BOOK REVIEW: How it Ends by Catherine Lo

I received this ARC from Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review. The scheduled publication date for this book is June 7, 2016. 

How it Ends is an honest, heart-wrenching tale of a friendship from first meeting to breakup. Told through alternating points of view, it is about two best friends’ tumultuous sophomore year of bullying, boys and backstabbing and what can happen when friends choose assumptions and fear over each other. 

I received this ARC from Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review.

Finally, a realistic book about a friendship between teenage girls. This book was so realistic that I swear the author wrote the book about me. Mainly I related to Jessie. Jessie has panic attacks and low self esteem and crippling anxiety. She even sees a therapist and takes medication for depression and for her panic attacks. While my anxiety has never quite been that bad, I can relate to Jessie's feelings of insecurity and her feelings that she wasn't good enough to be Annie's friend. Jessie used to be bets friends with Larissa and Courtney, two of the most popular girls in school. In time, they not only froze her out, but they started teasing and mocking her relentlessly. When Annie moves to town, Jessie is surprised when Annie talks to her and actually enjoys hanging out with her. But in time, Annie also becomes friends with Courtney and Jessie becomes very jealous and her anxiety causes her to become very clingy. That was part of her problem: in her quest to keep her friendship with Annie alive, she ended up pushing her away.

Annie is the new girl in town who is dealing with her dad's marriage to a woman that she does not like. Her mom died six years before and her dad and stepmom decided to move for a "fresh start." Annie feels lonely and is immediately drawn to Jessie and her family. But like most teenage girls. she craves popularity and friends and people who she can connect with. Annie had the best of intentions and she genuinely wanted Jessie and Courtney to bury the hatchet so they could all be friends. Even though I could relate to Jessie, I understood where Annie was coming from. All of Jessie's anxiety and her insecurities were so frustrating, mainly because Annie hated that Jessie constantly needed reassurance from Annie.

I am so glad that we were able to see both POVs so that we could get a glimpse into each girl's head. There were so many misunderstandings and miscommunications and mistakes on BOTH sides and I hated to see that friendship start to unravel. I could see the mistakes from both girls coming a mile away, but the beauty of this book is that I completely understood WHY both girls were acting the way they were. I don't even know if that makes sense. When I was in high school, I made some of the same mistakes in trying to fit in with the "cool girls."

There were a few twists and I am still not sure how to feel about them. I don't really want to give too much away. If you want to read my Goodreads review, there are some spoilers in there and a little rant about one thing I wasn't too happy about regarding the plot. Other than one part of the plot that happens towards the end, I really, really enjoyed this story. There were so many realistic aspects of the teenage experience: everything from sex to bullying to drinking and friendship. I loved the character development in this one and I loved that everything was so well done. I also love how it ended. Great read!

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Buy this one!!