Name: The Ending Writes Itself
Series: Stand Alone
Author: Evelyn Clarke
Publisher: Harper Collins UK
Format: Audiobook
Genres: Adult, Murder Mystery, Crime, Contemporary, Thriller
Rating:
Synopsis: Goodreads
Six authors.
One private island.
Seventy-two hours to write the ending that will change their lives.
Arthur Fletch, one of the world’s bestselling novelists, is a reclusive genius known for his iconic protagonists and fiendish twists. When six struggling authors are invited to spend a weekend on his private Scottish island, they arrive to discover a shocking secret: Arthur Fletch is dead . . . and his last book is unfinished.
Desperate to publish the novel, Fletch’s agent and editor have summoned these writers in the hope that one of them will imagine a worthy ending for this final book. To sweeten the deal, they are offering an irresistible prize: in addition to ghost-writing the last chapter––for a mind-boggling sum––they will also help the lucky writer successfully re-launch their own career, guaranteeing future bestsellers. The catch: the writers have just seventy-two hours to finish Fletch’s magnum opus.
It’s the perfect plot. All it needs is a killer ending.
Review:
I attempted to read this one physically but found that I couldn’t get into it – I don’t necessarily think that was any fault of the book but rather I wasn’t in the mood for it both times I tried to read it. However, I picked up the audiobook as I had some hours on Book Beat left – enough for this read – and I thought why not! I’m not enjoying my current audio read (I’m definitely going to stop listening and pick that up with my eyeballs). I didn’t intend to then finish this is one day.
I had such a great time with The Ending Writes Itself – though I missguessed what the murder mystery of this story would be so when we went down a different route I was caught off guard initially! However, once it really kicked in as to what was going on I was thrilled that I was originally wrong.
We’re following all of the different authors as they are competeing to ghost write the best ending to Arthur’s final book. Each of the authors have very different personalities, they feel very real and I loved the fact that Evelyn Clarke pulled off so many different POVs whilst still making them all feel different and real! They all have different reasons for having accepted the invitiation in the first place, and for taking on this challenge… But things start to go weird within their seventy-two hour time limit… and I loved it.
All of the authors write in different genres and there was a very real representation of the intial prejudice people have towards authors of different genres / different genres in general. I found their initial meeting to be quite humourous because of this! And as we went through it they started to almost embody a quote from the book which was “They’re all just different models, varying backdrops for the characters and the conflict…” and I not only loved that quote, but also loved that the characters started to show that to the reader.
Just in case you didn’t know, Evelyn Clarke is the pen name of author duo V.E. Schwab and Cat Clarke! These two authors joined together to write a really entertaining murder mystery. It didn’t feel like a V.E. Schwab read to me (and I haven’t experienced Cat Clarke before to comment on whether it feels like something she’d write normally) – so I am led to believe therefore that this is a brilliant blend of the two.
If these two want to team up again to write something else in this genre or another, you can sign me up for it! I was so excited for this one, and it didn’t let me down. I acknowledge that the rough beginning was more my fault than the books, but even in audio format the start was a bit slow for me. But I promise, it picks up and when it does, shit starts happening and you’ll find it is simply addicting from there…
Reading With Tyler 
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