This is Not the End

by Chandler Baker

Overview

** An emotional page-turner from the New York Times-bestselling author of The Whisper Network **

If you could choose one person to bring back to life, who would it be?

Seventeen-year-old Lake Deveraux is the survivor of a car crash that killed her best friend and boyfriend. Now she faces an impossible choice. Resurrection technology changed the world, but strict laws allow just one resurrection per citizen, to be used on your eighteenth birthday or lost forever.

You only have days to decide.

For each grieving family, Lake is the best chance to bring back their child.

For Lake, it's the only way to reclaim a piece of happiness after her own family fell apart.

And Lake must also grapple with a secret—and illegal—vow she made years ago to resurrect someone else. Someone who's not even dead yet.

Who do you need most?

As Lake's eighteenth birthday nears, secrets and betrayals new and old threaten to eclipse her cherished memories. Lake has one chance to save a life . . . but can she live with her choice?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781484790090
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	08/07/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	325,073
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	HL740L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Chandler Baker grew up in Florida, went to college at the University of Pennsylvania, and studied law at the University of Texas. She now lives in Austin with her husband, though her heart remains at the beach. She strongly believes that writing quality improves vastly if done while staring out at a large body of water and daydreaming. Chandler is the author of the young adult thriller Alive, as well as the High School Horror series. You can visit her online at www.chandlerbaker.com.

Editorial Reviews

"This Is Not The End uses the abundant drama of Lake's predicament as a powerful fulcrum of self-exploration and revelation... Thought provoking and emotionally satisfying, readers will turn the book's last page and wish ironically that This Is Not The End was not really over."— Kenny Brechner, DDG Booksellers in Farmington, ME

"THIS IS NOT THE END by Chandler Baker is unputdownable. Literally, I read it in one sitting and these characters—and that twist, oh the twist!!— have stuck with me for days. What if resurrection was a reality? This twisty, mesmerizing novel is like We Were Liars and Sophie's Choice with a trace of Unwind. A story of impossible choices that is as layered as it is exciting."— Holland Saltsman, The Novel Neighbor in St Louis, MO

"Chandler Baker's THIS IS NOT THE END.... is on one level a twisty, unputdownable journey, a dark crowdpleaser that does not let up, even in its final pages— think: We Were Liars. And it's also a deeply moving meditation on love, loyalty, and grief, and one of the best YA novels I have read since A.S. King's I Crawl Through It. A book you can hand as easily to a teen as you can to a loyal book club." — Rob Dougherty at Clinton Bookshop In Clinton, NJ

"THIS IS NOT THE END captures a teen's voice nearly perfectly. Despair is pronounced in this futuristic novel that reads as a suspenseful thriller - the secrets, the twists and the turns will keep the pages turning... Read on, because even the last pages hold huge surprises!"— Kristen Hess, Let's Play Books! in Emmaus, PA

"This Is Not the End is full of characters to connect with... Chandler beautifully captures the difficult emotions that come with grief, acceptance, and unimaginable choices... She has taken a human desire: to bring loved ones back from the dead - to have just a little bit longer, and brought it to life, forcing her readers to examine this dream, to want it, and to doubt it."— Hannah Walcher, Books Inc in San Francisco, CA

"Lake's journey of self-discovery is emotional and surprising, and will stay with readers."— Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

06/12/2017
Three weeks before Lake Devereaux’s 18th birthday, her best friend, Penny, and boyfriend, Will, are killed in a car accident. Baker (Teen Frankenstein) sets her novel in a near future where resurrection technology allows every 18-year-old to bring one person back to life, leaving Lake with a big, imminent decision. Further complicating her choice is a secret (and illegal) vow made to her family years before, in which she promised her resurrection to someone who hasn’t yet died. The sweetness of Lake’s burgeoning relationship with Ringo, a boy haunted by his own resurrection choice, counterbalances the story’s themes of death and grief. Through Ringo, Lake’s eyes open to a world outside her insular, long-standing friendship with Penny and Will. Baker never makes Lake’s relationships with her late friends seem unimportant or childish as she delicately illustrates Lake’s growing realization that life is for the living, even in a world in which death doesn’t quite mean what it once did. Lake’s journey of self-discovery is emotional and surprising, and will stay with readers. Ages 14–up. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

07/01/2017
Gr 9 Up—Life changes in an instant for Lake Devereaux when she survives a tragic car accident that kills her boyfriend and her best friend. In this near-future contemporary novel, teens have the choice to resurrect a loved one when they turn 18. Technology brings people back from the dead and returns them to full health. But Lake's resurrection choice has never been her own. An unspoken family pact has promised Lake's resurrection to her older brother Matt, who is living with quadriplegia as a result of an accident five years earlier. In order to regain the use of his arms and legs, Matt wants to die and be resurrected. But Lark wants no part in Matt's death. The narrative jumps between the past and the present, allowing Lake and readers to piece together the full picture of what happened with Matt's accident as Lake comes closer to her final decision. Baker adeptly slips in clues that develop a complex picture of who Lake is. Unfortunately, the story's intriguing premise is marred by its logic that a person with disabilities is better off as "normal." Matt's anger may be justified, but the assumption that he can lead a full life only if he is no longer quadriplegic is problematic. VERDICT With its references to teen death and possible suicide, this is a possible read-alike for teens fascinated by Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why. Ultimately, this book's depiction of disability is too flawed to recommend it.—Sarah Wethern, Douglas County Library, Alexandria, MN

School Library Journal

2017-06-05
Lake Devereaux, 17, lost two beloved friends in a horrific accident, but she's permitted to resurrect just one person, an agonizing choice complicated by a promise made years earlier. Medical breakthroughs have made human resurrection possible. Regulations for population control provide that on their 18th birthday, each teen may elect to resurrect one dead person, at that time only. Resurrection is possible years after death, the resurrected person resuming life, free of flaws or disease, at the age they were when they died. Lake's older brother, Matt, was paralyzed from the neck down in an accident four years ago. Embittered, he stopped trying to kill himself only when their parents secured Lake's promise to resurrect him after a planned suicide. While her dead friends' parents beg Lake to resurrect one of their children, Matt and her parents remind her she's already committed. Then, with a boy she meets in a therapist's waiting room, she uncovers secrets prompting hard questions about her friends, family, and herself (all evidently white). The novel's best when exploring how resurrecting a loved one transforms individuals, families, and friends. The effect on the larger world remains unexplored. Odd, contradictory resurrection rules go unexplained. Could a resurrected person resurrect another person? Resurrection's existed for decades yet seems to have effected only minor, local changes. These worldbuilding defects impede what should be provocative explorations of disability and medical ethics. Shallow execution mars an intriguing premise. (Science fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews