book! As soon as I saw the synopsis, I knew I had to read it — and it did not disappoint.
End of the World House is about a young woman named Bertie who is a cartoonist at a tech startup in a near-future, apocalyptic, WWIII-type world. She and her soon-to-move-away best friend, Kate, decide to go on a vacation to Paris while the world is at (what could be its last) ceasefire. A man they met in a bar gets them into the Louvre while its closed But in the midst of their exploration, Bertie finds herself not only separated from Kate, but also in a Groundhog-Day-esque time loop.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but one of the best parts of this book is that it goes in a totally different direction than you probably expect based on the synopsis. I was totally hooked and finished the book in one sitting — it’s not a thriller or anything, but it’s definitely got a good pace to it.
This book is readable and also smart, a great fit for people who like to land in that sweet spot between a contemporary and literary type of feeling. The apocalyptic state of the world feels eerily possible and only a few steps up from how things are today, which makes for resonant ideas to ruminate on — that we are all wildly imperfect in relationship to one another, and all just doing our best; the way we cling to those imperfect relationships when things are scary and we are lonely; the feeling of futility around going to work and leading normal lives as society crumbles around us; the question of whether it’s worth following our dreams as the world burns.
I can’t wait for more people to read this so I can talk to them about it!
CONTENT AND TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Death of one’s parents; Grief; Bombing/warfare; Toxic relationship
TL;DR REVIEW:
End of the World House is a trippy literary page-turner with a great premise and an ending I’ll be thinking about for a long time. It manages to be very readable and also very smart.
For you if: You like novels that border commercial and literary fiction with a weird, speculative premise.
FULL REVIEW:
Thank you, Simon & Schuster, for the review copy of this book! As soon as I saw the synopsis, I knew I had to read it — and it did not disappoint.
End of the World House is about a young woman named Bertie who is a cartoonist at a tech startup in a near-future, apocalyptic, WWIII-type world. She and her soon-to-move-away best friend, Kate, decide to go on a vacation to Paris while the world is at (what could be its last) ceasefire. A man they met in a bar gets them into the Louvre while its closed But in the midst of their exploration, Bertie finds herself not only separated from Kate, but also in a Groundhog-Day-esque time loop.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but one of the best parts of this book is that it goes in a totally different direction than you probably expect based on the synopsis. I was totally hooked and finished the book in one sitting — it’s not a thriller or anything, but it’s definitely got a good pace to it.
This book is readable and also smart, a great fit for people who like to land in that sweet spot between a contemporary and literary type of feeling. The apocalyptic state of the world feels eerily possible and only a few steps up from how things are today, which makes for resonant ideas to ruminate on — that we are all wildly imperfect in relationship to one another, and all just doing our best; the way we cling to those imperfect relationships when things are scary and we are lonely; the feeling of futility around going to work and leading normal lives as society crumbles around us; the question of whether it’s worth following our dreams as the world burns.
I can’t wait for more people to read this so I can talk to them about it!
CONTENT AND TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Death of one’s parents; Grief; Bombing/warfare; Toxic relationship
August 14, 2022
Interesting. Unusual. Weird. A bit nostalgic at the end. Full of possibility, maybe?
Our main character, Bertie, makes a significant choice that I don't quite understand why she would, which drives the thrust of the tale.
Set against a dystopian version of our world, which makes an interesting landscape to set the novel against. Also gives an excuse for throwing in every modern day, fear-mongering trope such as anti-Americanism, anti-oil, "gender studies", environmentalism, and more. Does do a nice play on the perceived morality of tech companies while they are just making money like everyone else, which was intriguing to see.
Overall enjoyable, but not super enthralling. Great if you like the mind-bending aspect of potential outcomes of time loops. And Bernie is a sweet character one can root for while following her story.
Our main character, Bertie, makes a significant choice that I don't quite understand why she would, which drives the thrust of the tale.
Set against a dystopian version of our world, which makes an interesting landscape to set the novel against. Also gives an excuse for throwing in every modern day, fear-mongering trope such as anti-Americanism, anti-oil, "gender studies", environmentalism, and more. Does do a nice play on the perceived morality of tech companies while they are just making money like everyone else, which was intriguing to see.
Overall enjoyable, but not super enthralling. Great if you like the mind-bending aspect of potential outcomes of time loops. And Bernie is a sweet character one can root for while following her story.
August 18, 2022
1.5 stars.
This didn't work for me at all. What could have been an interesting groundhog day story was bogged down by a relationship plot that sparked not the slightest emotion in me. Nothing seemed to work together in this book.
This didn't work for me at all. What could have been an interesting groundhog day story was bogged down by a relationship plot that sparked not the slightest emotion in me. Nothing seemed to work together in this book.
December 16, 2021
"Who knows who you’ll meet, in Paris. Anything was possible there, in a city so old, so full of ghosts, that the ground could shift beneath your feet without appearing to change at all…"
Science fiction is my sweet spot, especially books that deal with time warps, time travel, or other similar paradoxes. So when I read the synopsis for End of the World House, with its seemingly infinite, Groundhog Day-esque time loop, I was sure it would be a hit.
"Is it easier on you if I pretend you’ve never been here before? Never lived through this day?"
I was expecting something similar to In a Holidaze , or in the same vein as some of Rebecca Serle’s writing - something light, romantic, and fun, with the added sci-fi twist to make it feel innovative and unexpected. I usually really enjoy books like that, and was so excited to read this one!
"It became hard, in waking life, to know which things were too strange to be real, and which were just strange enough."
Unfortunately, End of the World House didn’t live up to those expectations, and ended up being sort of a miss for me. With its unusual, not-fully-explained apocalyptic backdrop, a la Leave the World Behind , and its hallucinogenic descriptions of the repeating day in the museum, it almost reminded me of All's Well - kind of cringey, a little uncomfortable, and super confusing.
"We’re all trapped here…. There’s no way out. Even when I manage to leave, they bring me back again."
When the characters started to recall (false?) memories from their previous lived experiences through the day, I thought the story might redeem itself and become something like Recursion , but it never really got there. And then in the second half, it almost becomes a… different book altogether, about corporate ethics? Honestly I was left with more questions than answers.
"This place draws us in, from all the different lives we’ve lived. All the different versions of us who found a reason to be in this museum."
And ultimately, I don’t think I understand the larger point the author was trying to make here, and that’s probably what bothered me the most. Most time-travel / repeating-day stories tend to say something about missed opportunities, do-overs, or second chances; I didn’t pick up on any deeper message here. So basically I’m just very confused, and my head hurts.
——
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!
Science fiction is my sweet spot, especially books that deal with time warps, time travel, or other similar paradoxes. So when I read the synopsis for End of the World House, with its seemingly infinite, Groundhog Day-esque time loop, I was sure it would be a hit.
"Is it easier on you if I pretend you’ve never been here before? Never lived through this day?"
I was expecting something similar to In a Holidaze , or in the same vein as some of Rebecca Serle’s writing - something light, romantic, and fun, with the added sci-fi twist to make it feel innovative and unexpected. I usually really enjoy books like that, and was so excited to read this one!
"It became hard, in waking life, to know which things were too strange to be real, and which were just strange enough."
Unfortunately, End of the World House didn’t live up to those expectations, and ended up being sort of a miss for me. With its unusual, not-fully-explained apocalyptic backdrop, a la Leave the World Behind , and its hallucinogenic descriptions of the repeating day in the museum, it almost reminded me of All's Well - kind of cringey, a little uncomfortable, and super confusing.
"We’re all trapped here…. There’s no way out. Even when I manage to leave, they bring me back again."
When the characters started to recall (false?) memories from their previous lived experiences through the day, I thought the story might redeem itself and become something like Recursion , but it never really got there. And then in the second half, it almost becomes a… different book altogether, about corporate ethics? Honestly I was left with more questions than answers.
"This place draws us in, from all the different lives we’ve lived. All the different versions of us who found a reason to be in this museum."
And ultimately, I don’t think I understand the larger point the author was trying to make here, and that’s probably what bothered me the most. Most time-travel / repeating-day stories tend to say something about missed opportunities, do-overs, or second chances; I didn’t pick up on any deeper message here. So basically I’m just very confused, and my head hurts.
——
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!
March 21, 2022
I received a free publisher's review copy, via Netgalley.
We start with 30-somethings Kate and Roberta (“Bertie”), friends since high school, taking a spur of the moment trip to Paris before Kate moves to Los Angeles from Mountain View CA, where Bertie is an illustrator for an internet company and Kate has an important job for a nonprofit. Sounds fun, right? Think again.
The story takes place in an unspecified near future, when the world—including the US—is overwhelmed with natural disasters due to climate change, large and small terrorist attacks, and apparently has had dirty-bomb strikes in the not-too-distant past. Kate and Bertie’s trip is spur of the moment because the window for travel is temporarily open and they decide to grab it, since it could be who knows how long, maybe forever, before they will have a chance to visit Paris.
A guy named Javier, whom Bertie thinks seemed sketchy tells Kate that if they show up the next morning at the Louvre and mention his name, they’ll be allowed in even though it will be one of the museum’s normal closed days.
The reader sees right away that the day of the Louvre visit repeats, but also notices that the repeats play out differently; hugely differently by the third time around and the loop is broken. The story’s main character is Bertie, and the focus is on how she reacts to the strange events at the Louvre and over the following year. Other characters include a few of Bertie’s co-workers, and her boyfriend Dylan.
I was impressed by Celt’s depiction of how Americans react to their imperiled world. In their in-person lives, people turn inward and engage in selfish and irrational behaviors in the name of “self care.” They anxiously watch reports of attacks that kill many people, but in social media they meme-ify everything and make sick jokes about it. When they decide they should do something about what is happening, they take lots of photos and post them on social media. The rest of the time, they continue to do their jobs, stepping around more and more homeless people, working around the periodic food category shortages, rationing, and dwindling natural resources.
While the description of this near-future dystopia is masterful, it’s deeply depressing—especially right now, as Russia is attacking Ukraine, and we are talking about the real possibility of World War III.
The Bertie and Kate story doesn’t at all lighten the load, either. I think it’s a marketing mistake to refer to Groundhog Day in the book description. That made me think of Bill Murray, humor, sweetness, learning how to be a good and present person. But in this story, Bertie is full of anxiety, with good reason. There is a constant air of foreboding. On top of it all, to me Dylan seemed like a real creep, and I never felt like the whole time-travel-ish stuff made much sense.
Maybe somebody who is a big fan of dystopian fiction would like this a lot more than I did.
We start with 30-somethings Kate and Roberta (“Bertie”), friends since high school, taking a spur of the moment trip to Paris before Kate moves to Los Angeles from Mountain View CA, where Bertie is an illustrator for an internet company and Kate has an important job for a nonprofit. Sounds fun, right? Think again.
The story takes place in an unspecified near future, when the world—including the US—is overwhelmed with natural disasters due to climate change, large and small terrorist attacks, and apparently has had dirty-bomb strikes in the not-too-distant past. Kate and Bertie’s trip is spur of the moment because the window for travel is temporarily open and they decide to grab it, since it could be who knows how long, maybe forever, before they will have a chance to visit Paris.
A guy named Javier, whom Bertie thinks seemed sketchy tells Kate that if they show up the next morning at the Louvre and mention his name, they’ll be allowed in even though it will be one of the museum’s normal closed days.
The reader sees right away that the day of the Louvre visit repeats, but also notices that the repeats play out differently; hugely differently by the third time around and the loop is broken. The story’s main character is Bertie, and the focus is on how she reacts to the strange events at the Louvre and over the following year. Other characters include a few of Bertie’s co-workers, and her boyfriend Dylan.
I was impressed by Celt’s depiction of how Americans react to their imperiled world. In their in-person lives, people turn inward and engage in selfish and irrational behaviors in the name of “self care.” They anxiously watch reports of attacks that kill many people, but in social media they meme-ify everything and make sick jokes about it. When they decide they should do something about what is happening, they take lots of photos and post them on social media. The rest of the time, they continue to do their jobs, stepping around more and more homeless people, working around the periodic food category shortages, rationing, and dwindling natural resources.
While the description of this near-future dystopia is masterful, it’s deeply depressing—especially right now, as Russia is attacking Ukraine, and we are talking about the real possibility of World War III.
The Bertie and Kate story doesn’t at all lighten the load, either. I think it’s a marketing mistake to refer to Groundhog Day in the book description. That made me think of Bill Murray, humor, sweetness, learning how to be a good and present person. But in this story, Bertie is full of anxiety, with good reason. There is a constant air of foreboding. On top of it all, to me Dylan seemed like a real creep, and I never felt like the whole time-travel-ish stuff made much sense.
