Blog Tour: How It Ends by Laura Wiess

All Hanna’s wanted since sophomore year is Seth. She’s gone out with other guys, even gained a rep for being a flirt, all the while hoping cool, guitar-playing Seth will choose her. Then she gets him — but their relationship is hurtful, stormy and critical, not at all what Hanna thinks a perfect love should be. Bewildered by Seth’s treatment of her and in need of understanding, Hanna decides to fulfill her school’s community service requirement by spending time with Helen, her terminally ill neighbor, who she’s turned to for comfort and wisdom throughout her life. But illness has changed Helen into someone Hanna hardly knows, and her home is not the refuge it once was. Feeling more alone than ever, Hanna gets drawn into an audiobook the older woman is listening to, a fierce, unsettling love story of passion, sacrifice, and devotion. Hanna’s fascinated by the idea that such all-encompassing love can truly exist, and without her even realizing it, the story begins to change her.

Until the day when the story becomes all too real…and Hanna’s world is spun off its axis by its shattering, irrevocable conclusion.

I’m not sure what I was thinking when I picked up this novel and started reading. I guess I just assumed it would be a happy, carefree story, which means I did not consider either A) the title or B) the summary from the back of the book. After I realized what I was dealing with, I was able to get in the right mindset (and prepare myself for possible sadness).

This book was a lot more intense than I knew it would be. The summary describes a terminally ill neighbor, so I should have assumed I would be reading about tough choices and decisions. Lesson learned?

After I got past my own issues with not preparing myself properly, I got into the story. There were parts where I was confused, because you basically bounce from audiobook transcripts to “real time” events, so I found myself referencing incorrect characters at times. The book also switches views between two of the characters (much more in the beginning than in the end).

It is a powerful story, and it impacted me much much more than I thought it would. I did have a few qualms about the lack of recognition of Hanna with her surroundings (I’m not going to say more because I don’t want to spoil anything, but once you read it I think you’ll understand what I’m saying). I also wasn’t totally satisfied with the ending, but I don’t think that’s the type of book it is anyway.

Either way, I’m looking into finding other Laura Wiess books – they all have excellent recommendations from many readers. Next time I’ll just make sure I get into the right mood before I read!

Make sure you check out all of these stops on the blog tour to see what they thought about How It Ends!