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Material Type | Library | Call Number | Suggested Age | Status |
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Summary
Summary
Fans of One of Us Is Lying and The Hazel Wood are cordially invited to spend one fateful night surviving an elite private school's epic masquerade ball in Jen Wilde's debut thriller, This Is the Way the World Ends .
As an autistic scholarship student at the prestigious Webber Academy in New York City, Waverly is used to masking to fit in--in more ways than one. While her classmates are the children of the one percent, Waverly is getting by on tutoring gigs and the generosity of the school's charming and enigmatic dean. So when her tutoring student and resident "it girl" asks Waverly to attend the school's annual fundraising Masquerade disguised as her, Waverly jumps at the chance--especially once she finds out that Ash, the dean's daughter and her secret ex-girlfriend, will be there.
The Masquerade is everything Waverly dreamed of, complete with extravagant gowns, wealthy parents writing checks, and flowing champagne. Most importantly, there's Ash. All Waverly wants to do is shed her mask and be with her, but the evening takes a sinister turn when Waverly stumbles into a secret meeting between the dean and the school's top donors--and witnesses a brutal murder. This gala is harboring far more malevolent plots than just opening parents' pocketbooks. Before she can escape or contact the authorities, a mysterious global blackout puts the entire party on lockdown. Waverly's fairy tale has turned into a nightmare, and she, Ash, and her friends must navigate through a dizzying maze of freight elevators, secret passageways, and back rooms if they're going to survive the night.
And even if they manage to escape the Masquerade, with technology wiped out all over the planet, what kind of world will they find waiting for them beyond the doors?
Author Notes
Jen Wilde (she/they) is the queer, disabled author of QUEENS OF GEEK, THE BRIGHTSIDERS and GOING OFF SCRIPT. They write unapologetically queer stories about unlikely heroes, awkward romantics and chosen families. Jen's books have been praised in Teen Vogue, Buzzfeed, Autostraddle, Vulture and Bustle. Their debut, QUEENS OF GEEK, made the 2018 Rainbow Book List and the Amelia Bloomer List. Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Jen lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her wife, where she collects books, candles and foster cats. When she isn't writing, Jen spends her time shouting about queer books on TikTok. Connect with her online or visit her website.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up--A queer autistic teen uncovers the plot of billionaires to take over the world during a solar flare. Waverly is a scholarship kid still mourning her break-up with her first girlfriend, when a rich girl at her school offers to trade places with her so she can attend a masquerade ball. While attending the ball with her physically disabled South Asian best friend, they slowly uncover a plot by the rich investors in their school to survive the apocalypse and emerge to rule a new society built on white supremacist cis-hetero-patriarchy. Waverly must save herself and her friends from being killed or forced to participate in this new "Utopia." Disabled rage from living in a world where people with "preexisting conditions" are considered acceptable collateral damage fuels this novel. Intersectionality is at the forefront of the story--the main character is autistic and a member of the queer community, her friends have intersecting identities, and her mom is chronically ill and living in poverty. The major drawback is that the story is set in the modern day but has so many social media and pop culture topical references that it already feels dated. VERDICT An additional purchase.--Jeri Murphy
Publisher's Weekly Review
An elegant masquerade ball turns survivalist nightmare when attendees find out the world is ending in this hair-raising dystopian chiller by Wilde (Queens of Geek). White Waverly, an "autistic, gay scholarship nerd from Queens," has strived to earn every financial opportunity while attending New York Webber Academy to alleviate her parents' monetary concerns. To help pay for her mother's multiple sclerosis medication, Waverly even spends her nights and weekends tutoring her trust-fund classmates--including popular tutee Caroline, who soon offers Waverly a chance to attend the school's $10,000-a-seat masquerade ball. Waverly accepts, hoping to confront her secret ex-girlfriend Ash, the dean's daughter who ghosted her. But the ball turns to chaos when the lights go out and the world outside the masquerade's windows looks like "a nuclear attack, the start of World War III, the end of the world." Though repetitive action sequences sometimes lower narrative immediacy, antagonists--in the form of the academy's school administrators and the parents of Waverly's wealthy classmates, all intent on surviving imminent apocalypse at any cost--prove compelling in this locked-room drama. Via Waverly's razor-sharp commentary and grandiose descriptions of the masquerade and its attendees' wealth, Wilde fashions a claustrophobic atmosphere that heightens the cultish horror happenings. Ages 12--up. (May)
Kirkus Review
In New York City, a masquerade ball turns into a dystopian nightmare. "Do you know what I would give to go to that ball?" scholarship kid Waverly asks wealthy Caroline during one of their regular tutoring sessions. Waverly--who is gay and autistic--is an outsider at Webber Academy, a private school run by its founder, Dean Owen Webber. Even with her tutoring income, the cheapest ticket to the event, the school's annual fundraiser, is way out of reach. But, desperate for a break from the pomp and circumstance, Caroline wants Waverly to attend the masquerade disguised as her. Waverly agrees after she learns that Ash, the dean's daughter and Waverly's ex-girlfriend who's now living in London, will be there. The next day at school, everyone is talking about how Caroline's tech billionaire dad, the dean's good friend, was found unconscious at home in suspicious circumstances. But the party must go on. The ball is in full swing when Waverly and the rest of the partygoers find themselves trapped inside the chic venue during a blackout. Turns out, the world is ending. Whom can Waverly trust? Though intrigue is threaded throughout, the book's descent into chaos feels at odds with the fairy-tale beginning, and the bumpy pacing hampers this thought-provokingly relevant thriller. Wilde's scrutiny of the ripped-from-the-headlines ultrarich preparing for societal collapse is powerful, however. Most of the characters are White. An intense yet uneven apocalyptic survival story. (Thriller. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
A party at the end of the world is the center of Wilde's debut YA novel. An outsider in more ways than one, Waverly is a scholarship student at her glitzy prep school for the richest kids in New York City; she's also autistic. When her friend Caroline asks her to attend the school's masquerade ball in disguise, Waverly agrees--mostly in the hope of seeing her ex-girlfriend, the dean's daughter Ash. However, the glamorous party quickly turns sinister as Waverly gets lost in one of the party's psychedelic mazes, overhears a conversation about a conspiracy, and witnesses a murder. More than that, Waverly discovers that the whole world is at stake: a global catastrophe is happening outside the walls of the masquerade, and the rich people inside are part of a plan to take advantage of the disaster. Moreover, Waverly isn't sure if Ash is in on everything. This thriller set in a world of extreme privilege with a compelling autistic heroine and her circle of friends trying to save everyone will appeal widely.
