The End of Everything

Starred review from May 30, 2011
Fans of Tana French and Kate Atkinson will welcome Abbott's haunting psychological thriller set in what appears to be pre-cellphone suburban America. Lizzie Hood and Evie Verver are two 13-year-old girls who have been best friends for years. A few weeks before their eighth-grade graduation, Evie disappears after school. As the last person to see Evie, Lizzie suddenly becomes the star witness, attention she both covets and dreads. When Lizzie remembers seeing a maroon car cruising in front of their school, the police focus on Harold Shaw, an insurance agent whose car matches her description. Yet Shaw is nowhere to be found, and neither is Evie. As the investigation reaches a fever pitch and Lizzie pursues her own leads, she wonders how well she really knew her friend. Evie's boisterous, joke-cracking father lends emotional support. Abbott (Bury Me Deep) expertly captures the nuances of lost innocence and childhood friendships, without ever losing an undercurrent of menace.

Emily Bauer delivers a pitch-perfect performance as Lizzie, a 13-year-old girl whose best friend disappears. As Lizzie takes on the responsibility for finding Evie and saving her family from their grief, she fluctuates between wild fantasies and the dark reality of lost innocence. Since nearly everyone around her displays varying levels of misconduct, it's up to Lizzie to find her own moral center and reconcile the terrible events she has become a part of. While the book is insightful and sensitively written, the subject matter can be difficult to listen to. The authenticity of Bauer's whimsical, girlish narration is both compelling and disturbing as Lizzie reveals her growing empathy for the man who has taken her friend and uncovers secrets no child should know. A.M.R. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine