All the Ways the World Can End

by Abby Sher

Overview

A "laughter through tears" YA novel about a teenage girl struggling to deal with her father's terminal cancer—in all the wrong ways

All the Ways the World Can End by Abby Sher is at times heart wrenching while at others hilarious.

Lenny (short for Eleanor) feels like the world is about to end. Her best friend is moving to San Francisco and her dad is dying. To cope with her stress Lenny is making a list of all the ways the world can end—designer pathogens, blood moon prophecies, alien invasion—and stockpiling supplies in a bunker in the backyard.

Then she starts to develop feelings for her dad's very nice young doctor—and she thinks he may have feelings for her too. Spoiler alert: he doesn't. But a more age-appropriate love interest might. In a time of complete uncertainty, one thing's for sure: Lenny's about to see how everything is ending and beginning. All at the same time.

Praise for All the Ways the World Can End:

“Lenny’s grief feels palpable and honest.” —Kirkus Reviews

“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.” —Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250158475
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	02/18/2020
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Abby Sher is a writer and performer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times,Self, Jane, Elle, and Redbook. She is also the author of Breaking Free: True Stories of Girls Who Escaped Modern Slavery, Amen, Amen, Amen: Memoir of a Girl Who Couldn't Stop Praying, and Kissing Snowflakes. Abby has written and performed for the Second City in Chicago and the Upright Citizen's Brigade and Magnet Theater in New York. She lives in New Jersey with her family.

Editorial Reviews

"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...Lenny's grief feels palpable and honest." —Kirkus Reviews

"The supporting characters lean towards the wacky-but-good-hearted type, supplying that witty banter so loved by John Green’s fans...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)." —Booklist

"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." —Publishers Weekly

"...refreshingly light treatment of a dark subject...Sher’s worst-case-scenario glimpse into Lenny’s mind and heart is tender, quirky, and believable...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." —School Library Journal

"Full of emotion and armed with a viper tongue, Lenny comes across in this smoothly told tale as hard, even angry, but honest; her no-holds-barred attitude makes her relatable, and it’s an asset given the tough situations she faces...The journey remains emotionally turbulent, but Lenny displays courage when it counts." —BCCB (Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books)

From the Publisher

05/15/2017
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. (July)

Publishers Weekly

06/01/2017
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

School Library Journal

2017-04-17
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)

Kirkus Reviews