Let's Call it a Doomsday by Katie Henry (audiobook)

genre: young adult  contemporary fiction

Ellis worries about things.  Worries a LOT about a LOT of things.  But mostly, though, she worries about the end of days. Doomsday.  Apocalypse.  And the only way she can mitigate this worry is by preparing for it. Then, when Ellis meets Hannah in her therapist's waiting room, she knows they are meant to be friends when Hannah tells her the one thing she needs to know most: exactly WHEN the world will end.  

I really had no idea of where this book would take me - the fact that the protagonist happens to be Mormon made it particularly fascinating to me as a reader, as I grew up a Mormon girl myself and still choose to practice.  The culture of my church, it's vernacular, its spiritual tenets, the centrality of "faith", it's all surprisingly spot on and it's importance in her life and her way of LOOKING at the world feels spot on as well.  Ellis is an intriguing character, with her love of language and words and her insatiable curiosity.  This is a book both about mental illness and about the hard things that happen to us - and then the choices that we make because of these circumstances.  It's about figuring out who we are and who we love.  It's about learning to control what we can and recognizing our power over our own selves.  I loved that we get to listen in on Ellis's therapy as well as the thoughts in her head.  Ellis's relationship with her parents was the only thing that made me not want to give this five glowing stars - it was such an important part of her experience but we finish the book not seeing a real resolution. What we did get, though, was a solid journey for Ellis as she learns important lessons about not just her place in the world but her own place within herself.