Description
Book SynopsisA 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist for Best General Fiction
Dave is a Dad with Asperger's.
He sees the world differently than most, and he feels like he has no idea what he’s doing when it comes to raising his 15-year-old daughter, Cleo. She also feels like he has no idea what he’s doing, especially now that her mom is gone.
They were both better off when Jana was around—Dave's wife, Cleo's mother. But now she's not, and they are left to figure out life on their own. Dave dedicates his attention to his newfound hobby of doomsday prepping, researching the various ways the world could end. Cleo feels like her world already has.
Everything changes when neighbors move in, threatening their isolation in the hills of San Juan Capistrano. Cleo is intrigued by the new girl, Edie, and soon finds out the intrigue is mutual. Dave, not at all intrigued, is forced to come to terms with everything he cannot control.
As they struggle to live in the present, both Dave and Cleo must dare to revisit the tragic past they share. What happened to Jana? Who was she, really? Who are they without her?
Ways the World Could End is a story of grief, friendship, and love—the love between parents and children, between spouses, between teenagers, and between strangers. It is a story that requires us to consider the bounds of forgiveness, what we’re willing and not willing to forgive, and reminds us that often the hardest thing to forgive is ourselves.
Trade Review“Hooper offers an insightful and finely crafted look at how a family copes with grief . . . This memorable and stirring story of survival brings the goods.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Joyful . . . Teenage Cleo and her relationship with Edie will strike a chord with young readers.” —Booklist
“In Kim Hooper’s capable hands, humor prevails in this touching tale of loss, isolation, and forgiveness.” —Melissa Scholes Young, author of The Hive and Flood
“Kim Hooper's writing has me hooked from the first page. The father-daughter relationship between Dave, who lives with Asperger's Syndrome, and Cleo, his lonely and sarcastic teen, is funny and tender. Hooper's warm-hearted depiction of these characters paints a touching, painful, and funny portrait of loss, love, and connection. The novel left me thinking about all the ways the world can end, both large and small.” —Amy Tector, author of The Honeybee Emeralds
“With tenderness, humor, candor, and insight, Kim Hooper brings her characters from darkness to light in a story that’s ultimately about the power of love.” —Jennifer Anne Moses, author of The Art of Dumpster Diving
