Review: A Beginning at the End

A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Author Mike Chen's sophomore outing, following his lauded time travel debut Here and Now and Then, offers a look at American humanity, post-apocalypse. After a viral pandemic caused by something called MGS (multi-generational syndrome) sweeps the earth, the world population is reduced by seventy percent. As the planet recovers, survivors in urban centers often suffer from Post-Apocalyptic Disaster Syndrome. Fragmented families struggle to care for surviving children. Single survivors struggle to make marriage commitments. What is marriage other than companionship and connection, and so many have lost those to whom they were connected. How is society going to regain its functioning? How will technology and manufacturing move forward? What resources can be reclaimed, and how? And meanwhile, there are subterranean rumors of a new strain of MGS percolating out there in the world.

Against this backdrop, we meet four people, Rob Donelly and his daughter Sunny, a former popstar, Moira, aka MoJo, and Krista, her wedding planner. Rob has, in a very human but terrible error in judgment, lied to Sunny about her mother Elena's death due to MGS. Sunny exists in a state of anger over the fact that her mother doesn't return from treatment and isn't allowed visitors. As the book opens, she is acting out in school, getting into altercations. On his way to a meeting with the principal of Sunny's school, Rob gets stuck in an elevator with Krista. In an uncharacteristic outpouring, he tells her about Sunny and her problems at school. Given the way things work in this new society, he is afraid that Sunny will be removed from his custody by the Family Stability Board, a post-apocalyptic social services branch that removes children from dysfunctional family situations, "rehoming" them with more functional families. He hasn't been able to afford therapy because the government Residence License subsidy he receives is that for a single person rather than a family. But maybe the footdragging also has something to do about the dark secret he's kept from his daughter. There's no way to approach therapy without revealing to Sunny that he's been lying to her all along. For a long, long time. Krista, who doesn't know the details about Elena yet, is supportive of Rob. In fact, she's so supportive she's willing to go to the school with him as a character witness and friend. Krista has had a tough childhood and can see Rob is a good parent who genuinely cares about his child. A wedding planner, she's seen all kinds of changes in what makes a marriage, or just a family, these days.

Marriage represents stability, companionship, and the imprimatur of Family Stability Board approval. Krista's working on Moira's wedding and tells Moira, who is considering canceling her wedding, that nowadays people marry for different reasons than they did before. Now, rather than marrying for love, people often marry for stability. Moira, a popstar who ran away from her exploitative father, has been hiding from the public eye in the six years since the MGS apocalypse began. For her, stability has been maintaining anonymity. But is she still able to find love, friendship, connection? In the days after Rob and Krista get stuck in the elevator, the lives of these four people become intertwined, and we see the formation of a new kind of family.

Just like the family units that one sees in a series like The Walking Dead, an apocalyptic reduction in the human population requires the formation of new systems of support. Every man for himself is just not feasible. Chen artfully explores what these new families look like in a gentle and fashion. Just as he did in his first novel, he gives us the imperfect, very human face of a new kind of society, and a poignant father and daughter relationship. I love the intimacy of his writing, which captures nuanced, hopeful elements of future worlds in ways that you don't often see in science fiction. This is quiet science fiction that evolves at a languid pace.


I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Want to buy a copy of The Beginning at the End from your local independent bookstore? Click HERE.

Want to buy the audiobook copy of The Beginning at the End and have a portion of the sale benefit your local independent bookstore? Click HERE.

View all my reviews

© Marzie's Reads 2017-2020, All Rights Reserved.