All the Ways the World Can End

May 15, 2017
Eleanor “Lenny” Rosenthal-Hermann has been making a list of ways the world could end since she was nine years old, from megatsunamis to nuclear proliferation. She’s now 16, and the Earth is still intact, but her father’s health is declining at an alarming rate. In a heart-wrenching novel, Sher insightfully reveals Lenny’s panic, OCD behaviors, and grief as she watches her father die of cancer. With his regular doctor away, Lenny gets a glimmer of hope from the new resident in charge, who believes her father may be eligible for an experimental treatment. Feeling abandoned by her mother, a state supreme court justice who was “always doing ten things at once,” and by her best friend Julian, who is planning to graduate early and leave for college, Lenny puts too much faith in the young doctor, developing a crush on him that careens out of control. Expressing the same type of magical thinking explored in Sher’s memoir, Amen, Amen, Amen, the novel delineates destructive and healthy responses to loss, and shows that beauty and continuity can exist amid tragedy. Ages 12–up. Agent: Mollie Glick, Creative Artists Agency.

May 1, 2017
Lenny's compulsive behaviors intensify as her father's cancer prognosis declines.A planetarium exhibit seen when she was 9 triggered Lenny's obsession with catastrophic events that could end the world. She details them in a secret notebook, the pages of which begin each chapter of the novel. But instead of nanotechnology or sun storms, her father's diagnosis is the event destroying her world. Lenny's a problem-solver, though (as evidenced by her secret survival bunker underneath their house), and so she latches on to Dr. Ganesh's suggestions about potential experimental drug trials. (Indian-American Dr. Ganesh, called "Dr. Hottie" by Lenny's sister, lends some diversity to the otherwise largely white cast.) Lenny also initiates increasingly inappropriate romantic overtures toward Dr. Ganesh, heedless of their 20-year age difference. Soon not even Lenny's clever and wryly funny observations can hide the fact that she's teetering on the edge of disaster, especially when she begins finding comfort in self-harming behaviors, compellingly portrayed. Unfortunately, the examination of Lenny's emotional crisis and harmful coping mechanisms is often interrupted by subplots involving Lenny's high school drama production and a local diner's renovation. In fact, wrapping up the multiple storylines eventually necessitates some abrupt changes in Lenny. And while accepting her father's impending death sparks a welcome return of her equilibrium, its suddenness may surprise many readers. The novel's pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lenny's grief feels palpable and honest. (Fiction. 12-18)

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June 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-In this refreshingly light treatment of a dark subject, an eccentric narrator guides readers through the unthinkable: the imminent death of a parent. Eleanor Rosenthal-Hermann (aka Lenny) is a savvy Manhattan teenager who tends to overthink the serious and the absurd situations in her life. Lately, she is obsessed with mortality-on a personal and intellectual level-as her dad battles cancer. Her undependable mother is busy with her demanding career, so Lenny oversees her father's health care. She has her best friend Julian for support but only for the moment, as he may be moving across the country. Lenny is desperate to maintain her sanity while handling her father's illness, performing in the school's unorthodox theatrical tribute to Georgia O'Keeffe, and controlling the unexpected romantic feelings she has developed for the resident oncologist she meets at the hospital. Sher's worst-case-scenario glimpse into Lenny's mind and heart is tender, quirky, and believable. Some of the minor characters seem exaggerated, which makes the protagonist seem even more endearing by contrast. Chapter breaks on black pages include Lenny's academic yet tongue-in-cheek descriptions of the variety of ways the human race can be obliterated. The author humorously depicts the delicate, awkward interactions surrounding terminal illness and all of those affected by it. VERDICT A strong choice for fans of relationship fiction, who may appreciate a lovingly irreverent approach to grief.-Jane Miller, Nashville Public Library

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 Lenny is an expert on world catastrophes: Mass extinction. Earthquake. Vacuum decay. She's keeping an eye out for all of it. But watching her father die of rectal cancer has amped her anxiety level beyond her already elevated baseline. When Lenny is forced to rush her father to the hospital, she is secretly delighted to enlist the help of handsome Dr. Radhakrishnan Ganesh, the embodiment of Lenny's most desperate fantasies. In fact, Lenny's infatuation with Dr. Ganesh escalates in tandem with the eminent losses in her lifeher father's death, her best friend's move across the country, and even the demise of a lobster frienduntil she makes a truly terrible choice involving Dr. Ganesh and risque selfies. The supporting characters lean toward the wacky-but-good-hearted type, supplying that witty banter so loved by John Green's fans. Sher uses some familiar tropes, but she gives them enough depth to prevail over stereotyping. Lenny's story is both poignant and hilarious, reminiscent of the dark humor in Jesse Andrew's Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2012).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)