Maybe somebody who is a big fan of dystopian fiction would like this a lot more than I did.
October 7, 2021
[I was given an advanced digital copy from NetGalley]
Childhood best friends Bertie and Kate have reached a strenuous point in their relationship—the world is balancing on an uneven scale that might just lean towards apocalyptic by the next morning, and Kate is moving. In effort to ignore the doom and gloom of the world, and Kate’s soon-to-be distance, the two embark on a Paris vacation, which leads them to the jewel of the city—the Louvre. Their chance visit to the museum seems too good to be true (read: they’re the only visitors that day), but things quickly take a turn, and so does time.
The concept of time in this novel was an intriguing catch—I found myself really wanting to understand how time functioned, and yet I don’t think I ever really figured that out. I don’t think that lack of understanding mattered too much, because, like Bertie and others, they didn’t understand it in the end either. However, the last half of the novel didn’t live up to its own intrigue. The plot slowed down and took an unpleasant turn, the characters fell flat and seemed to dig themselves into a hole of unfortunate characterization. The story seemed to hint in one direction, but then that direction was completely disregarded and forgotten. I think I would have liked to have been able to connect with the characters more, but I don’t feel like we’re given much of a chance. As for the novel overall, the world-building was laid out and unique, and I think that really gave the story its substance that kept me reading.
Childhood best friends Bertie and Kate have reached a strenuous point in their relationship—the world is balancing on an uneven scale that might just lean towards apocalyptic by the next morning, and Kate is moving. In effort to ignore the doom and gloom of the world, and Kate’s soon-to-be distance, the two embark on a Paris vacation, which leads them to the jewel of the city—the Louvre. Their chance visit to the museum seems too good to be true (read: they’re the only visitors that day), but things quickly take a turn, and so does time.
The concept of time in this novel was an intriguing catch—I found myself really wanting to understand how time functioned, and yet I don’t think I ever really figured that out. I don’t think that lack of understanding mattered too much, because, like Bertie and others, they didn’t understand it in the end either. However, the last half of the novel didn’t live up to its own intrigue. The plot slowed down and took an unpleasant turn, the characters fell flat and seemed to dig themselves into a hole of unfortunate characterization. The story seemed to hint in one direction, but then that direction was completely disregarded and forgotten. I think I would have liked to have been able to connect with the characters more, but I don’t feel like we’re given much of a chance. As for the novel overall, the world-building was laid out and unique, and I think that really gave the story its substance that kept me reading.
January 3, 2023
what the actual heck did i just read?
September 30, 2023
Reading Adrienne Celt's End of the World House is like viewing an MC Escher drawing if Escher had also managed to capture a realistic portrait of his times. In the way that Escher will depict a flock of tessellated birds emerging from the negative space of the sky and the farmland below, Celt's novel shifts gradually but unmistakably in ways that leave the reader constantly off-balance but also intrigued, drawn along. I use the word "drawn" intentionally--Celt herself is a visual artist of no small talent, and she uses this visual ability both in shaping her prose (a character's "face had Picaoss-ed out, becoming shapes and colors, colors and shapes"), but also as a means of developing characters and unleashing her thematic concerns. Bertie, the protagonist, draws an iconic dinosaur for a tech company; we learn that she went to art school but found herself having graduated with a solid understanding of painting but little knowledge about illustration, which is what she loves to do and which, professionally, calls for a different kind of hustle from that of the world of galleries and exhibitions. She falls into a Silicon Valley company and stays. The novel has a bit of the spirit of such companies--defying the sorts of boundaries of linear plot and development that define most novels' narrative arcs, instead it mirrors one of those startups that eschew clear dividers and walls, where time itself is also warped or suspended because everyone is working late into the night, and where fluidity and inventive moxie win out over the daily grind. Some readers might find this frustrating, but I found it bracing. Along the way, Celt manages to explore friendship, the power dynamics of relationships both romantic and platonic, the way radical contingency can impinge upon our lives, all while also capturing the dizzying repetition of office life, media consumption, the news cycle, and, in recent years due to Covid, so much of daily life. Indeed, the apocalypse arrives in this novel quietly, stealthily, which makes it that much more ominous. Celt also explores questions about art, about why we like certain works, and whether such liking is actually an exercising of aesthetic discernment or is simply because they have been foisted upon us as "great." The same question goes for people--do we seek, in a partner, someone who fulfills our every desire, or does that itself become stifling in short order? Do we seek a friend with whom we can merge most fully in shared jokes, taste, habits, or someone who pushes us, challenges who we are? Toward the end of the End of the World House, these questions continue to multiply even as we start to grasp some of the narrative physics that's been at work. I wasn't exactly sure about all of the rules of Celt's multiverse by the end, but that felt beside the point. To return to the Escher analogy, once we realize that the negative spaces of the birds' wings are also birds flying in the opposite direction, all that matters is that we are soaring alongside them. Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an ARC of this book.
April 28, 2022
The best way I can describe End of the World House is genre-defying. It has elements of just about everything: sci-fi, fantasy, horror/thriller, romance, and I guess technically it would count as contemporary. Like a good multiverse story? Boom. End of the world scenario? Bam. Ah-ha moments and plot twists? Pow. Plot set in France? Got you covered.
I couldn’t put this book down. I loved that I had no idea where it was going the whole time and could never hazard a solid guess. I can’t immediately recall a book like this one. Maybe there is and I’m just uncultured. But for me, this felt fresh and original and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
That being said, I can see why the book has so-so reviews on here as the trippy Groundhog Day type scenario can be confusing or boring, therefore frustrating to get through. I’d say, boiled down, the book has its heart in sci-fi so if that’s not your thing, I might skip this one.
4/5
I couldn’t put this book down. I loved that I had no idea where it was going the whole time and could never hazard a solid guess. I can’t immediately recall a book like this one. Maybe there is and I’m just uncultured. But for me, this felt fresh and original and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
That being said, I can see why the book has so-so reviews on here as the trippy Groundhog Day type scenario can be confusing or boring, therefore frustrating to get through. I’d say, boiled down, the book has its heart in sci-fi so if that’s not your thing, I might skip this one.
4/5
March 2, 2022
ok, 3.5, mostly because I think the concept outpaces the prose. I think it starts off super strong, and then as it backtracks and loops around for the whole middle, some of the scenes lag, some of the dialogue is a little on the nose.
all of this is to say, I tore through this, I needed to know what happened to the main character, which just goes to show you that this book has ~something~ ! I will also say that maybe I shouldn't have started a book about the end of days and dissolution of a major friendship in the midst of war, maybe this pushed me into a weird spiral, I simply do not know!
tysm to netgalley and simon & schuster for the arc, I did have some kind of a blast!!
all of this is to say, I tore through this, I needed to know what happened to the main character, which just goes to show you that this book has ~something~ ! I will also say that maybe I shouldn't have started a book about the end of days and dissolution of a major friendship in the midst of war, maybe this pushed me into a weird spiral, I simply do not know!
tysm to netgalley and simon & schuster for the arc, I did have some kind of a blast!!
February 16, 2023
Wow, this story is mind blowing. Bertie is stuck in groundhogs day loop looking for her friend Kate. Until she is not anymore...... and has only created a bigger version of that loop. This book ended up being a bit much for my taste, and is a deep dive into the alternate reality rabbit hole.
April 19, 2022
3.5*
This is a hard book to rate, because I really loved the beginning, and where I thought the story was headed/was focused on. But the last 15-20% kind of disappointed me, and kind of made me wonder if what I thought was the point of the story was what the author was trying to say at all. I did enjoy quite a bit though, so let's break it down!
What I Liked:
►Loved the take on this particular apocalypse! The author explores the ways the world has (or in many cases, hasn't) changed since things started going wrong. People are, for the most part, in complete denial that the lives that they once knew are over. And honestly? It tracks. Didn't people try to do just that with COVID? I found it so fascinating and thought provoking, that people will, even at the end of the world, pretend everything's just fine.
►The exploration of the ups and downs of friendship into adulthood was fabulous. Bertie and Kate had been friends for a long time, and I really appreciated that the author examined how much relationships like this can change over the years. As time and distance change us, how does friendship evolve? That Bertie still felt so protective of her friendship with Kate, even as they have both taken different paths in life, was great, even if it happened to be not always the healthiest.
