Title: You & Me at the End of the World

Author: Brianna Bourne

Pub. Date: July 20, 2021

Pages: 368

Pub: Scholastic Press

Genre: YA SF Contemporary

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads

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This is no ordinary apocalypse…

Hannah Ashton wakes up to silence. The entire city around her is empty, except for one other person: Leo Sterling. Leo might be hottest boy ever (and not just because he’s the only one left), but he’s also too charming, too selfish, and too devastating for his own good, let alone Hannah’s.

Stuck with only each other, they explore a world with no parents, no friends, and no school and realize that they can be themselves instead of playing the parts everyone expects of them. Hannah doesn’t have to be just an overachieving, music-box-perfect ballerina, and Leo can be more than a slacker, 80s-glam-metal-obsessed guitarist. Leo is a burst of honesty and fun that draws Hannah out, and Hannah’s got Leo thinking about someone other than himself for the first time.

Together, they search for answers amid crushing isolation, but while their empty world may appear harmless . . . it’s not. Because nothing is quite as it seems, and if Hannah and Leo don’t figure out what’s going on, they might just be torn apart forever. 

This epic will-they-won’t-they relationship is a totally fresh and irreverent YA novel that is as much a love story as it is a story about finding yourself. The book also contains a MAJOR twist that will have readers’ jaws on the floors long after turning the final page.

PURCHASE LINKS

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Book Depository / Indigo / IndieBound

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This will be a spoiler free review. Thank you so much to Book Terminal Tours and the publisher for the free copy in exchange for an honest review. I’m thrilled to be a part of this tour. I really enjoyed this book – like, so much. Make sure you check out the other tour stops – you can click – here – to check them out! And stay tuned for the rest of the tour, and the other amazing posts coming up! This book wasn’t what I was expecting. In the best way possible.

The twist actually shocked me, and I loved it.

I went into this book expecting a end of the world SF story and got so much more.

It’s been a few days since I finished it and I’m still processing. I’m really glad I didn’t write my review right after finishing the book, because the few days I’ve had to sit on it, the more I appreciate it. The more I fall in love with it.

Honestly, it was so good. So perfect. I can’t recommend it enough.

I can’t get over the fucking twist! Never in my wildest dreams, did I expect the book to go that route. I loved it – it was a bit of a delayed love, I’ll admit. I thought I was getting a end of the world SF book, last two human alive, something cataclysmic happens/will happen and fade to black. So, when that bit was revealed, I kind of lost my shit.

This book was so good. The chemistry between Hannah and Leo is really good. They balance each other out really well, in my opinion. I loved that there was this element of ease and familiarity that neither of them could place. In a world where everyone is gone, nothing is like it was, they’re left with silence and their own thoughts – honestly, that’s enough to drive anyone up the walls. But then they find each other.

Ugh, I just love them so much.

And with the familiarity they inexplicably feel for each other, the ease of their relationship just works. You don’t even question it.

Also, can we talk about how this is like every reader’s dream? Or maybe once upon a time it was – when dystopian was still the hot commodity. But being alone with an attractive guy (or significant other) as the world ends, going on adventures. Did I express that right? I mean, I can’t tell you how much I wished I could physically experience this book. And granted that was prior to the twist. But honestly, I’d love to live this book out in real life. It’s ultimately heartwarming.

Also, I really enjoyed the way both Leo and Hannah’s mental health is explored and how they handle it…or lack thereof. I think freaking out because you wake up and are the last person (people) on Earth is justifiable. I also really loved the journey of self-exploration they each go on.

I really don’t have any complaints about this book. I loved it. It surprised me, made me feel all the things, and was just overall so freaking good. The one element I was a little iffy about while reading the book, made so much more sense in light of the twist, and my issue with it became moot. I’m serious, I didn’t see it coming. I don’t know if I just didn’t read the synopsis all the way through to know something might be amiss, but I think this is just a fantastic book that draws you in, keeps you turning the page and completely enraptures you. It’s a pretty quick read, mainly because once you start – you don’t want to stop. I stayed up way to late, but I read it in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down.

Honestly, just go pick this book up. You need it in your life, you need to read it.

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When BRIANNA BOURNE is not writing, she works as a stage manager for ballet companies around the world. Originally from Texas, Brianna grew up in Indonesia and Egypt and now lives in England with her rock musician husband and their two daughters. You can find out more about her on Twitter at @briannabourneYA.

“I wrote YOU & ME AT THE END OF THE WORLD long before there was any hint of this pandemic, because the image of a girl walking down an empty 12-lane highway was so fascinating and foreign to me. Too bad we all know what empty streets look like now,” said Brianna Bourne. “At the beginning, Hannah and Leo wake up miles away from each other, both convinced they’re he only ones left in the city. And then they find each other. And everything changes.”