Reviews - Where the World Ends

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Where the World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean

277 reviews for:

I listened to this one, and the Scottish brogue was both fun to listen to and a little difficult to understand. Based on a true story about a group of villagers who are left on an island to hunt birds for their town's supplies. After they've been dropped off, a plague of sorts runs through their village and kills most of its inhabitants. No one comes to pick them up and they are left on the island for almost a year. With few supplies, they have to work to survive. Their troupe starts off with 3 adults and I think 7 or 8 kids. The story is a cross between Lord of the Flies and Castaway. They have to figure out how to live, how to govern, who is going to lead, what are the rules. One of the adults appoints himself a self-proclaimed preacher, frightening the boys into being 'good, Christian souls'. The other adults didn't seem to do a good enough job taking control of the situation and let things run amok, which was not believable to me, but then I guess if they did all they should have done, it wouldn't have been quite such a good story. I liked it.

curlyheadedone's review against another edition

4.0

“And every time a lad came fowling in the stacs, he went home less a boy and more a man. (If he went home at all, that is.)”

Every summer a group of boys and men travel to the Warrior Stac to go fowling for 3 weeks. When 3 weeks pass and no one comes to get them..the group begins to worry what is happening back at home. Did they forget? Did something happen? Did Jesus return and forget to take them too? The boys start to go stir crazy and the food starts to run low. They begin to wonder if they are ever going to leave the stac.

Where the World Ends is one go those books that you really need to take the time to read and take everything in. It’s not the typical young adult books that most teens read but it’s still an extremely well written book. The writing style took me a little while to get use to but I did finally pick up. I really like the main character Quill and all the others in the group grew on me too. It’s a heartbreaking and beautifully written story. I think its really meant for older teens! I would definitely recommend it.

*Thank you again to Flatiron Books for sending me an ARC!*

somekindofmiriam's review against another edition

3.0

slow-paced

tacopower350's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

stenaros's review against another edition

2.0

Read for Librarian Book Group

This was a book that I read to find out what happened to strand twelve people on a crag of rock more so than for a love of the story itself. There's also a lot of bird killing in this book, which could be off-putting for some.

I didn't love this novel, but I enjoyed how McCaughren could find a lot of plot in a tiny space where each day was the same, plus her descriptions were excellent. I also was really looking forward to the author's note at the end and it did not disappoint. What a tale has been woven from just a few sentences in the historical record!