How It Ends

by Laura Wiess

Book Overview

Following her stunning and critically acclaimed novels Such a Pretty Girl and Leftovers, Laura Wiess crafts a riveting and emotionally powerful tale of beauty, destruction...and love.

Seventeen-year-old Hanna has been in love with Seth for as long as she can remember, but now that she and Seth are in an actual relationship, love isn't all it's cracked up to be. Seth is controlling and all they seem to do anymore is fight...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416546634
• ISBN13: 9781416546634
• Release Date: August 2009
• Publisher: MTV Books
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.9" x 6.9"
• Age Range: 14 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 9 to 12

Customer Reviews

Laura Weiss's How It Ends is a beautiful, absorbing tale

Synopsis, courtesy of author's website: All Hanna's wanted since sophomore year is Seth. She's gone out with other guys, even gained a rep for being a flirt, all the while hoping cool, guitar-playing Seth will choose her. Then she gets him - but their relationship is hurtful, stormy and critical, not at all what Hanna thinks perfect love should be. Bewildered by Seth's treatment of her and in need of understanding, Hanna decides to fulfill her school's community service requirement by spending time with Helen, her terminally ill neighbor, who she's turned to for comfort and wisdom throughout her life. But illness has changed Helen into someone Hanna hardly knows, and her home is not the refuge it once was. Feeling more alone than ever, Hanna gets drawn into an audiobook the older woman is listening to, a fierce unsettling love story of passion, sacrifice, and devotion. Hanna's fascinated by the idea that such all-encompassing love can truly exist, and without even realizing it, the story begins to change her. Review: The book holds two strong stories with Hanna at the center. First, the teenage love story of Hanna and Seth. Equally important is the close friendship that Hanna has with her older neighbor, Helen. The first time we meet Hanna, she's a young child spending time with her neighbor while her parents go through a difficult patch. As far as Hanna and Helen are concerned,their longtime friendship has made them family. Although Hanna spends less time with Granna Helen as she gets older, their friendship means as much to them as it did when they had spent every afternoon together. But Helen is sick and wants to tell Hanna the truth about her life, to clear away all of the fairy tales that she'd woven for the young child Hanna had been. Helen's point of view struck me as the clearest and most interesting in the novel, whether when grappling with how to disclose the truth to her friend Hanna or facing her own mortality. The book is wonderfully written, with carefully crafted characters and an unusual plot. I recommend it highly. Publisher: MTV (August 4, 2009), 368 pages. Courtesy of the publisher.

What a gem!

I finished this last night and I will tell you I am still reeling from the way this story turned out and the feelings that it invoked in me. I began reading this story thinking it would be a YA novel - nothing too, you know. I was expecting the story to revolve around Hanna and her relationship with Helen and how it all revolved around the How It Ends story they are reading in the book (you know, a book inside a book). I had no idea the strong issues that this story would touch upon. I will confess that at first I wasn't very thrilled with it. The first 100+ pages were mostly giving you an idea of who Hanna is, her school, her friends, and this crush she has on this boy, Seth. It also gives you glimpses into how Hanna and Gran Helen's relationship came to be and how slowly as Hanna aged and became more interested in friends, hanging out, shopping and boys... their relationship has slowly dwindled. But if you can stick it through the first half of the book and get to the point where you begin reading "How It Ends" you will find a diamond in the rough. How It Ends not only sucks Hanna into it but, you as the reader too. You become immersed in this world where women are basically seen as reproductive tools, how terrible life can turn for an orphan and even more importantly how to survive this and eventually you'll find a love story that will have you wondering and hoping that a love like that can actually exist. There is so much about it that I want to say, but I won't, only because I don't want to give anything away. The best thing about this story is that when it sucks you in you won't be able to put it down until you get to that last page. There are so many surprising events that in the end you are just left open-mouthed and in awe by it. I truly recommend this and hope that, like me, you won't be put off by the slow start. It was truly a gem.

