Monday, August 21, 2017

This Is Not the End by Chandler Baker




What They Say....I wonder if for the rest of my life, I’ll be haunted by beautiful days.

On one cloudless, radiant summer afternoon, Lake Devereaux lost everything. The car crash claimed the lives of her best friend and boyfriend, the people who had become her family after her own fell apart. But she doesn’t have to lose them both.

The development of resurrection technology has changed the world. Under the new laws regulating the process, each person gets one resurrection to be used or forfeited on their eighteenth birthday. Mere weeks away from turning eighteen, Lake faces an impossible choice.

Envisioning life without one of the people she loves most is shattering enough, but Lake carries an additional burden: years ago, under family pressure, Lake secretly—and illegally—promised her resurrection to someone who isn’t even dead yet.

The search for answers about her future draws Lake more deeply into the secrets of her past until she begins to question everything about those closest to her. Betrayals and hurts both new and old threaten to eclipse the memories she once cherished.

Then Lake meets a boy unlike anyone she’s encountered before, who unflinchingly embraces the darkest parts of her life . . . and who believes that all resurrections are wrong.

Which path is the right one? And how can Lake start to heal when she can't move on?


What I Say....This was the kind of book that made you question things.  If you had the chance to bring one  person back to life, who would it be?  And after you think about that for a while, you start wondering, if you had that chance, would you use it?  Is it ethically right to use it?  Are you helping yourself or the person you bring back?

Lake has a great life, a loving boyfriend and a faithful best friend.  They help buffer the anger simmering at home.  Lake's brother is in a wheelchair, completely paralyzed and he appears to loathe her, insulting her every chance he gets.  

But Lake's parents are watching her, waiting for her 18th birthday so she can use her resurrection request to bring him back to life - which will heal him from his paralysis.

Then one summer day a tragic accident took away her best friend and her boyfriend.  And now three sets of parents want her resurrection request.  And Lake doesn't know what she wants.  How can she choose between her boyfriend, her best friend or her permanently angry brother.  It's an impossible decision.

Then while waiting in her therapists office, Lake meets a boy. one she knew from childhood.  Ringo brings new ideas to Lake about what the resurrection means and why she maybe shouldn't use it at all.

Who will Lake choose?  How will she live with her choice?  No spoilers, but I will say that the nurse in me would have chosen her brother.  If you have the chance to get a young man out of a wheelchair, how do you not do that?  Not saying who Lake chooses, but that would have been my choice.



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