The End of Everything by Megan Abbott is a haunting coming-of-age story, ripe with teenage angst and suburban mystery. Set in the 1980s, the novel is about two thirteen-year-old girls who are best friends and in their last month of their last year of middle school. It is a time before internet, cell phones, and instant digital recording of every moment of life. One of the girls, Evie Verver, goes missing one afternoon, and the other, Lizzie Hood, tells the story of what it is like to be caught up in the drama: the waiting, the suspicion, the false rumors, and, ultimately, the secrets uncovered.
The eAudiobook kept me riveted and unsettled because of the little-girl voice of Lizzie, the young narrator. I could hear the longing, desperation, and the flights of fancy of what it is like to be a thirteen-year-old girl caught between the adult and child worlds. Is Lizzie being manipulated by those around her? Or does Lizzie make decisions based on her desire to be seen as older, to be included in adult relationships, even if they border on being inappropriate and dangerous? I would encourage you to listen, and to remember what it was like to be in the middle of becoming grown up.