►The mystery itself definitely kept me intrigued- what was happening to Bertie? I love a mystery, especially when it involves sci-fi elements. Obviously, Bertie reliving the same day fits into this category, but it is clear that there is more to it than that. She keeps experiencing some bizarre events- bizarre even for someone stuck living the same day. I'll leave it at that, but suffice it to say, it was intriguing.
What I Didn't:
►I kind of guessed some of the ending earlier in the book, and when I did, I wasn't thrilled? It seemed to sort of negate the entirety of events in the first part, in some ways. Again, I have to be purposely vague about this, because spoilers, but I just thought that the story was about one thing, then it takes a pretty big 180 into another altogether. One I liked less, too, as it turned out.
►I did not like the romantic interest that was introduced. Oh, this guy. Again, he's not a thing at the start of the story, which is why I am going to be vague about him here (honestly all this vagueness is getting pretty annoying, sorry about that). But he sucks, frankly, and I didn't want nor need him in this story.
Bottom Line: I loved the first part of the story, especially the time loops and apocalypse friendships. The latter part, less so.
You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
This is a hard book to rate, because I really loved the beginning, and where I thought the story was headed/was focused on. But the last 15-20% kind of disappointed me, and kind of made me wonder if what I thought was the point of the story was what the author was trying to say at all. I did enjoy quite a bit though, so let's break it down!
What I Liked:
►Loved the take on this particular apocalypse! The author explores the ways the world has (or in many cases, hasn't) changed since things started going wrong. People are, for the most part, in complete denial that the lives that they once knew are over. And honestly? It tracks. Didn't people try to do just that with COVID? I found it so fascinating and thought provoking, that people will, even at the end of the world, pretend everything's just fine.
►The exploration of the ups and downs of friendship into adulthood was fabulous. Bertie and Kate had been friends for a long time, and I really appreciated that the author examined how much relationships like this can change over the years. As time and distance change us, how does friendship evolve? That Bertie still felt so protective of her friendship with Kate, even as they have both taken different paths in life, was great, even if it happened to be not always the healthiest.
►The mystery itself definitely kept me intrigued- what was happening to Bertie? I love a mystery, especially when it involves sci-fi elements. Obviously, Bertie reliving the same day fits into this category, but it is clear that there is more to it than that. She keeps experiencing some bizarre events- bizarre even for someone stuck living the same day. I'll leave it at that, but suffice it to say, it was intriguing.
What I Didn't:
►I kind of guessed some of the ending earlier in the book, and when I did, I wasn't thrilled? It seemed to sort of negate the entirety of events in the first part, in some ways. Again, I have to be purposely vague about this, because spoilers, but I just thought that the story was about one thing, then it takes a pretty big 180 into another altogether. One I liked less, too, as it turned out.
►I did not like the romantic interest that was introduced. Oh, this guy. Again, he's not a thing at the start of the story, which is why I am going to be vague about him here (honestly all this vagueness is getting pretty annoying, sorry about that). But he sucks, frankly, and I didn't want nor need him in this story.
Bottom Line: I loved the first part of the story, especially the time loops and apocalypse friendships. The latter part, less so.
You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
November 30, 2021
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of
End of the World House.
I loved the Groundhog Day premise entwined with the post-apocalyptic setting so I was excited when my request was approved.
** Minor Quantum Leap spoilers ahead **
The writing was good, but like some novels with great premises, there was too much going on. And not in a good way.
Is this a novel about a relationship between two women during a post-apocalyptic Earth and how their friendship will survive when one is moving away after so many years of leaning on each other for moral, mental and emotional support?
Or is this about time travel, the multiverse and the roads not taken?
Or maybe this is about our place in the world after a world crisis and how we continue to go on; mourn our losses in friendship and families; what the world used to be, how we were able to travel and go to the market and get whatever we needed whenever we needed.
Instead, the novel was a jumble of the above with no clear delineation of what the author was trying to say; there is repetitive filler about Bertie's job, the power hungry tech CEOs of companies that want to shape the world and people to their image.
I expected the narrative to be similar to Groundhog Day a time lapse or jump in which the friends must redo the same day over and over to mend their fractured relationship but instead we get rando characters like Javier and Dylan, whose characters are superfluous and unnecessary.
Especially Dylan. He is a schlub, toxic and a creep.
