Debate Kids at the End of the World

by Alex Nonymous

There have always been two constants in Rory's life: their hatred for Finn Williams and their love of winning arguments. Luckily, four years on their high school's debate team has given Rory plenty of experience with the latter. Unluckily, they're almost always partnered up with Finn. Rory knows why and the fact that Finn refuses to acknowledge it is yet another reason they find her unbearable. Despite how unbiased judges claim to be, no one wants to take on the risk of partnering up with one of the nonbinary kids.

Rory loves winning though so nothing, not even Finn, not even the asteroid conspiracy nuts claim is hurtling towards their town, is going to stop them from winning this final tournament. But when an overbooked motel leads to the two of them spending the night before the tournament in the owner's emergency bunker right before finding out that the conspiracy might not have been a conspiracy after all, Rory suddenly has a much more important thing to fight for: their life.

One of them has to be the first to brave the world outside the bunker to find out what's happened to the rest of civilization, and it's not going to be Rory.

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Dystopia, Transgender, LGBT, Young Adult, Lesbian

Unknown Binding

About the author

Alex is trying to publish 22 sapphic YA books before she turns 22. The only flaw in the plan so far is that they only finished 1 before turning 20...

He uses any pronouns so its incredibly easy to talk about Alex behind her back (just please stop adding me to 'women writers' lists oh my god) and they're still trying to figure out how to present themself as a professional a full year into publishing.

If you want to join their email list for updates on book release dates, early reader copies, and to vote on genre polls to control the next book they write, email them at alexnonymouswrites@gmail.com to let her know!

Alex also writes books for queer teenagers and recognizes that a lot of the people who need those kinds of stories the most can't safely be purchasing them, fill out this form for free discrete ecopies of anything he's written! https://forms.gle/ZSAoMh59oLVjz97F8

Reviews

[Alex Nonymous · Rating 5 out of 5]

EARLY READER COPIES OUT NOW


Update (2022-12-22): just started writing and not to be dramatic but a book where two characters occupy one space for the majority of it AND never have to interact with anyone else is my dream scenario. No location descriptions no needing to name a million characters just long convos and angsty vibes.

I have 3 different plot ideas I'm stuck between. Plz vote on them here: https://forms.gle/3xtqMQyWMJdYhKGZ7
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DYSTOPIA WON THE GENRE POLL!

[El · Rating 4 out of 5]

as i finished reading (and rereading the last ~15% or so trying to make sure i'd understood everything that just happened) i heard a noise come from outside my front door and it says a lot about how sucked in to this book i was that this teeny tiny noise from outside startled me as much as it did lmao. sign of a great book right there! i'm sure that when this book is in its final form (i read an early copy) it'll be even stronger!!

[Alise · Rating 5 out of 5]

i couldn't put it down, and now that i finished it i'm devastated. but i loved it.

[kavya ♡]

this premise sounds so insane I love it

[nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

HOLD ON EXCUSE ME IT JUST ENDS LIKE THAT ???????????? i feel so swindled i'm so upset

/

so i really had to sit and stew on this one, that's how ??? !!! 👺👿🤡💀😭 this thing left me

i love how simple debate kids at the end of the world is, from the characters and setting and plot, but its simplicity really helps set the atmosphere of it, and even more so as more time goes on down in the bunker

i really had to go back and re-read the last 25-18% of this not just once but TWICE because i was so bamboozled by certain revelations and really Could Not wrap my head around it. and even almost a week later i'm still ruminating on it!!!

not really sure if this counts as a spoiler but i don’t want to ruin it for anyone just in case BUT

i think the twist was done masterfully — the little details placed here and there that tries to hint at things both before and after — my god! unbelievably good and that’s also why i had to reread certain parts of it so as to catch these little clues. i actually interpreted the twist and ending a little differently at first, which is also why i had to go back the 18% just to unconfuse myself 😅 part of it is because i did jump to conclusions a little bit and it seemed my brain wanted a nice lil Horror Spice added in, but i think it can be a fair interpretation as well

both love and hate the open ending because i absolutely Need to know more, what happens next, and what the world outside is looking like post-asteriod collision

p.s. alex stop hurting me like this (no just kidding pls do continue)

[Jake Callum · Rating 3 out of 5]

how dare you
I will probably write an actual review later but for now you just get my tears
also I love my autism child Finn Williams <33

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fhdheueuehrge

[Awesomesauceme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lowkey this ending got me FUCKED UP! I had to reread it to understand it, and it was sweet but really messed up at the same time. It honestly had me really anxious once Finn’s entries started coming in, and when a book makes me anxious, and that’s a testament to how tight and well written this is. My interpretation is that Finn died on day 36, their body was somehow moved to the storage room, and Rory was communicating with their ghost the whole time, reversing Rory’s promise to haunt Finn when they thought they were going to die. And that’s why Finn convinced Rory not to open the storage room door and was pushing them to leave, because they knew they couldn’t actually come with them. And in the end Finn had to come clean to actually convince Rory to go, and when Rory went in the room they found Finn’s body. Then Rory took Finn’s body with them to the surface. I’m not sure what the animal Rory kept hearing was supposed to symbolize, but maybe I need to reread. I really liked the relationship development between the two of them, and enjoyed the non-binary discourse as it made me think as a cis person.

[Nat Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

(very vague spoilers but i’m tagging it just in case)
this book went in a very different direction than what i was expecting and i absolutely loved it! the story and characters sucked me in and before i knew it, it was 2am and i had to force myself to put the book down and go to sleep.

Rory and Finn are both very well rounded characters and it’s very easy to fall in love with them. I also really liked the discussion about gender and queerness. i think it’s very easy for discussions like that to come across like they’re only there to educate cishet people, and because of that they accidentally alienate their queer audience. However the conversations in this book were very well integrated and felt like they were valuable to the characters and necessary for the development of their relationship.

and the ending was so well executed! it can be hard to pull off an ending like that but oh my god! holy shit! i am so emotional right now!

[Jade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put it down once I started it. Really good book.

[Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

great and sad and creepy

Wow that was wild. Didn’t expect the ending at all. So sad thinking about the ending. Poor Rory :(

But was definitely great!!

[Lara H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! (I say that for all of Alex's books, but its always true.) I love the emotions and the way they are described

[Carmen Lehtmets · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was dead-set on giving this 3 stars since I truly didn't like Rory and then the ending happened and honestly kudos bc wtf