It’s the End of the World and I’m in My Bathing Suit by Justin A. Reynolds || Hilarious MG With A Black Squad

It's the End of the World and I'm in My Bathing Suit

Twelve-year-old Eddie Gordon Holloway has concocted his most genius plan ever to avoid chores... especially the dreaded L-A-U-N-D-R-Y. If he can wear all the clothes he owns, he'll only have to do the laundry once during his school break.

On the day of the highly anticipated Beach Bash, Eddie's monstrous pile of dirty laundry is found by his mom. And Eddie's day has just taken a turn for the worst. Now he's stuck at home by himself, missing the bash, and doing his whole pile of laundry. But mid-cycle, the power goes out!

With his first load of laundry wet and the rest of his stuff still filthy, he sets out to explore the seemingly empty neighborhood in his glow-in-the-dark swim trunks, flip-flops, and a beach towel. He soon meets up with other neighborhood kids: newcomer Xavier (who was mid-haircut and has half his head shaved), Eddie's former friend Sonia (who has spent her entire break trying to beat a video game and was mid-battle with the final boss), and siblings Trey and Sage (who are dealing with major sibling drama).

As they group up to cover more ground and find out what happened, they realize that their families aren't coming back anytime soon. And as night falls, the crew realizes that they aren't just the only people left in the neighborhood, they might be the only people left... anywhere.

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Perfect for readers who want:

• A written voice that’s casual and funny and easy to get into.
• Highly relatable characters.
• A protagonist with ADHD.
• Black squad of super fun characters.
• Mix of contemporary and dystopian setting.
• Lots of banter and jokes between friends.

Many thanks to Scholastic Press and Rockstar Book Tours for an ARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes are taken from an unfinished product and may differ from the final version.

If that title alone doesn’t scream, “READ ME!” then I don’t know there’s any hope for you. Have you read that title?! Go ahead and read it again. I’ll wait. Intriguing, no? If the title alone doesn’t do it for you, I absolutely love seeing Black squads on children’s books. They didn’t exist when I was that age, so I’m always excited for modern youth that they do get to have the experience of reading books about people who look like them.

It’s the End of the World and I’m in My Bathing Suit is not only a mouthful of a title, but a hilarious promise of an equally funny book. It’s filled with nostalgic vibes of roaming the hood, solid friendships, banter, and, oh, maybe just the end of the world.

I had fun with this one, but I don’t think I was quite the target audience for it. I had assumed this would be more dystopian, and maybe future books will be, but this was pretty hardcore contemporary fiction, which isn’t a favorite of mine. Kids will likely enjoy it more for that aspect than I did, for sure. I also hadn’t realized it was book one of a series, so the cliffie at the end caught me completely off-guard and annoyed the crap out of me. Overall, though, I had fun with Eddie and his friends, and I look forward to reading the next one.

This book is written in a voice that’s casual and funny, like Eddie is sitting across from you telling you his story.

This is a style that I think works especially well for children’s books. Especially since it mimics their speech patterns, while still being slightly more proper and polished. It’s sort of the best of both worlds.

I knew I was going to get along well with Eddie from the very first chapter, where he speaks directly to the reader to let them know he’s got their back. Since he wants them to look impressive when their parents ask how many chapters they’ve read so far, he has conveniently written his book where the chapters increment by 100, so when you get to the 3400 chapter, it sure sounds like you’ve made good progress. That cracked me up right off the bat and set the tone for the whole book!

I’ll admit that Eddie’s style is sometimes very rambly and full of a lot of random tangents, which may make it hard or frustrating for some people to follow. Eddie also has ADHD, and as someone who also has ADHD, I can confirm that this is a fairly accurate experience of how our brains and thoughts work. My poor husband can also confirm this, along with the frustration that comes from attempting to keep up with not only the main thing we were trying to say but all the little tangents that pop up along the way. Gotta appreciate the journey, right?

Eddie is an incredibly relatable protagonist that I think most kids will be able to see themselves in!

