How It All Ends (paperback)

Nominated for the 2025 Will Eisner Award for Best Publication for Kids

2025 Harvey Award nominee

Kirkus Reviews Best Book

School Library Journal Best Book

The Horn Book Fanfare

Common Sense Media Best Book

New York Public Library Best Book

NPR Books We Love

ALA Notable Book

Hilarious, inventive, smart, and silly. --Alice Oseman, bestselling author of Heartstopper

A funny, vulnerable, and disarming debut graphic novel from Emma Hunsinger, the creator of the popular How to Draw a Horse, for fans of Roller Girl, Heartstopper, and New Kid.

Thirteen-year-old Tara lives inside the nonstop adventure of her imagination. It's far more entertaining than dull, everyday life. But when she's bumped from seventh grade directly to high school, she gets a dramatic jolt to reality.

Tara isn't ready to watch the racy shows the high school kids like, or to listen to the angsty music, or to stop playing make-believe with her younger brother. She's not ready to change for PE in front of everyone, or for the chaos of the hallways, or for the anarchy of an English class that's overrun with fourteen-year-old boys.

But then there's Libby.

Tara doesn't know whether she's ready for Libby. She can't even explain who Libby is to her because she doesn't know yet. She just knows that everything's more fun when she and her new classmate are together. But what will happen next? How will it all end?

Imaginative and hysterical, and with the sort of rare, clear-seeing honesty that will make any reader feel less alone in the world. I loved it. --Eliot Schrefer, two-time National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author

A fantastic story about making new friends and surviving school. --Dan Santat, National Book Award winner for A First Time for Everything

A hilarious, surreal, and deeply sincere story. --Sarah Sax, author of Picture Day

I've never felt so healed by a book. I can't wait to give it to everyone I know. --Adib Khorram, award-winning author of Darius the Great Is Not Okay