The End of Our Story

Haston (Paperweight) focuses on breakups, grief, and letting go in a story that alternates between the perspectives of Bridget “Bridge” Hawking and Wilson “Wil” Hines, childhood best friends who fell in and out of love but aren’t quite ready to move on. The novel opens after Bridge and Wil have spent a year apart from each other after she cheated on him, but the shocking murder of Wil’s father brings them back into contact. The effort to rekindle their friendship proves rocky, not only because of the breakup but because Wil had already been dealing with family problems even before his father was killed, namely domestic violence. Bridge has her own troubles, including a drinking problem and a depressed single mother, but Wil’s emotions are raw and unpredictable, and his situation takes center stage. Haston barely touches on the question of who killed Wil’s father until the very end. Instead, the source of the novel’s tension comes from Wil and Bridge’s attempts to figure out how to address their fractured relationship and whether their futures will involve each other. Ages 14–up. Agency: Alloy Entertainment. (Apr.)