I don't understand why the author would add a male character to guide Bertie in the time loop at the Louvre, giving him the power to manipulate Bertie and restart the loop with the snap of his fingers.
I was not a fan of that.
Why does a man and a relationship factor into every novel?
Why not use Bertie's parents to guide her, compel her emotionally and mentally?
Why not explore the friendship between Kate and Bertie instead of devoting more than half of the pages to the phony relationship between Bertie and Dylan?
There are lots of unanswered questions including why is there a time loop at the Louvre and why does Kate stay?
What I did love:
The relationship between Kate and Bertie; the honesty between both women who become even more dependent on each other after a world crisis the author evokes with mentions of a war and food shortages.
I love the brief drawings in the novel (wish there were more) and the End of the World House title refers to the graphic novel Kate is creating in her graphic novel.
The writing was good and the author does raise some interesting questions about the paths we take but they get muddled along the way, which made this hard to continue reading after I put it down to read something else.
But I finished!
I loved the Groundhog Day premise entwined with the post-apocalyptic setting so I was excited when my request was approved.
** Minor Quantum Leap spoilers ahead **
The writing was good, but like some novels with great premises, there was too much going on. And not in a good way.
Is this a novel about a relationship between two women during a post-apocalyptic Earth and how their friendship will survive when one is moving away after so many years of leaning on each other for moral, mental and emotional support?
Or is this about time travel, the multiverse and the roads not taken?
Or maybe this is about our place in the world after a world crisis and how we continue to go on; mourn our losses in friendship and families; what the world used to be, how we were able to travel and go to the market and get whatever we needed whenever we needed.
Instead, the novel was a jumble of the above with no clear delineation of what the author was trying to say; there is repetitive filler about Bertie's job, the power hungry tech CEOs of companies that want to shape the world and people to their image.
I expected the narrative to be similar to Groundhog Day a time lapse or jump in which the friends must redo the same day over and over to mend their fractured relationship but instead we get rando characters like Javier and Dylan, whose characters are superfluous and unnecessary.
Especially Dylan. He is a schlub, toxic and a creep.
I don't understand why the author would add a male character to guide Bertie in the time loop at the Louvre, giving him the power to manipulate Bertie and restart the loop with the snap of his fingers.
I was not a fan of that.
Why does a man and a relationship factor into every novel?
Why not use Bertie's parents to guide her, compel her emotionally and mentally?
Why not explore the friendship between Kate and Bertie instead of devoting more than half of the pages to the phony relationship between Bertie and Dylan?
There are lots of unanswered questions including why is there a time loop at the Louvre and why does Kate stay?
What I did love:
The relationship between Kate and Bertie; the honesty between both women who become even more dependent on each other after a world crisis the author evokes with mentions of a war and food shortages.
I love the brief drawings in the novel (wish there were more) and the End of the World House title refers to the graphic novel Kate is creating in her graphic novel.
The writing was good and the author does raise some interesting questions about the paths we take but they get muddled along the way, which made this hard to continue reading after I put it down to read something else.
But I finished!
April 1, 2022
This book had so much potential, but in the end, I just ended up disappointed. What could have been a thrilling tale of two friends making their way back to each other after being trapped in the Louvre and made to live parts of their lives over and over again, wound up being a confusing slog of never-explained time travel and a creepy relationship with a random guy.
There really isn't much that I can say about this book. In the beginning, I was intrigued by the premise even though both of the main characters annoyed me to no end, but as I kept reading I found myself increasing feeling like abandoning it. I never once believed in the friendship between the two main characters, mostly because they were so petty towards one another and never really respected each other enough to express their true feelings. So I never once had an ounce of sympathy for them when they got lost in the Louvre and in the loop. The addition of some borderline obsessive and creepy guy from one of the girl's pasts was the breaking point for me. I never really understood why he was there; the purpose he served wasn't even explained well.
Overall, I just feel like the story really got away from itself and what it could've been.
There really isn't much that I can say about this book. In the beginning, I was intrigued by the premise even though both of the main characters annoyed me to no end, but as I kept reading I found myself increasing feeling like abandoning it. I never once believed in the friendship between the two main characters, mostly because they were so petty towards one another and never really respected each other enough to express their true feelings. So I never once had an ounce of sympathy for them when they got lost in the Louvre and in the loop. The addition of some borderline obsessive and creepy guy from one of the girl's pasts was the breaking point for me. I never really understood why he was there; the purpose he served wasn't even explained well.
