This Is the Way the World Ends

March 1, 2023
In New York City, a masquerade ball turns into a dystopian nightmare. "Do you know what I would give to go to that ball?" scholarship kid Waverly asks wealthy Caroline during one of their regular tutoring sessions. Waverly--who is gay and autistic--is an outsider at Webber Academy, a private school run by its founder, Dean Owen Webber. Even with her tutoring income, the cheapest ticket to the event, the school's annual fundraiser, is way out of reach. But, desperate for a break from the pomp and circumstance, Caroline wants Waverly to attend the masquerade disguised as her. Waverly agrees after she learns that Ash, the dean's daughter and Waverly's ex-girlfriend who's now living in London, will be there. The next day at school, everyone is talking about how Caroline's tech billionaire dad, the dean's good friend, was found unconscious at home in suspicious circumstances. But the party must go on. The ball is in full swing when Waverly and the rest of the partygoers find themselves trapped inside the chic venue during a blackout. Turns out, the world is ending. Whom can Waverly trust? Though intrigue is threaded throughout, the book's descent into chaos feels at odds with the fairy-tale beginning, and the bumpy pacing hampers this thought-provokingly relevant thriller. Wilde's scrutiny of the ripped-from-the-headlines ultrarich preparing for societal collapse is powerful, however. Most of the characters are White. An intense yet uneven apocalyptic survival story. (Thriller. 14-18)

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March 13, 2023
An elegant masquerade ball turns survivalist nightmare when attendees find out the world is ending in this hair-raising dystopian chiller by Wilde (Queens of Geek). White Waverly, an “autistic, gay scholarship nerd from Queens,” has strived to earn every financial opportunity while attending New York Webber Academy to alleviate her parents’ monetary concerns. To help pay for her mother’s multiple sclerosis medication, Waverly even spends her nights and weekends tutoring her trust-fund classmates—including popular tutee Caroline, who soon offers Waverly a chance to attend the school’s $10,000-a-seat masquerade ball. Waverly accepts, hoping to confront her secret ex-girlfriend Ash, the dean’s daughter who ghosted her. But the ball turns to chaos when the lights go out and the world outside the masquerade’s windows looks like “a nuclear attack, the start of World War III, the end of the world.” Though repetitive action sequences sometimes lower narrative immediacy, antagonists—in the form of the academy’s school administrators and the parents of Waverly’s wealthy classmates, all intent on surviving imminent apocalypse at any cost—prove compelling in this locked-room drama. Via Waverly’s razor-sharp commentary and grandiose descriptions of the masquerade and its attendees’ wealth, Wilde fashions a claustrophobic atmosphere that heightens the cultish horror happenings. Ages 12–up.

May 1, 2023
Grades 9-12 A party at the end of the world is the center of Wilde's debut YA novel. An outsider in more ways than one, Waverly is a scholarship student at her glitzy prep school for the richest kids in New York City; she's also autistic. When her friend Caroline asks her to attend the school's masquerade ball in disguise, Waverly agrees--mostly in the hope of seeing her ex-girlfriend, the dean's daughter Ash. However, the glamorous party quickly turns sinister as Waverly gets lost in one of the party's psychedelic mazes, overhears a conversation about a conspiracy, and witnesses a murder. More than that, Waverly discovers that the whole world is at stake: a global catastrophe is happening outside the walls of the masquerade, and the rich people inside are part of a plan to take advantage of the disaster. Moreover, Waverly isn't sure if Ash is in on everything. This thriller set in a world of extreme privilege with a compelling autistic heroine and her circle of friends trying to save everyone will appeal widely.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2023

Gr 7 Up-A queer autistic teen uncovers the plot of billionaires to take over the world during a solar flare. Waverly is a scholarship kid still mourning her break-up with her first girlfriend, when a rich girl at her school offers to trade places with her so she can attend a masquerade ball. While attending the ball with her physically disabled South Asian best friend, they slowly uncover a plot by the rich investors in their school to survive the apocalypse and emerge to rule a new society built on white supremacist cis-hetero-patriarchy. Waverly must save herself and her friends from being killed or forced to participate in this new "Utopia." Disabled rage from living in a world where people with "preexisting conditions" are considered acceptable collateral damage fuels this novel. Intersectionality is at the forefront of the story-the main character is autistic and a member of the queer community, her friends have intersecting identities, and her mom is chronically ill and living in poverty. The major drawback is that the story is set in the modern day but has so many social media and pop culture topical references that it already feels dated. VERDICT An additional purchase.-Jeri Murphy

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