"The End and Other Beginnings" by Veronica Roth

The End and Other Beginnings (Oct. 1, 2019) by Veronica Roth.

Despite containing a collection of six novella-length stories, this YA novel from Divergent and Carve the Mark author Veronica Roth is relatively short. Each story is a story “from the future” and includes two stories which take place in the universe that the Carve the Mark duology is set in. Below, I will give an overview of each of the stories and conclude with my overall thoughts.

   1. Inertia: Claire Lowell is woken in the middle of the night to attend the last visitation of her best friend, Matthew Hernandez. At least, they were best friends until about three months ago. A last visitation happens when hospital analytics determine that a person’s life will end “regardless of surgical intervention,” and Matt was in a devastating car accident, which severely damaged his spine. In different rooms, technology allows Claire and Matt to share a consciousness. She only gets 30 minutes with him. Will it be time enough to say the things she never said and previously couldn’t admit as he’s approaching death’s doorstep?

   2. The Spinners: Atleigh Kent isn’t your typical bounty hunter. She hunts “leeches.” These leeches (a.k.a. symbios) are ETs (yes, extraterrestrials). Their centipede-like bodies attach themselves to a person’s spinal cord, taking over the host’s brain and body. The host’s memories become their own, eventually suffocating the person’s mind to whom it belonged. If a leech/symbios detaches after a long attachment (either by force or of its own will), the body will go on living if cared for, but the person will be a vegetable. Atleigh and her sister, Lacey, are taking a road trip to the coast with an urn, but Atleigh wants to make a detour first to Nashville (it’s related to the urn’s contents). Vengeance and all that, but it’s in Nashville that she runs into Eon. He’s a trusted ET, but flickers with the telltale signs of wearing digital skin. What true form does he cover up?

   3. Hearken: Darya Singh has perfect pitch. This makes her a candidate to be a Hearkener, as perfect pitch is one of the prerequisites. Once through years of training, including choosing three instruments, Hearkeners receive an implant into the temporal lobe after choosing to hear people’s “life songs” or “death songs.” The type of songs Hearkeners hear determines the color of the web-like tattoo dye that is seen under the scalp of every Hearkener: red for life, black for death. Darya attends the Minnesota School for Hearkeners in Minneapolis. Hearing death songs, especially, has grown in demand with the ever-constant threat of bio-bombs. Bio-bombers prefer heavily populated areas (mass casualties = faster apocalypse), so the poorer families live downtown as opposed to the suburbs or outward. If someone inhales the gas contained in those bombs, depending on the potency, the victim may be infected within a few weeks or a few minutes, but death is always imminent. There is no antidote. The bio-bombers want to destroy the world, but do not believe in ending their own lives, which is why one always looks closely at those wearing gas masks (which hopefully you yourself are wearing, but they are expensive).

   4. Vim and Vigor: Edie Robbins doesn’t know what to do. She’s been asked to the prom by two boys: Evan is good-looking, smart and good at conversation, but he’s pretentious; Chris is hot, funny and allegedly a good kisser, but he’s also her ex-boyfriend. Since the death of a friend, anxiety is always close to the surface, making the choosing of a prom date a significant issue for her. So she sketches the superheroines of the Protectors – Vim, Vigor, Transforma and Haze – based on friend Kate’s fan fiction. She attends the Vim and Vigor movie with Kate and Lynn, but their relationship has changed since Amy left. After the movie, she doubts her decision to go to Kate’s, but going there gives her the opportunity to use Kate’s father’s prototype: the Elucidation Protocol (EP). It doesn’t tell the future, but helps you see what you think would happen between two scenarios. It is very expensive, but Edie assures Kate she needs to use it for a very important reason. Does the EP help Edie decide which boy to take to prom? What will happen if Kate figures out the reason she’s using the EP?

   5. Armored Ones: This novella is split into two parts. The first, from Teka Surukta’s point-of-view, tells of the first time she’s ever in the same room as Cyra Noavek. Teka’s mission is to kill Cyra. But her anger is a hindrance; it makes her foolish, as she cannot focus on her work and observe Cyra simultaneously. If she isn’t careful, that could get her interrogated, tortured and eventually executed. What Teka doesn’t understand is why Otega, a Dormant (a renegade usually on a sensitive, long-term mission who therefore doesn’t regularly attend meetings), seems to want Teka to see Cyra as a person, not a monster.

            In the second, Akos Kereseth is appealing yet again to his commander, Vakrez Noavek of the Shotet Army, to be granted his request for the Shotet Rite of Armor, “in which a candidate went head to head with an Armored One – the most dangerous creature on their planet – and either killed it or died in the attempt.” Armored Ones do not like the current, so what will an Armored One make of Akos’ lack of current? Despite the danger they pose, they are innocent creatures. Can Akos do it? Can Akos kill something innocent, not to save his own life or his brother’s life, but to get something he wants?

   6. The Transformationist: Otho Judacre has spent the past year (a.k.a. season) at the ACYR (the Assembly Center for Youth Rehabilitation) for a death that wasn’t intentional. With over one-and-a-half seasons left to go, Otho is surprised when his attorney (Tyzo) shows up and states he’ll be released to his uncle for a week. He gets to return to his home planet of Zold (one of nine nation-planets) for his fluency exam. He could be on Zold much longer if he himself testifies. His kind uncle (Auly) is the one who asked his attorney to appeal his sentence, and, for the first time, someone else came forward to speak on his behalf. That person is Jove Doret. Jove grew up along the same street as him and still lives there with his mom (Kiiva) and younger sister (Dasha). Jove’s family are not Ts (short for Transformationists). Ts are oft-seen as a cult. They believe in self-annihilation and call it “unmaking.” What Otho’s mother put him through could’ve killed him, not that his brother, Catho, sees that. With Jove’s help, can Otho find it in himself to speak on his own behalf?

   Overall Thoughts: While I didn’t prefer all of the short stories (I found “Vim and Vigor” to be the least interesting), I liked this YA collection overall. Roth reaches out with her imagination and paints with words tales of advanced technology, aliens and the types of monsters that don’t look monstrous because they’re human (currentgift or not). These stories of the future can be strange (I want to know more about the Minnesota School for Hearkeners), but they have familiar themes such as friendship, revenge, love and self-doubt. That there may be ETs with centipede-like bodies involved? Those are just details, my friend.