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Book: Ways The World Could End
Sunday, 9 July 2023 23:55Ways The World Could End 
Kim Hooper
Amazon Product Link
Dave is a Dad with Asperger's.
He sees the world differently than most, and he feels like he has no idea what he’s doing when it comes to raising his 15-year-old daughter, Cleo. She also feels like he has no idea what he’s doing, especially now that her mom is gone.
They were both better off when Jana was around—Dave's wife, Cleo's mother. But now she's not, and they are left to figure out life on their own. Dave dedicates his attention to his newfound hobby of doomsday prepping, researching the various ways the world could end. Cleo feels like her world already has.
Everything changes when neighbors move in, threatening their isolation in the hills of San Juan Capistrano. Cleo is intrigued by the new girl, Edie, and soon finds out the intrigue is mutual. Dave, not at all intrigued, is forced to come to terms with everything he cannot control.
As they struggle to live in the present, both Dave and Cleo must dare to revisit the tragic past they share. What happened to Jana? Who was she, really? Who are they without her?
Ways the World Could End is a story of grief, friendship, and love—the love between parents and children, between spouses, between teenagers, and between strangers. It is a story that requires us to consider the bounds of forgiveness, what we’re willing and not willing to forgive, and reminds us that often the hardest thing to forgive is ourselves.
Listened as an audiobook. This was a random loan from Libby, as I wanted to play something in the background.
I probably imagined the book to be a very different type of book from the title, and I was actually waiting for the apocalypse to happen (though it never did). I enjoyed the Dave parts of the book, but believe me when I say I hated the Cleo parts of the book. Yes, kids will be kids, and I found the Cleo parts really childish, cringey, and, I don’t know, cheesey. “Our knees were kissing…” or some rot like that LOL. But again, I know, I shouldn’t dislike Cleo for being a child, but I really didn’t look forward to the alternating Cleo parts of the entire thing.
I was feeling indignant for Dave throughout though. I’m not sure if I could put the right words in this, but it felt like everyone was putting undue pressure and expectations on Dave for “being better”. Like, yes, they all knew he was on the spectrum. So, they know how he is, yet, they EXPECT him to act and react as a NORMAL person. I mean, one can attempt to explain to them what the norm is, but if they are unable to adhere to the norm, you do not blame them. I really hated the couples counseling part where they were forcing “the norm” onto Dave.
Jana had said “it was a relief to have a name to call it” and something along the lines of “I just wanted to understand it,” but then turns around just bashes and complains and belittles Dave, WTF. Claiming to understand that it’s just a different love language, but still yearning for the love language that you consider the “correct one” was just BS. If you claim to understand love languages and that you know for a fact that your husband IS expressing his love for you in that way, then you don’t get to bash and complain that “he doesn’t see it your way”. Heyyyy, have you heard of it the other way around, “you don’t see it his way?”
And then yeah, THAT happens and now everyone else goes “now, Dave wasn’t that bad, was he? He was never mean.” Yeah, you can’t hurt the feelings of someone on the spectrum (or something along those lines) so it doesn’t matter what you say of them? That’s just being a bully.
Once forgiveness comes around everything lightens up, and it feels like everything’s in the clear, with Dave starting to open up and all that, but geez, I’m still annoyed even with Cleo. As her friend (forgot his name by now… Carl?) said, with the way she explains her own dad, she’s dehumanizing him. Even Edie had to call her attention to the way she complained about her dad. Where Cleo acts so mature in some parts that she “understands the quirks her dad has” she is just so childish in other parts, it feels like although she understands his “quirks” she doesn’t really understand her dad.
Kim Hooper
Amazon Product Link
Dave is a Dad with Asperger's.
He sees the world differently than most, and he feels like he has no idea what he’s doing when it comes to raising his 15-year-old daughter, Cleo. She also feels like he has no idea what he’s doing, especially now that her mom is gone.
They were both better off when Jana was around—Dave's wife, Cleo's mother. But now she's not, and they are left to figure out life on their own. Dave dedicates his attention to his newfound hobby of doomsday prepping, researching the various ways the world could end. Cleo feels like her world already has.
Everything changes when neighbors move in, threatening their isolation in the hills of San Juan Capistrano. Cleo is intrigued by the new girl, Edie, and soon finds out the intrigue is mutual. Dave, not at all intrigued, is forced to come to terms with everything he cannot control.
As they struggle to live in the present, both Dave and Cleo must dare to revisit the tragic past they share. What happened to Jana? Who was she, really? Who are they without her?
Ways the World Could End is a story of grief, friendship, and love—the love between parents and children, between spouses, between teenagers, and between strangers. It is a story that requires us to consider the bounds of forgiveness, what we’re willing and not willing to forgive, and reminds us that often the hardest thing to forgive is ourselves.
= + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = +
Listened as an audiobook. This was a random loan from Libby, as I wanted to play something in the background.
I probably imagined the book to be a very different type of book from the title, and I was actually waiting for the apocalypse to happen (though it never did). I enjoyed the Dave parts of the book, but believe me when I say I hated the Cleo parts of the book. Yes, kids will be kids, and I found the Cleo parts really childish, cringey, and, I don’t know, cheesey. “Our knees were kissing…” or some rot like that LOL. But again, I know, I shouldn’t dislike Cleo for being a child, but I really didn’t look forward to the alternating Cleo parts of the entire thing.
I was feeling indignant for Dave throughout though. I’m not sure if I could put the right words in this, but it felt like everyone was putting undue pressure and expectations on Dave for “being better”. Like, yes, they all knew he was on the spectrum. So, they know how he is, yet, they EXPECT him to act and react as a NORMAL person. I mean, one can attempt to explain to them what the norm is, but if they are unable to adhere to the norm, you do not blame them. I really hated the couples counseling part where they were forcing “the norm” onto Dave.
Jana had said “it was a relief to have a name to call it” and something along the lines of “I just wanted to understand it,” but then turns around just bashes and complains and belittles Dave, WTF. Claiming to understand that it’s just a different love language, but still yearning for the love language that you consider the “correct one” was just BS. If you claim to understand love languages and that you know for a fact that your husband IS expressing his love for you in that way, then you don’t get to bash and complain that “he doesn’t see it your way”. Heyyyy, have you heard of it the other way around, “you don’t see it his way?”
And then yeah, THAT happens and now everyone else goes “now, Dave wasn’t that bad, was he? He was never mean.” Yeah, you can’t hurt the feelings of someone on the spectrum (or something along those lines) so it doesn’t matter what you say of them? That’s just being a bully.
Once forgiveness comes around everything lightens up, and it feels like everything’s in the clear, with Dave starting to open up and all that, but geez, I’m still annoyed even with Cleo. As her friend (forgot his name by now… Carl?) said, with the way she explains her own dad, she’s dehumanizing him. Even Edie had to call her attention to the way she complained about her dad. Where Cleo acts so mature in some parts that she “understands the quirks her dad has” she is just so childish in other parts, it feels like although she understands his “quirks” she doesn’t really understand her dad.
