How it Ends

By Laura Wiess

Seventeen-year-old Hanna has been in love with Seth for as long as she can remember, but now that her feelings are requited and she and Seth are in an actual relationship, it feels like love just isn't enough. Seth is controlling and all they seem to do anymore is hurt each other. If that's what love is, Hanna doesn't want any part of it.

Besides, she has something else on her mind: graduation. But she's been ignoring the school's community service requirement for years, and now she needs to clock in some hours in a hurry. She volunteers as a caretaker for the Schoenmakers, an elderly couple who live on a farm behind Hanna's house. Mrs. Schoenmaker has advanced Parkinson's, and her husband can't always be there to watch over her.

While caring for Mrs. Schoenmaker, Hanna gets drawn into an audiobook that the older woman is listening to, a love story of passion and sacrifice and shared hurts and complete devotion. She's fascinated by the idea that love like that can truly exist, and without her even realizing it, the story begins to change her.

But what Hanna doesn't know is that the story she's listening to is not fiction -- and that Mrs. Schoenmaker and her husband's devotion to each other is about to reach its shattering, irrevocable conclusion...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: Dec 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781471105494

Laura Wiess

Laura Wiess is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Such a Pretty Girl, chosen as one of the ALA’s 2008 Best Books for Young Adults and 2008 YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers, and Leftovers. Originally from Milltown, New Jersey, she traded bumper-to-bumper traffic, excellent pizza, and summer days down the shore for scenic roads, bears, no pizza delivery, and the irresistible allure of an old stone house surrounded by forests in Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains Region. Email Laura Wiess at [e-mail] or visit LauraWiess.com for more information.

Reviews for How it Ends

[heatherlinc · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My goodness, Laura Wiess certainly knows how to write a book that pulls a punch and demands a raw, emotional response from the reader. By the end of this book, I was sobbing . . . so sad!!!! "How it Ends" deals with life and death, true love, loneliness, heartache and strength of character. At times Hanna's naivety annoyed me and I wanted to shake her, but I loved Helen's story. A truly beautiful, poignant novel that will require a box of tissues to read.

[karenajeff · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was a good read until the last 1/3 of the book and then the story just got stupid. The heroine was a fairly empathetic teen and then it just got silly - she couldn't figure out the main point of the story.

[bladechik99 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I thought this book was just lovely. It was so different from Wiess's other two books, but in a fantastic way. It didn't fit into the usual mold of books about a teenage girl, because it was so much more than that because of Hanna's relationship with her neighbor Helen.

Helen's life story was so sad and a bit scary to read, but she and her husband built a beautiful life with each other and loved Hanna very much. I loved following Hanna as she sort of had to decide what kind of person to be in life and seeing how her neighbors had shaped her as she grew up.

[weener_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow. Laura Wiess REALLY knows how to write a young adult book. I am continually shocked that she's not as well-known or more than Laurie Halse Anderson and the like. This book alternates between the perspective of Hanna, a 15-16 year old girl, and Helen, Hanna's elderly lady who she has always called Gran. These two were very close when Hanna was a child and, to Helen's chagrin, Hanna spends less time with her now that she has entered high school and discovered boys and parties. At first, I was annoyed that Helen was so preoccupied with what Hanna was doing and why Hanna wasn't calling her or stopping by as much. "This Helen seems like a pretty together broad," I thought. "She has a loving husband and a lot of things to do. Why is she so concerned with the comings and goings of her teenage neighbor?" This question was answered later in the book, so don't let that bother ya too much. Helen has always tried to shield Hanna from the harsh realities of life. She cared for Hanna for a period of time when her parents were separated and trying to work out their problems, and noticed that the child was always hungry for a happy ending. She tried her best to satisfy this by telling Hanna made-up stories about her own life when she was younger, which Hanna eats up with wide-eyed curiosity. Here's the rub: as Gran gets older, she starts losing her memory, and forgets the tales she told Hanna. She even forgets the wonderfully romantic lie of how she supposedly met her adoring husband, Lon. The real story is supposedly much, much, much, MUCH less pleasant. While reading, I was wondering how a person could meet a true, lasting love in a way that's not romantic at all. Well, Helen and Lon managed it, and it was terrifying. Before she succumbs entirely to senility and Parkinson's disease, she writes down her REAL story and has it made into an audiobook for Hanna. Meanwhile, Hanna spends most of her time mooning over world's biggest slimeball, a perpetually stoned guitarist named Seth. He has no respect for her, treats her poorly, and there's no question that this will end badly. When Hanna is required to do volunteer hours for school, she requests to spend them caring for Gran, who, due to Parkinson's disease, can no longer walk, feed herself, or even speak. While she cares for Gran, she ends up listening to the audiobook of Helen's life, which she believes to be a work of fiction. Helen's story could have been a book unto itself. It was absolutely riveting. Hearing it, although she has no idea it's her Gran's life, begins to transform Hanna. She starts to have honest conversations with her mother about important life issues. She starts to realize that there's more to life than being jerked around by a careless boyfriend. She starts to grow up a little. Helen's ending was not quite a happy one. Hanna, however, has some choices she can make. I strongly urge you to read this book to find out how THIS book ends.

[bookwormygirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[justjenniferreading · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I had started reading this one quite a while ago and had put it down because I just wasn't that into it. However I am so glad that I picked it back up. Once I got into it the story just starts going and you are taken away with it. The main character are Hanna and Helen. Hanna is a teenager who is dealing with things most teenage girls deal with. Helen is dealing with aging and the ravages that can have on the body. The story follows the two through their own issues and shows us how their relationship has shaped them. This is as much a love story as it is a coming of age story. While I liked Hanna I didn't really connect with her. Even though her life seems pretty typical for a teenage girl I was not and never have been typical. So I could understand what she was going through, but I couldn't relate because I've never really been in her shoes. I loved the audio book that Hanna and Helen listened to together. To me that was where the real story took place. The audio book has all the makings of a great story. Love, sacrifice, pain, suffering, and friendship. It was truly a story that examined the human condition in its many many forms. It was a bit odd to read a story that was being read in a different story, it was an interesting idea and I think Weiss pulled it off without making it weird or distracting. Hanna and Helen were very well developed. Helen's story really pulled at my heart strings and I cried on multiple occasions. There were a few points that I was close to sobbing. I really got lost in this book and just let myself become absorbed completely by the story. This was a great book. I haven't cried this hard reading a book in quite a while. I will absolutely be picking up more of Weiss' work.

[nicole_30 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

How It Ends is too, too sad. Teenaged Hanna has a close bond with her next door neighbors who have been like grandparents to her through the years. Now that she’s older, she wants to be with people her own age and doesn’t make as much time for them. But the neighbors, Helen and Lon, aren’t doing so well; both have health problems and need medications in excess of their insurance. While Hanna tries to make things work with her crush, Helen slips deeper into Parkinson’s hell. It’s too late for Helen to give Hanna advice, but she has left the truth of her life story—a story she had completely re-spun into a fairy tale—for Hanna to hear. The amazingly well-written story of How It Ends and the book within the book (also called How It Ends) had me in tears more than I would like to admit. Another thing I’d really rather not admit is how much I recognize Hanna. Sometimes book characters are incredibly relatable and Hanna is one of them. Even when she made bad choices, I understood why she would make them. I cheered for her when something made her happy and had my heart break when hers did.

[dasuzuki · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was great and I could not put it down until I was done. I did have my doubts reading the first few chapters as I really did not like Hanna and thought she was a total ditz. However, as you read the book you get to start to see the softer side of her personality as you learn about the start of her relationship with Grandma Helen. The chapters alternate between Hanna’s point of view and Helen’s point of view. Helen also intrigues the reader as she keeps referring to some dark secret she has kept from Hanna and how she needs to know the truth before Helen dies. It isn’t until about half way through that you begin to find out what this secret is and how it is going to be revealed to Hanna.Watching Hanna’s relationship with Seth made me cringe and wonder how she could she keep being such a glutton for punishment and yet it is so real. I remember crushing over guys and trying to justify some of their jerkiness (is that even a word?) because you have put them up on this pedestal. The story keeps you wondering how much will she put up with and will Seth ever change?While sad because you know Helen is terminally ill this book was still uplifting in it’s own way as you see the touching relationship between Hanna and Helen and the love story of how Helen and her husband met.