The End of Everything by Megan Abbott

For a quite sometime I wanted to read Megan Abott, ever since I learnt about her repute for noir, but I wanted to start of with Queenpin or The Song is You, but I had to be contented with The End of Everything, as it was the only book form the author that was available during my last visit to book shop. 

Evie and Lizze are little 13 year old chuddy buddies (although this is not the word you will associate with them after reading this book ), who are inseparable in many ways, doing things that every 13 year old would do, except a notion is buried deep within  their minds, a notion so disturbing and abhorrent, harbored all the while below the murky film of naivety, that Lizze will soon find out when her dear friend Evie goes missing without warning. But this incident is juts the beginning of the tragic tale, as we follow Lizze as she begins her own search for her best friend. 

Narrated form the Lizze perspective, we have to constantly remind ourselves that its the words and feelings of thirteen year old that we are following. It's the perplexity of the teenage mind  knocking the doors of puberty that author relies on to steer the better part of the book. The uncertainty comes from not the sudden disappearance of the girl, but its the shockingly unacceptable circumstance that leads to it all. Its also the reason that gives this book the cult status.

Its may also be the reason why most of them found this book quite revolting, but going by the reputation of Megan Abbott I believe you tend to expect such dubious plot. Probably that's what makes Megan Abott Megan Abott. Well it surely went down right way to me, being an avid reader of noir. Definitely it won't be her last.