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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
This book moves a little slowly, but it is well worth your time and attention. Really well done story of survival and hope, all imagined from a real event.
Very cool story. Writing was a bit detailed and dry.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-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
This started out really strong and I loved the fact that it was based on true events, but it just dragged in the middle and I ended up skimming the last third so that I could get to the last few chapters.
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
Knowing that this was based on a true story, I find that Geraldine McCaughrean did a brilliant job at making the said events come to life. She gave the people of that particular Fowling Party a voice that they would not have had otherwise, and made sure their story continues to live on.
Being stranded for such a long period of time, in a harsh place, believing that the world has ended (because why else would no one come back for you), is such a sad thing to go through. Reading this book, I got grossed out by eating habits, felt sorry for all involved and went through all the motions of being abandoned and the reasons why at the same time as the boys (and handful of men) did.
I will not go any deeper into the events because that will just spoil your reading of the book, but I do recommend this to anyone 12+ (as suggested by Usborne Publishing), although with myself being almost 30 years of age, this book is suitable for anyone to read.
Themes are:
Historic events (takes place in 1727)
Based of real life
Christianity
Life changing events
Traumatic experiences
Boys becoming men
Being stranded for such a long period of time, in a harsh place, believing that the world has ended (because why else would no one come back for you), is such a sad thing to go through. Reading this book, I got grossed out by eating habits, felt sorry for all involved and went through all the motions of being abandoned and the reasons why at the same time as the boys (and handful of men) did.
I will not go any deeper into the events because that will just spoil your reading of the book, but I do recommend this to anyone 12+ (as suggested by Usborne Publishing), although with myself being almost 30 years of age, this book is suitable for anyone to read.
Themes are:
Historic events (takes place in 1727)
Based of real life
Christianity
Life changing events
Traumatic experiences
Boys becoming men
Boy did this book have a difficult threshold. If it hadn't been for my fellow children's librarians sharing that they also struggled but completely grew to love it, I may have given up. I glad I did't because I oved it as they did. I loved Quill and my imagination is still snagged somewhere on a stack near St Kilda's. Truly an incredible read.
"Where the World Ends" by Geraldine McCaughrean is a novel that caught me by surprise in more ways than one.
It reminded me a bit of "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding and of "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell, but it contains plenty of original elements to differentiate it from those novels.
It's a story of endurance, of resilience, of survival in the face of impossible odds, a bit like "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel (although the two books couldn't be more different in writing style and underlying message).
It's true what so many people are complaining about: the pacing of the story is fairly slow towards the middle of the novel, but personally, I don't see this as a flaw--I see this as a conscious homage by the author to the literary masterpieces of the time.
Reading this totally captivated me: I was carried off to a different world, to the harsh, beautiful, and unforgiving landscape of the Scottish stacs, a reality I knew nothing about before coming across this novel.
I loved the way each character is brought to life in all their quirks and flaws, the way each of them has their own unique voice.
Kudos to the author for managing to touch on some very delicate issues, such as the relationship between biological sex and gender, in such a sensitive, respectful manner (it's not common to have a transgender character in a realistic novel set in 18th century rural Scotland).
It reminded me a bit of "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding and of "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell, but it contains plenty of original elements to differentiate it from those novels.
It's a story of endurance, of resilience, of survival in the face of impossible odds, a bit like "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel (although the two books couldn't be more different in writing style and underlying message).
It's true what so many people are complaining about: the pacing of the story is fairly slow towards the middle of the novel, but personally, I don't see this as a flaw--I see this as a conscious homage by the author to the literary masterpieces of the time.
Reading this totally captivated me: I was carried off to a different world, to the harsh, beautiful, and unforgiving landscape of the Scottish stacs, a reality I knew nothing about before coming across this novel.
I loved the way each character is brought to life in all their quirks and flaws, the way each of them has their own unique voice.
Kudos to the author for managing to touch on some very delicate issues, such as the relationship between biological sex and gender, in such a sensitive, respectful manner (it's not common to have a transgender character in a realistic novel set in 18th century rural Scotland).
I’m gonna be honest, I’m not sure what I was supposed to get out of this book. The plot didn’t seem concrete to me, and for most of the book I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. This book is like Lord of the Flies except I just didn’t feel invested in the story or characters, and the stakes didn’t feel high enough. None of the characters, even Quill (who was my favorite) seemed anything more than two dimensional. I think I can chalk this up to there not being a lot of dialogue. I think the story suffered from that. And the dialogue that was there was in dialect so it was a little difficult to understand/believe. It was a bit weird to read, but I do appreciate the authenticity.
I’m just sorry to say that this book lost me early in the beginning and never got me back. The writing is beautiful, but very specific and a bit too flowery for me, so I found myself skimming quite a bit. It’s fast paced but doesn’t have even action to keep my focus.
Another thing is that I don’t know how I feel about John’s gender plot thing. I’m not quite sure what the point of it was, or why it was necessarily needed. I’m genuinely a little confused.
This is a small thing, but it bugged me throughout. I found it a bit odd that the narrator used both “Quill” and “Quilliam.” “Quill” is more of a nickname that others would call him, but the narrator should use “Quilliam” or at least keep the name consistent.
In general, it was good writing, but a bit too description-heavy for me. Also seems like more mature writing for a YA book. Not a bad book, but not for me.
I’m just sorry to say that this book lost me early in the beginning and never got me back. The writing is beautiful, but very specific and a bit too flowery for me, so I found myself skimming quite a bit. It’s fast paced but doesn’t have even action to keep my focus.
Another thing is that I don’t know how I feel about John’s gender plot thing. I’m not quite sure what the point of it was, or why it was necessarily needed. I’m genuinely a little confused.
This is a small thing, but it bugged me throughout. I found it a bit odd that the narrator used both “Quill” and “Quilliam.” “Quill” is more of a nickname that others would call him, but the narrator should use “Quilliam” or at least keep the name consistent.
In general, it was good writing, but a bit too description-heavy for me. Also seems like more mature writing for a YA book. Not a bad book, but not for me.