Overall, I just feel like the story really got away from itself and what it could've been.
October 18, 2021
I’m truly not sure what to make of this book. I want to feel positively toward the premise, at the very least—it’s curious, unique and anchored me into a surreal Groundhogs Day environment at the Louvre. The characters were somehow the weakest point of this novel; for a book about loyalty, friendship and relentless codependency, we learn a startling little about the main characters’ inner life and workings. When the plot wasn’t playing with multiple realities, it was actually super dull. The mechanics of the time bending and the purpose the boyfriend character plays is speculative… The last page turns the entire book into a romance meet cute, why? Still trying to process how I feel about it, at the very least it’s not a book I’ll soon forget.
August 8, 2021
I didn’t realize this right away, but this wasn’t a first celt read for me. I’ve read her Invitation to the Bonfire some time ago and liked it, mostly. I’ve just revisited my review of it and the phrase that stood out was that it had a nice twist but it took you down the WTF road to get there. Because that is very much the case with this book also.
This is a story of friendship, first and foremost. A sort of dedicated female friendship that evolves or devolves over time, a sort of thing that potentially I’d label and dismiss as women’s fiction. But it is set in a mildly apocalyptic world and had time loops in it. Now that’s interesting.
If you’re wondering what constitutes a mild apocalypse…well, it’s the one that sort of fades to the background. Most apocalyptic stories feature it front and center, but in this book it’s merely a stage setting. There are expositions that are not attributed to anyone, there are climate change based disasters, but overall majority of lives remain unaffected or at least there is still a consistent semblance of the world as we know it.
And in this world two best friends, Bertie and Kate, decide to do it up and go to Paris, where Kate promptly disappears in the Louvre and Bertie finds herself groundhogging the same day over and over.
It takes a while for her and for the readers to figure out what’s going on, by which time the book takes a decidedly romantic turn. But it’s all connected, in a trippy and loopy (literally) way and it’ll all be understood in the end.
So definitely an interesting and origjnal plot. The execution…well, it was pretty good too. I didn’t love it, to be honest, for two main reasons…a. the plot was too precociously trippy as if enamored with its own weirdness and b. I didn’t really connect with the characters. I’m not sure if they were too girly for me or too millennial or just not interesting enough, but there it is. Something that’ll probably vary for different readers, but reading is personal like that.
It was a pretty fun read, I was entertained, the writing itself was very good, the plot had cleverness about it, so the overall result is much the same as my previous book by the author, somewhere inbetween. Thanks Netgalley.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
This is a story of friendship, first and foremost. A sort of dedicated female friendship that evolves or devolves over time, a sort of thing that potentially I’d label and dismiss as women’s fiction. But it is set in a mildly apocalyptic world and had time loops in it. Now that’s interesting.
If you’re wondering what constitutes a mild apocalypse…well, it’s the one that sort of fades to the background. Most apocalyptic stories feature it front and center, but in this book it’s merely a stage setting. There are expositions that are not attributed to anyone, there are climate change based disasters, but overall majority of lives remain unaffected or at least there is still a consistent semblance of the world as we know it.
And in this world two best friends, Bertie and Kate, decide to do it up and go to Paris, where Kate promptly disappears in the Louvre and Bertie finds herself groundhogging the same day over and over.
It takes a while for her and for the readers to figure out what’s going on, by which time the book takes a decidedly romantic turn. But it’s all connected, in a trippy and loopy (literally) way and it’ll all be understood in the end.
So definitely an interesting and origjnal plot. The execution…well, it was pretty good too. I didn’t love it, to be honest, for two main reasons…a. the plot was too precociously trippy as if enamored with its own weirdness and b. I didn’t really connect with the characters. I’m not sure if they were too girly for me or too millennial or just not interesting enough, but there it is. Something that’ll probably vary for different readers, but reading is personal like that.
It was a pretty fun read, I was entertained, the writing itself was very good, the plot had cleverness about it, so the overall result is much the same as my previous book by the author, somewhere inbetween. Thanks Netgalley.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
July 18, 2022
this book didn't have an ending 🥲
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