When I choose to read a book that takes on something happening in the world today, such as a Columbine-like active shooter story, I want to see what writing about this topic will add to the ongoing discussion. School shootings remain a concern and every time they are in the news, it's easy to realize that this could happen to anyone at any time. So what would this book add to this discussion? Would it show me something that I don't already know? Or a point of view that would make me look at the horror from different angle? 
 In terms of the obvious horror and tension of the situation, This is Where It Ends missed the mark for me. It seemed a little flat, and although there were a few scenes toward the end that brought out some emotion in me, for the most part I wished there had been more tension coming through the scene in the auditorium. There was so much head-hopping in this book it was hard to become invested in any of the characters. 
 The main characters were likable enough and even the shooter had some redeeming qualities in his backstory, but I didn't feel like I cared enough to cry for them. Their diversity seemed to be painted on, like the author looked at the list of characters and divvied them up among another list of ethnic groups and sexual orientations. 
 I attribute many of the problems I had with this book to the multiple POV's. The story was confusing in the beginning because it was hard to piece together each person's story when they only narrated for a few pages before switching to another POV. I think I would have been more invested in this had there been one, maybe two POV's from the main characters, instead of hearing from all the different groups on scene during the incident. To look at this hour long incident from the viewpoint of one person would have made this more interesting and tense in my humble opinion. 
 There is some social media content that didn't work for me either. I got what the author was trying to do with this, but since we didn't really know the students involved in tweeting or texting about the incident as it is ongoing, I really didn't care (I skipped over those pages), and that says a lot about this story. 
 Unfortunately, I don't think This Is Where It Ends adds anything to the discussion of violence in our schools. The overwhelming feeling as I read this was Why? Why did the author feel this story needed to be told? What value did this book add to the discussion on school shootings? I don't have any answers to these questions. So my overall review is that This is Where It Ends might have been a good idea, but it's not executed well enough to have an impact. 
 ARC provided for review.