End of Story: The addictive, unputdownable thriller with a twist that will blow your mind

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I can’t write much about the content of the book without ruining it for others and that’s the last thing I want to do, So I’ll tread carefully…A masterpiece of storytelling, with a plot that relentlessly draws you in, and then twists and evolves into something utterly unexpected. Wrapped in one of the most original and deeply-realised storylines I have read in a long time, this genre-blending book hits breathtaking new heights in contemporary fiction." - Philippa East

What would happen to children who are losing sleep because reading a bedtime story to your child, is now punishable by law?

BUT CAN YOU GUESS HOW IT WILL END?

Despite being slow-paced, the story had enough going on to keep me hooked. (It is literary fiction and thus heavily character-oriented. So the slow pace is to be expected.) Absolutely enthralling, incredibly clever, brutal and heartbreaking. This deserves to be the book everyone is talking about in 2023. I loved it." - C J Tudor Overall, this is a very different and creative read and I admire what Louise Swanson has produced here. I think the ending was what I enjoyed most though, and perhaps that is because I don’t really read dystopian novels, but Louise Swanson managed to make it all sound so believable in the huge twist and consequential fallout.

I adore when this writer writes as Louise Beech so knew that I needed to read her Louise Swanson alter ego but wasn’t expecting to love this book quite as much as I did! It is drawing comparisons with other books like The Handmaids Tale and I can see why! Set in a not so distant future world where fiction is banned and reading bedtime stories to your child is a punishable offence, I become engaged straight away by this storyline that didn’t feel as unbelievable as perhaps it should have done unfortunately! That is the premise of this novel where we meet the former award winning author Fern Dostoy, who is now banned from writing and monitored for compliance by the “tall one and the short one”, who can show up unannounced at any time to search her home. I enjoy this author’s work. She manages to deliver an emotional ending while keeping the story light and easy to read. By the time I reached the end of this book, I was amazed by where the story ended. What a fantastic book, I really didn't see the twist coming but oh my gosh!' NETGALLEY REVIEWER, 5* I had requested this book mainly on seeing the part about the ban on fiction. But the book spoke not just to the bibliophile in me but also to the woman and the mother in me. I hadn’t expected such an emotional impact.Fern Dostoy is a criminal. Officially, she has retrained in a new job outside of the arts but she still scrawls in a secret notepad in an effort to capture what her life has become: her work on a banned phone line, reading bedtime stories to sleep-starved children; Hunter, the young boy who calls her and has captured her heart; and the dreaded visits from government officials. End of Story is an infusion of dystopia and very real magic. It reaches straight for your heart, cast in a velvet glove and tears it out in an iron fist. Thunderous devastating. I loved every minute of it." - Matt Wesolowski I hadn't actually read the blurb, I love this author when she writes as Louise Beech and genuinely if you can manage to read this with as little influence as possible I'd recommend doing that. Any description you get couldn't possibly encompass the strange beauty of this story it is entirely its own thing. If you tell a story well enough, it’s true.” – Fern’s catchphrase in the book that works on so many levels despite its obvious simplicity. Our narrator Fern Dostoy is a writer, one of the ‘big four’ novelists of the not too distant future. This is a future where the Anti-Fiction Movement’s campaign to have all fiction banned has been successful. It was Fern’s third novel, Technological Amazingness, that was cited as a dangerous fiction likely to mislead and possibly incite dissent in it’s readers. She had created a dystopian future where two major policies were being adopted as standard practice. To avoid poor surgical outcomes, only patients who are dead can have an operation. Secondly, every so often, families would be called upon to nominate one family member for euthanasia – leading to the deaths of thousands of elderly and disabled people. All fiction authors, including Fern, are banned from writing and the only books on sale are non-fiction. The message is that fiction is bad for you, it lies to the reader giving them misleading ideas about the world and how it’s run. Facts are safe. AllBooks dominated the market for books until it became the only bookshop left, state sanctioned of course and only selling non-fiction. From time to time they hold a book amnesty where people can take their old, hidden novels to be pulped. Fern now cleans at a hospital and receives unannounced home visits from compliance officers who question her and search her house to ensure she’s not writing. Added to this dystopian nightmare are a door to door tea salesman, an underground bedtime story organisation, a mysterious appearing and disappearing blue and white trainer, re-education camps for non-compliant writers and a boy called Hunter. All the time I was reading about this terrible new world, I was taking in the details. and trying to imagine living in it.