REVIEW:

Kim Hooper knocked the socks off many readers with her last book, 2021’s No Hiding in Boise. That portrait of the ramifications of a mass shooting has stayed with me and put Hooper on my “must read” list.

Her latest, Ways the World Could End, has a slightly lighter tone despite still dealing with serious topics. Chapters alternate between the perspectives of Dave, a dad on the autism spectrum, and Cleo, his teenage daughter grappling with the loss of her mom from a tragic accident and her blossoming sexual identity.

The title derives from Dave’s obsession with doomsday prepping. Each of his chapters begin with him detailing a way the world could end - famine, asteroids, global pandemic (cough, cough). It’s not as depressing as it sounds though.

Where I struggled a bit was with Cleo’s chapters. At 15-going-on-16, her perspective was just too Young Adult for my reading preferences. If I was the publisher, I definitely would be marketing this as YA.

I listened to the audiobook, and it’s possible Stephanie Willing’s narration made the story come across as more juvenile than it would have had I read it in print. Dave’s chapters were performed by Pete Cross, who gave voice to Dave in an honest, respectable way.

While ultimately I was glad when Ways the World Could End came to an end, I’m already eagerly awaiting Kim Hooper’s next novel.

My thanks to Dreamscape Media and the author for the gifted advance listening copy to review via NetGalley. Publication is slated for May 10, 2022.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

Dave is a Dad with Asperger's.

He sees the world differently than most, and he feels like he has no idea what he’s doing when it comes to raising his 15-year-old daughter, Cleo. She also feels like he has no idea what he’s doing, especially now that her mom is gone.

They were both better off when Jana was around — Dave's wife, Cleo's mother. But now she's not, and they are left to figure out life on their own. Dave dedicates his attention to his newfound hobby of doomsday prepping, researching the various ways the world could end. Cleo feels like her world already has.

Everything changes when neighbors move in, threatening their isolation in the hills of San Juan Capistrano. Cleo is intrigued by the new girl, Edie, and soon finds out the intrigue is mutual. Dave, not at all intrigued, is forced to come to terms with everything he cannot control.

As they struggle to live in the present, both Dave and Cleo must dare to revisit the tragic past they share. What happened to Jana? Who was she, really? Who are they without her?

Ways the World Could End is a story of grief, friendship, and love — the love between parents and children, between spouses, between teenagers, and between strangers. It is a story that requires us to consider the bounds of forgiveness, what we’re willing and not willing to forgive, and reminds us that often the hardest thing to forgive is ourselves.