The End of the World Is Bigger Than Love

Set in a near, internetless future in which a pandemic turns the skin of the infected gray before quickly resulting in death, Bell’s (All the Ways to Be Smart) novel centers 15-year-old white twins Summer and Winter. Residing in an abandoned church on a remote island, the two live a relatively bucolic existence, reading through their deceased mother’s library and eating from a stockpile of canned goods that was left by their father before he was kidnapped due to his part in the global catastrophe. When a stranger arrives on the island, however, he drives a wedge between the two that shatters their carefully constructed reality. In alternating chapters, the siblings describe the often-traumatic events that led to their solitary existence; interestingly, the two portrayals often diverge, communicating vastly different understandings of the world. For Summer, the strange newcomer is a bear cub that grows to a dangerous height and strength; for Winter, meanwhile, he’s a brown-skinned human boy come to claim her heart. Though many of the threads introduced—including the fate of the girls and the world—remain frustratingly unresolved, frequent flashbacks referencing recent cultural icons, such as President Obama and Taylor Swift, skillfully ground the novel’s setting while hinting at the truth behind the dueling narratives, and asking which might be the more reliable. Ages 12–up. [em](Aug.) [/em]