Editor’s note: SLR has two Reads of the Month for December. We think you will love both books.
You won’t find a more huggable narrator than twelve-year-old Junah, the unforgettable protagonist of Junah at the End of the World by Dan Leach. His voice—funny, irreverent, and deeply original—calls to mind Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye. Junah is what I call a “wounded bird” character: someone whose vulnerability grabs your heart and won’t let go. He has a speech impediment, often hides behind sunglasses (even indoors), and prefers solitude over socializing.
Told in vivid vignettes, the novel chronicles Junah’s encounters with a colorful cast of characters: a proselytizing, divorced mother; a mostly-absent philosopher father who connects through sporadic phone calls; a brutal bully named Rusty; a Mohawk-wearing girlfriend named Sadie; and Miss Meechum, an eccentric teacher whose unconventional approach shapes the emotional core of the book. All of these characters dance, storm, and saunter across the page, seen through Junah’s perceptive, preteen eyes.
The narrative is anchored by Miss Meechum’s class assignment: create a time capsule documenting life in South Carolina in the months leading up to the anticipated Y2K apocalypse. She poses the question, not “Will the world end in December?” but “How might you live as if it will?” For Junah, the task becomes an obsession. He creates and recreates his capsule, eventually filling multiple shoeboxes. But while Junah finds purpose in the project, the community sees it as morbid and inappropriate for middle schoolers.
Junah’s mother frets over his habit of spending time alone inside a large drainage pipe. She urges him to make friends, but Junah prefers his own company—and his imaginary future reader:
“Here is a confession you did not need spelled out: I like loneliness. Loneliness is where I feel farthest from the world but closest to you. It’s where the past dresses up like the present and dances as long as you’ll let it.”
His mother is equally concerned about his spiritual state, especially with the millennium looming. Their dialogues—heartfelt and humorous—are among the novel’s brightest gems:
“My mother was still sowing seeds for my soul. Every night, the prayers. Every morning, the devotionals. Her message was simple: Jesus loves you; love Him back. Especially now that the end was near.
‘It’s not enough to be a seeker,’ she said. ‘He calls you to be a believer.’
‘I read the Bible every day,’ I said. ‘I go to church on Sunday, and try to be kind to everyone I meet. What’s left?’
‘Make space for Him,’ she said. ‘In your heart.’
‘Is this about Sadie?’ I said. ‘Are you asking me to break up with her?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m asking you to commit.’
‘I tithe my allowance. I try not to cuss. I pray for people throughout the day—even Rusty Riggins, when I remember.’
‘We are talking about different things.’
‘What are we talking about?’
‘A relationship with Jesus,’ she said.
I shared my theory about the difference between a believer and a seeker. I thought a shared lexicon would be good for our dialogue.
Her response: ‘Where do you get this stuff?’
I tapped on the top of my head: ‘In here.’”
Her obsession with religion adds humor to the story without ever making fun of religion itself or devolving into a sermon to readers.
The novel brims with poetic insight and emotional wisdom. Just a few examples:
“Your eyes say to the dead, ‘I can’t see you, which means you’re gone.’ But your heart has the last word, and it replies, ‘I believe otherwise.’”
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“The harder you try to hold onto things in this world, the more your heart breaks when they’re gone.”
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“Love is like death. Think too much about how it ends, and you’ll ruin the middle.”
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Junah at the End of the World offers warm and wonderful characters, sparkling dialogue, and memorable reflections on love, loneliness, and faith. What’s missing? Just you. The reader. So grab a copy and start reading. We may be long past the fears of Y2K, but we still need stories filled with light, fun, and joy—and Junah delivers all of these in abundance.
About the Author:
Dan Leach
Dan Leach’s work has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, The Southwest Review, and The Sun. He has published two short story collections—Floods and Fires (University of North Georgia, 2017) and Dead Mediums (Trident, 2022). In 2023, he received the Southern Poetry Breakthrough Award, and Stray Latitudes was published by Texas Review Press in 2024. Leach lives in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and teaches writing at Charleston Southern University.
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