Marieke Nijkamp’s This is Where it Ends is a young adult fiction novel that depicts the tragic events of a school shooting at Opportunity high school. The novel’s main characters Claire, Tomas, Autumn, and Sylv serve to represent the intricacy of each individual life affected by school shootings; they represent that each life affected is more than a name or a number—that they are human, too. Fellow classmate Tyler, responsible for the shooting, forces each character to confront their fears and attempt to survive the unthinkable. Each character faces tremendous loss while demonstrating tremendous courage in the face of such a significant tragedy. At the novel’s conclusion, while the events that took place at Opportunity high school have come to an end, the students are left with the aftermath of the tragedy—how to repair what is broken, how to come together, and most importantly, how to live purposefully and honor those who were lost.