ARC Review: This Is How It Ends by Eva Dolan

There’s plenty of intrigue, sex, and drugs in this fast-paced mystery, set against a backdrop of gentrifying London.

Ella Riordan is a community activist who became famous when she was beaten by police during a social protest. Now Ella is a squatter in a building where the owners are evicting tenants so they can convert it into luxury condos, and she’s determined to stay and defend the few holdout tenants, despite death threats.

One night after a rooftop party with her fellow holdouts, Ella finds a horrible scene awaiting her in her apartment. In a panic, she calls her neighbor Molly, who convinces her that the police won’t believe she’s innocent. Together the two women concoct a gruesome plan to hide the body down the building’s elevator shaft.

But the secret won’t stay buried for long. As truth hangs in the balance, a neighbor tells Molly he had heard Ella arguing with a man in the hallway and mistrust grows between Ella and Molly, as repercussions of that night threaten to change both women’s lives forever.

Disclaimer: I was provided with an ARC by Bloomsbury India in exchange for an honest review. However, all the thoughts, feelings and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

The blurb of the book talks about taking on a system; and about the little guys sticking up to the man. This book starts off with a party, a fund raiser hosted by Ella, a young and passionate blogger, who is trying to fight a proposed project that would destroy a housing project to make way for luxury housing. She is fighting this fight on behalf of six remaining owners of apartments in the building.

During this party, there is a murder, and a murder that Ella and Molly, her agent of sorts and fellow activist cover the murder.

What follows is the story of the cover up in the present; and what happened in the past to make both the women the way and where they are right now in the present. The plot of the book is told in both the women’s POV – with both present and past POV included.

I didn’t like Ella, not her past nor the present; she tried very hard to be empathetic but somehow she only came off as cold and manipulative. On the other hand, Molly is a bit more sympathetic woman; it is hard not to when it comes to light all she has given up and all she did to commit to her priority of being an activist.

The writing style of the author is in fact creepy; which works well when it came to the context of this plot and I LOVED that. And it was the writing style that had me interested in the book, even when I wanted to punch Ella right in the face.

The twist in the tale is something that I DID NOT SEE COMING and which deserves its own rating! But honestly, in the end, it took me more time to finish this thriller than I actually expected – this is one of my favorite genres and I end up binge reading a book, which was not the case for this one!