This is Where it Ends

This is Where it Ends is a story about a school shooting in Opportunity, Alabama. The school sits outside of town. We see this story from four students perspectives, and everything happens within the span of fifty-four minutes.

It seemed like a normal start to a new semester, the principal had gathered the students and staff in the auditorium for the yearly speech she gives at the start of second semester. When students stand up to leave at the end of the speech, they begin to notice that something is wrong, the doors won’t open, they are locked in the auditorium. The shooter then enters through the one open door, and begins shooting while standing in the doorway. He then has a student use a chain to lock that door too.

Luckily, not everyone is in the auditorium, two students are skipping the assembly and hear the gunshots, and call 911, a few students are outside practicing for the upcoming track season, and they too hear the gunshots. Since they don’t have their phones on them, they split up in search for a phone, two decide to try to run to town, while the others are searching the grounds of the school.

Trapped in the auditorium, we see two friends, one who is the sister of the boy who is the shooter, and can’t believe what he’s doing. Why is he doing this? Can he be stopped? Will the police get their in time to save those locked in the auditorium?

I found this book interesting because of the different perspectives it was told from and how each person was related to each other or someone inside the auditorium, and how it drove them to keep going throughout the situation.