Graphic Novel Review: How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger

Posted on October 17, 2024 at 6:00 am by Gene Ambaum

How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger. Greenwillow Books, 2024. 9780063158146. 298pp. plus the best “Thank You” page ever at the end of the book.

Tara is thirteen, and she’s about to start high school with her older sister (Isla) because she skipped the eighth grade. To say Tara is nervous would be an understatement. (She has an active imagination we get to see on the page — the color of what goes on in her head is red, as opposed to the way the rest of the book is colored.)

High school feels like complete chaos. One of the two other kids who skipped a grade with her, Jessup, already has a beard, so he kind of fits in. Tara does not and is freaked out. Then she goes into Mr. Tims’s class for the first time and witnesses his “white-hot love of literature.” He’s amazing (to me at least), most of his students are dreadful, and his announcement of a group project brings forth apocalyptic imagery in Tara’s mind…but it does lead to her making a friend, and one of the funniest presentations ever. That’s about half the book — the rest is great, too, but no spoilers.

This is one of my favorite depictions of family and sisterhood — Isla and Tara are best friends in addition to being sisters — plus figuring out what’s going on in your own head and heart and then dealing with it. The depictions of high school misbehavior are hilarious and felt super real. Plus the art and especially the coloring is so good I had to stop several times to admire it. Great book.