Heck, he even felt familiar for me, waaaaay long ago when I was that age. Eddie struggles with a lot of familiar things: an older brother that he doesn’t get along with, a step-father he hasn’t exactly warmed up to, a mother who makes him do things that are allegedly “good for him” that he doesn’t see any sense in and who can’t see his absolutely brilliant plan re: laundry.

There’s a lot going on in Eddie’s life, and I think there’s plenty for readers to relate to, even if they don’t relate to everything. Compound that with the very inviting writing voice, and I think kids will really enjoy reading about Eddie.

There’s a lot more going on in this book than it first appears, like Eddie’s struggle with his brother, the Bronster (brother + monster) and the fact that his Real Dad passed several years ago and now he’s stuck with his stepfather, who he calls WBD.

In some ways, I wish the story had delved into this a little bit more, because I still don’t know how Eddie’s father died. It may not matter a lot overall, but since Eddie is so hung up on it and still grieving, it would’ve helped a little to have some more context there.

Either way, Eddie’s plight here is so entirely relatable. I, too, have had stepparents (or boyfriends) pop up that you just don’t want to give any room to because they don’t belong there. It’s not even about the person themselves. As much as he tries, Eddie even struggles to really dislike WBD, and that comes through in the things that he dislikes about him, like his positivity and how hard he tries. They’re bogus excuses, okay? And he gets that. But when you lose someone you love and you’re still grappling with that hole in your heart, you don’t necessarily want someone to come along and try to fill it.

I really liked how this dynamic was done. I have no idea how this story ends, but I’m really rooting for WBD and hoping that Eddie will come around and see what a good thing he has. It’ll just take some time, I’m sure.

The focus of this book is a squad of Black kids who are the only ones left in their neighborhood after everyone else goes to Beach Bash . . . and doesn’t return.

And these kids are funny. If you’ve ever had a squad (a really tight group of friends you regularly hung out with), these kids’ interactions will feel incredibly familiar to you. They banter like there’s no tomorrow and tease each other mercilessly, but when push comes to shove, they’ve got each other’s back.

These kids also know how to have fun. I mean, obviously it’s easier with no adults there, but still. There’s a very nostalgic feel to this squad that reminds me of my own childhood and running around with friends, being all crazy and unsupervised. Reynolds captures that feel marvelously. Whether it’s something today’s kids will relate to or not, I have no idea, but I sure did!

I don’t know what the recent theme is about not labeling books as part of series when they are, but I don’t like it. This book is definitely not a standalone!

I don’t want to fault the book for this, because it’s not the book’s fault. It’s just out there doing its thing, trying to live its best bookish life. However, I’ve had to levy this complaint at several books lately, and I’m not sure where the disconnect is, but it irks me.

There is a massive cliffhanger at the end of It’s the End of the World and I’m in My Bathing Suit and none of the plot is actually resolved.

Actually, in many ways, it feels like the book just ends. Right when it’s getting to the real meat of the issue, BAM, curtains down, lights up, thank you, good day. It’s not my favorite way to lead into a series, if I’m honest, but if I know it’s a series going in, I can deal with it. However, since I didn’t realize this was just book one, I was blindsided by the sudden ending.

As I said, this is neither the book nor the author’s fault, but please be aware, going in, that this is the beginning of a series! Don’t expect things to neatly wrap at the end (or even to figure out what’s going on at all, really).

About Justin A. Reynolds

JUSTIN A. REYNOLDS has always wanted to be a writer. Opposite of Always, his debut novel, was an Indies Introduce selection, a School Library Journal Best Book, has been translated in 17 languages, and is being developed for film with Paramount Players. He hangs out in northeast Ohio with his family and likes it, and is probably somewhere, right now, dancing terribly. His second novel, Early Departures, published September 2020. In spring 2021, he teamed up with Marvel and Graphix to release his debut graphic novel, Miles Morales: Shock Waves. You can find him at justinareynolds.com.

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