Book Review: The End as it Begins by Aengie Scevity
Reviewer: Yasemin Bozcaliskan
They say time is a fickle thing - a concept perhaps created by humanity itself, in order to give sense to the sequence of events we live through. You cannot return to the past, and you surely cannot foresee the future. In The End as it Begins, Charlotte ‘WoodChuck’ Silverstein does all that and more, chasing after escapes with one goal in mind: saving her Grammy.
Devastated by her grandma’s newly diagnosed Alzheimer’s, Chuck swears to herself she would do anything to bring her back, or at the very least, slow down her mental decay. While taking frequent trips through the past by means of an unusual grandfather clock, unwinding time itself, she also deals with the slow death of a home, where the ages-old building acts as a metaphor for both her state and her Grammy’s. Throughout her adventures, despite unfavorable outfit norms across a couple centuries, she finds solace in Jean-Luc Guillame, a French clock-maker and alchemist, a mentor and friend burdened by scars unhealed throughout his elongated life.
“It seemed that the idiom was false, and time did not in fact heal all wounds.”
Aengie Scevity skillfully builds up the story in ways that aren’t apparent at first, but are made clear later. The opening chapters took me a while to settle into, largely because the story intentionally withholds information. While that initial confusion eventually pays off it requires some patience from readers before the bigger picture begins to emerge. I found myself returning to previous pages multiple times, wondering which details to keep in mind. Through Scevity’s expressive storytelling, it is easy to imagine yourself as Chuck as she navigates each twist and turn of her winding path through timelines. A determined character with a strong moral compass and yet deep-rooted flaws, she is relatable and easy to understand. The tone of the story rarely changes, remaining in a mysterious, almost secretive state, where you wonder: do I know enough, or is everything I know until now completely wrong?
“(…) however, the thing about travelling backwards through time meant I merely needed to be patient. He was only dead for now.”
I did not expect this book to be an introduction to alchemy. The intricate explanations and technical language are a lot to process without Google to guide you. The same goes for clock-making, an underrated skill, mostly forgotten in our timeline (can’t say for others!). If you enjoy quantum physics, the multiverse theory, parallel realities and other such mind-bending topics, you will love this book, in any reality.
The complimentary character development of Chuck and Jean-Luc is well-executed. Each time I think about it, I realize why something was said earlier on, or why it was kept for later. It’s as if the story is designed to be a puzzle you’re building, one which you know the end product of, and you slowly figure out how you get there, piece by piece. These factors make the book highly re-readable.
Where things come to an end, new things begin. Just like the symbol of the Ouroboros, the end and beginning are connected in a way that’s essential for continuation. There’s always some beauty in destruction. Sometimes, the beauty we look forward to only appears after everything falls apart. Decisions result in actions, and actions result in consequences that often bring us where we need to be. Once the dust settles, and once what you saw is no longer what you want to see.
“God, I hate it when I’m right.”
Unlike Chuck, we have no haven away from temporal reality. Time is slippery, impossible to hold. In fact, the harder we grip, the quicker it slips away. Maybe it’s best to just let things go. I recommend this book to anyone who feels like they are running out of time.
Purchase The End as it Begins by Aengie Scevity
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Yasemin Bozcaliskan is a student, writer, musician, and enthusiastic reader with a passion for literary fiction, dystopian fiction, and poetry.
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