How It All Ends

A funny, vulnerable, and disarming debut graphic novel from the author of the viral New Yorker piece “How to Draw a Horse.” How It All Ends is a book about being overwhelmed by who you are and who you might be, and all the possibilities in between. For fans of Snapdragon, The Magic Fish, Heartstopper, and New Kid.

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

Now, Tara is part of a future she doesn’t feel at all ready for. She's not 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?

This debut graphic novel is a clever and candid portrait of a young girl grappling with the pressures of fitting in, finding your people, and sorting through confusing feelings. Emma Hunsinger has a pitch-perfect ear for the awkward yet endearing inner life of thirteen-year-olds, and her illustrations are downright hilarious. She brilliantly captures the humor and the horror of self-discovery and the first blushes of having a crush. How It All Ends deftly explores how unbearable—but exciting!—it is to grow up. 

Emma Hunsinger is the creator of the autobiographical comic “How to Draw a Horse,” which was nominated for an Eisner Award and included in the prestigious annual “Cartoon Takeover” print edition of the New Yorker. Emma Hunsinger graduated with an MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies. She lives with her family in Vermont.