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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Young reader version of Lord of the Flies, but in Scotland.
While sometimes sad or dark, I mainly found this book incredibly cute. I was completely transported to a bleak rock in the middle of nowhere with Scottish boys and nothing but birds to live on. Based on a true story and fitting so perfectly with my image of forlorn Scottish places, the set was complete for me to lose myself in.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It is summer on the remote island of St. Kilda, and a group of men and boys are preparing for the annual hunting journey to Warrior Stac, a small, barren, rocky island in the outer Hebrides. A small boat ferries them to the outcropping and drops them off, and the small band immediately sets to work preparing a shelter for the next few weeks and commencing hunting of the seafowl who visit the island to nest this time of year. All goes swimmingly, their haul bountiful, until it becomes apparent that the return boat isn't coming for them.
I quite enjoyed this novel (I admit to being somewhat partial to survival/adventure tales), as well as McCaughrean's writing. For a while I thought we were heading down a road to full-blown Lord of the Flies, but thankfully, though it was at times disturbing, the breakdown of society didn't sink quite to that level, and the story had sufficient nuance and imagination to make it distinct. That it was based on true events was icing on the cake.
I quite enjoyed this novel (I admit to being somewhat partial to survival/adventure tales), as well as McCaughrean's writing. For a while I thought we were heading down a road to full-blown Lord of the Flies, but thankfully, though it was at times disturbing, the breakdown of society didn't sink quite to that level, and the story had sufficient nuance and imagination to make it distinct. That it was based on true events was icing on the cake.
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great story. Knowing that it's based on true events makes it even more heart-wrenching and sad. Sometimes it dragged a little but I guess it's meant to convey the long months the fowlers spent on the stac and the despair and hopelessness they must have felt while waiting for rescue.
Hard to write a review without spoilers. The story is of a group of boys and men in the eighteenth century marooned on a stac, an outcrop of rock off the main islands of St Kilda, where they have gone to collect seabirds to feed the community over winter. Why they are not picked up and what they do to try and survive makes for an engrossing read.
There is more than just a simple survival narrative here. The reader is asked to confront issues of authority and leadership, organised and folk religion, bullying and sexual politics as well as how to hang from a cliff face or live in a cave in the harshness of winter. And love comes into play: love the protagonist Quilliam has for a girl he met; love that binds him to the younger boy Davie; the fowling party’s longing for home... There are themes to follow that are uncomfortable, enlightening, storylines that are adventurous, thoughtful, sad, uplifting. I shall be re-reading this: a brilliant evocation of how humans work (and fail to work) together.
There is more than just a simple survival narrative here. The reader is asked to confront issues of authority and leadership, organised and folk religion, bullying and sexual politics as well as how to hang from a cliff face or live in a cave in the harshness of winter. And love comes into play: love the protagonist Quilliam has for a girl he met; love that binds him to the younger boy Davie; the fowling party’s longing for home... There are themes to follow that are uncomfortable, enlightening, storylines that are adventurous, thoughtful, sad, uplifting. I shall be re-reading this: a brilliant evocation of how humans work (and fail to work) together.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Where The World Ends is an interesting (partly true) story about a group of boys from a remote island going hunting for birds on a sea stac, however their return trip never arrives. With a new 'minister', hidden identities and secrets forced out, will all the boys survive their prolonged stay on their new, harsh home? And where was their way out?
McCaughrean portrays the story of Quill and his friends excellently, with twists and turns you never expect (some of which are slightly ridiculous - a boy who is actually a girl and didn't know etc) and the ending, with the truth revealed as to why the boys were unable to return home, was tragic and unexpected too.
McCaughrean portrays the story of Quill and his friends excellently, with twists and turns you never expect (some of which are slightly ridiculous - a boy who is actually a girl and didn't know etc) and the ending, with the truth revealed as to why the boys were unable to return home, was tragic and unexpected too.