The End of Always
The End of Always
Dad stands there for a moment, absently stroking his beard. There’s a red mark on the bridge of his nose from his dust mask. He was woodworking in the garage – probably making more shelves for the basement – before he came to find me.
“Did you need me for something?” I ask, dotting some antibiotic cream on my fingertip. I do this for his sake. Unlike him, I’m not worried about infections or blood poisoning or any other condition that probably won’t happen from a harmless little needle stick.
Dad blinks twice, like he’s struggling to remember why he’s standing in the kitchen with me. “Oh,” he says. “Yes, I need you to watch April this afternoon. I have a meeting.”
I wrap the Band-Aid around my finger, even though it’s fine now. “On a Sunday?” My dad is an estimator for a real estate company that develops apartment building in the city, so he has meetings with construction people all the time. But not usually on the weekends. Saturdays and Sundays have always been for us – my sister April and me, and our mom when she was still alive.
Dad goes to the sink to wash his hands. “Not a work meeting,” he says, his back to me. “There’s a workshop at the community center. Intro to portable solar power.”
Isobel, a talented jewelry maker, is a 17-year-old who has recently lost her mother to cancer. She attempts to shield her young sister, April, from the worst that life can be, and she is worried about her father who seems to be getting more and more involved in the prepper movement. When her dad suggests that they spend two weeks during their summer vacation at Endurance Ranch, a prepper community, Isobel is not very happy, but she goes along with it as April seems to be excited about going to the horses on the ranch. Once the family gets to Endurance, Isobel’s dad seems to be flourishing, but he does not see the undercurrent of violence and hysteria in the compound. With the help of Dane, another teenager at the Ranch, Isobel must make the decision to stay or to take April and flee from the community.
Readers of The End of Always are taken into the world preppers and those that are busy preparing for the end of the world. This book examines the different types of people who are involved in the movement and their motivations for why they would join a community such as Endurance Ranch. Isobel’s father wants to be part of the movement because he could not keep his wife from dying and just wants to protect his children. Others do not trust the government, or they are anti-vaxxers, such as Dane’s two moms.
The End of Always will appeal to fans of realistic fiction who want a touch of sweet romance. Readers will want to know whether Isobel’s family stay at the ranch and whether Dane and Isobel start a romantic relationship.
Sarah Wethered , who has been a teacher-librarian at New Westminster Secondary School for 24 years, currently lives in New Westminster, British Columbia.