Book Review: We Begin At The End by Chris Whitaker

I finally finished a book in March!!!! In January and February I read 14 books each month. And then I hit a major reading slump. My Angieway schedule is falling apart, but hey it doesn’t really matter how many books you read. I’ve been running more and baking more and watching more Disney movies! So it’s all good. Some months are better than others. Although I’m now really losing the race I’m in with my sister to see who can get to 100 books read in 2021 first.

I was sent We Begin At The End from Raincoast books for early review. It released on March 2nd. Thank you!

The book is set in a small town called Cape Haven in California. Chief Walker, or Walk, is a lonely middle aged man trying to keep his town out of trouble. He particularly looks out for his childhood friend Star Radley, who now has a drug problem and two kids. Her kids are Duchess (13) and Robin (6). Walk’s other childhood friend Vincent King is in jail for a crime committed when they were teens. Until he is released and comes back to Cape Haven. I don’t want to say too much more about the plot, except that you see how Walk, Star, Vincent, Duchess and Robin’s lives all become intertwined. The book is sad, there is a lot of heartbreak, but there is also a lot of resilience and that is heartwarming. Overall I would rate this with 4 stars. It’s a good family drama, it has a police procedural element, and it has two kids just trying to figure out what it all means and how they fit in. It will probably make you cry a little but in a nice way.

The reason this one didn’t get 5 stars is because it took me a long time to read it. Sometimes when a book is just so sad I struggle to keep reading it. It’s probably not the fault of the book, when I’ve been feeling a bit down about the world. But the fact that this 367 page book took me 11 days to read says to me that it was missing something. Also there was one revealed connection at the end that I found a bit annoying, like the person who kept this secret shouldn’t have and that annoyed me. It’s definitely a great book that I would recommend to lots of people, especially fans of drama!

Happy Reading!

Angie