A Beautiful and Emotional Story

I was expecting something either overly romantic or overly childish in Laura Wiess's HOW IT ENDS. I'm not sure why, perhaps I just didn't give the blurb enough thought. I was beyond pleasantly surprised to find a story, however, full of emotion and depth. Wiess has created a beautiful story that transports the reader into the lives of Hannah and Helen and shows us what it means to truly live. Hannah is your typical teenager. At the beginning of HOW IT ENDS, Helen tells us all about Hannah as she learned to love the girl and then watched her grow up. Hannah is a sweet girl, good where it counts, but like any typical teenager she does have her rebellious side. Her entire life seems to be focused on the cute and at times charming Seth. From the moment Hannah lays eyes on him, it becomes her mission to attempt to reel him in. Wiess treats us with one hilarious moment after another as we watch Hannah chase after this teenage boy. Of course we know that Seth couldn't possibly be good enough for our spunky and intelligent Hannah, but that doesn't stop us from enjoying the fun. Helen watches Hannah from a distance as the young girl she once knew grows into a beautiful young woman. It breaks her heart to watch Hannah grow up and away, but she understands that it must happen. While we follow Hannah throughout HOW IT ENDS, it's Helen's story that really pulls the tension into the book. Helen has a secret, a dark past that she was never able to tell Hannah. Instead, when the girl asks about her past, Helen makes up wonderful and quirky stories about a well adjusted and happy girl. Things couldn't be farther from the truth though and that truth is slowly eating away at Helen. Deciding that she can no longer live with lying to Hannah, she sets out on a journey to document what really happened and show Hannah who the real Helen is. Wow; that about sums it up for my feelings of HOW IT ENDS. The story was wonderfully complex, full of subplots and depth. One of my favorite aspects was the twists and turns that the story takes. Wiess does a wonderful job of making the story anything but predictable. One moment we're expecting Seth to sweep Hannah up into his arms and the next moment he's nowhere to be seen. The same goes with Helen. Whatever we expect the characters to do, I found that they usually ended up doing something completely different or event would unfold in a different manner. It was nice to be able to read a book and not know what was going on next. With the story within HOW IT ENDS, this was particularly lovely because the emotions were so deep and the feelings so raw; I wanted to get lost within the pages and Wiess allowed that to happen. The character development in HOW IT ENDS is superb and I think that after reading the prologue, this will be evident to most readers. Wiess doesn't just tell us all about the characters in the beginning of the book and then throw is into the story; instead, she integrates the character dev

gut wrenching, completely amazing

a rollercoaster of a book. i cried, laughed out loud. I havent read a book this moving in a very long time.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

HOW IT ENDS is the intertwining story of Hanna and Helen. Next-door neighbors and a generation apart, the two women have a tenuous bond. Helen misses the days when Hanna would come over and stay until she had to go home at night. Hanna is growing up and is more concerned about boys and being popular than spending time with elderly Helen. When Hanna was little, her parents relied on Helen to keep an eye on her. Hanna's parents were having problems, and Helen and Lon became surrogate grandparents to her. She learned many things from Helen, such as canning, sewing, and an appreciation for the wildlife that lived in their backyards. Hanna kept Helen young, or at least young at heart. But Helen has kept a secret from Hanna. She's told Hanna the romantic story of how she met and fell in love with Lon. But they're only stories. And as Helen ages, she knows that she has to reveal the truth to Hanna. But how? Helen is slowly dying. Hanna's school has a community service requirement. To meet the commitment, Hanna gets her school to agree to allow Hanna be an after school assistant to Helen. Helen's illness has become too much for Lon to handle alone. His health is not the best either and everything requires care. So in the afternoons, when Hanna visits, she and Helen sit and listen to audio books. Helen's illness progresses to the point where she can only blink for yes or no. She encourages Hanna to keep listening to the current book, How It Ends. The audio book frustrates Hanna with the ups and downs that the main character, Louise, struggles through. It isn't until after the story is over and Hanna is called next door that the true meaning of the audio book is revealed. HOW IT ENDS was a beautiful story. I took it on vacation with me and one evening, after everyone else had turned in, I sat curled up on the couch and read most of the book in one sitting as a thunderstorm raged outside. By the time I got to the last page, my eyes had welled with tears, and I just sat pondering the book for a while before I could even consider trying to sleep. I love when a book can touch your heart so strongly. For anyone who enjoyed Nicholas Sparks' THE NOTEBOOK, HOW IT ENDS should not be missed. Reviewed by: Jaglvr