My Review of End of Story by A.J. Finn with Spoilers and the Ending Explained will help you decide whether this highly anticipated book by a somewhat controversial author is for you. Why is the book’s Goodreads rating so low? How does End of Story compare to The Woman in the Window, A.J. Finn’s very popular 2018 debut?
Jen’s Quick Take on End of Story
- Vibe-y and atmospheric in a San Francisco film noir kind of way
- A VERY different feel than The Woman in the Window
- Many readers found End of Story slow paced, even “boring”
- Pretty low Goodreads rating of 3.25 as of late February 2024
- If you want to fall down a rabbit hole, A.J. Finn’s real life story might be more interesting than the book!
End of Story by A.J. Finn: Overview
- Published on February 20, 2024 by William Morrow.
- I checked this book out of the library and read it in February 2024.
Review of End of Story by A.J. Finn
Okay, let’s just address the elephant in the room. Yes, the Goodreads rating for End of Story is low. It was 3.5 when I drafted this post and has fallen to 3.2 by early March 2024.
Is End of Story a terrible book?
No. It’s just COMPLETELY different from Finn’s 2018 debut, The Woman in the Window. If you loved The Silent Patient and felt disappointed by Alex Michaelides’s future books, then End of Story might not be for you. (I did not feel that way, just saying!)
What’s End of Story about?
Reclusive mystery novelist Sebastian Trapp invites his longtime penpal Nicky Hunter to his San Francisco mansion to help him write his life story.
Twenty years ago, Sebastian’s first wife and teenaged son vanished from different locations, never to be seen again. Did the perfect crime writer commit the perfect crime? And why has he emerged from seclusion, two decades later, to allow a stranger to dig into his past? But the past isn’t gone—it’s just waiting.
I love End of Story’s tagline: “the past isn’t gone. It’s just waiting.” And in the case of this book, waiting, and waiting and waiting. And waiting!
The book is just over 400 pages but feels a lot longer.
End of Story is slow-paced, with low suspense, due to the fact that the book centers around two decades-old missing persons cases. Despite the dramatic prologue, there’s very little sense of danger or menace in the present.
End of Story is also atmospheric in a way that feels inspired by the San Francisco noir fiction of the 1930s and 1940s. Think Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett. Or Sunset Boulevard, as the opening scene of both that movie and this book are about a dead woman floating in a pool of water. Who is she? How did she get there? In End of Story, you’ll have a long wait to find out. And not all of it will make sense.
I felt a bit conflicted by the twist, which I will explain below under spoiler protection.
If you’re up for a vibe-y book with fun winks and nods to classic mysteries and a very languid pace, then End of Story might be for you!
Spoilers For End of Story
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If you’ve read this, I’d love to know what you think. Please leave questions and comments below. Spoilers are fine!
Thank you for this summary! I had a hard time finishing the book.
Happy to be of help. This book was SO different from Woman in the Window! I hope your next book is a better fit and if you have time to tell me what you’re reading, I’d love to know 🙂
Same! I’ve been listening to it on Libby and had to renew it, took 13 days to get to chapter 32 before I finally gave up and googled the ending.
It was hands down the slowest and most disengaging book I’ve ever read
lol. I didn’t hate it as much as everyone else seemed to. I will agree that it was SLOW. Nothing happened until the end.
Took too long to get into plot..then i had to finish just to find out who killed who!!
It really was slow-paced!
I am surprised some found this slow. I was caught up in the book throughout, and I don’t finish books that feel too slow. I did guess the twist about Madeline, but not about Nicki. Yes, I probably liked Women in the Window better, but still feel this is a good read.
I think the most interesting thing about reviewing in the mystery/thriller/suspense lane is the different perceptions of pace. The popularity of authors like Freida McFadden shows that a LOT of readers want a faster paced, completely plot-driven book. To me, those books can feel a little thin.
I thought this was a better book that Woman in the Window, filled with atmosphere. I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be super popular but I often like books with low Goodreads ratings. And try to get people to read them!!
I thought of the novel in terms of the basic tenets of Chaos Theory. It seemed to reflect to me the “philosophy” of complex systems. Clues were the line on did the butterfly flap its wings, and the past isn’t gone, it is just waiting.
Interesting – that connection didn’t occur to me. Thanks for sharing.
I thought this book one of the more interesting I have read in many years.
Glad you enjoyed it!