How to Pack For the End of the World by Michelle Falkoff

Reviewed by Yusmibel L.
Grade 10

How To Pack For The End Of The World by Michelle Falkoff is a charming, overdramatic book to consider packing for your apocalypse kit. On its first few pages it hits you right in the face with the pressing question, “If you knew the world was ending tomorrow, would you rather die along with your friends and family and everyone you’ve ever known, or live among strangers to rebuild civilization?” It keeps its theme at every turn of the book, challenging its characters and readers to come to a conclusion on what they would find important when the curtain falls.

The book is set within the cushy walls of the formerly prestigious Gardner Academy, now fallen from grace for a sexual abuse scandal. The school, faced with a tarnished reputation, begins opening its gates to accept second chance rich kids and teachers and scholarship students. Amina, a scholarship student, loathes the idea of attending an academy so far from home and plans to leave as soon as possible.  However, surviving through the semester proves to be a challenge. Virtually friendless and swamped with work, she can’t help but join when a mysterious letter inviting her to a semi-secret apocalypse study club is slipped under her door. There she meets with kindred souls: Chloe, Hunter, Jo/Josephine, and Wyatt. They spend the rest of their freshman year playing ‘games’ hosted by each member to prepare themselves for doomsday. Together they learn what they’re willing to sacrifice to thrive in the final days of the world. As they learn more about each other and themselves, it grows apparent that they aren’t the only ones at Gardner who know about their club meetings. Secrets get revealed and they find themselves playing one final messy game before the year's end, one where they all end up the loser.

I must admit, at first this was a hard book to put down. However, for a book so focused on the end, its ending left something to be desired. Some of its plot points and hints fall a little flat in the reveal. For example the election between Hunter and Amina provided several opportunities for characters to interact with each other, but it doesn't do much outside of that. The fact that they’re being elected feels a little pointless .There isn’t a lot of lasting impact in any individual thing done, making the entire book seem like a somewhat drawn out lesson with only one conclusion. There is something to be salvaged from the wreckage though.

Falkoff kept a brilliant balance of light fun with the macabre undertone of doomsday, and every character had a moment in the sun. One of the main plot points in the books were the ‘Games.’ Every character had a game, every game was used to teach a lesson. A genuine highpoint of the book was discovering the lessons or agendas hidden behind every game from the perspective of our narrator, the characterization allowed by this helped unravel one of the main mysteries of the book while allowing the reader to grow closer to the cast. However, it is with mild frustration that we do it through the eyes of our main character, Amina who acknowledges her position as always somewhat one step behind the rest of the group.

All things considered, How To Pack For The End Of The World was an all right read. For an anxious teen navigating a world where every (somewhat pointless) event kind of feels like the end of the world, it’s easy to start unconsciously keeping a countdown in the back of your mind. Which is why for every criticism I have of this book, there’s a little bit of fondness. It may fail to provide a packing list for the end of the world, but it remains a successful guide for finding what it means to make connections in an ending world, which is why I would recommend this book.