“Where the World Ends” by Geraldine McCaughrean

 “Where The World Ends” is a novel about pain & loneliness, a book that will teach you how you can lose everything you’ve loved and known through an illusion of adventure. A journey of gathering resources can transform into a game of holding on to life, a journey that will bring home men, not kids anymore. Suffering, loss and survival are their new existence, but how long will they endure the conditions without going crazy?

Title: “Where the World Ends”

Author: Geraldine McCaughrean (read here about the author)

Genre: Historical Fiction

Number of pages: 336

Recommended age: +13

Star Rating: 5/5 ⭐

Sneak Peek

The action takes place in the year 1727, with rough conditions and hard situations. Hirta is an island in the St Kilda archipelago of Scotland and our characters’ home. Year by year a group of boys and men, who need to take care of the little ones, travel together on a stone island not so far. There they would spend the whole summer catching birds and gathering resources. They inventively and ingeniously use everything a hunted bird has to offer. Even so, this one summer will be a lot different.

They arrive on the island, have fun while working and forget about time. The fall is coming and the boat that got them there is not coming back for them. The ones from home may have forgotten about them or The Ending is really coming? That’s the place “Where The World Ends” for them, castaways on an island and put in the situation of survival. The moments are tense and someone would lead through God’s name… in theory.

Funny replies and thoughts, specific to the little boys, an unrequited love, hope, spirits and legends. All of them guide us through the magic of this book’s Universe. How would things go if we’d known the world ends? The boys are going to get frightened. All of them are social types and we have to find out where their little society is getting.

“𝐁𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬.”

“Where The World Ends”, Geraldine McCaughrean

Fun Fact

The irony itself is the fact that they were castaway on an island which was pretty close to their own. Far, but yet so close to home. All of them will have to love, listen and take care one of another. “Where The World Ends” they have no other family but the others. As the author tells us at the end of the book, the story was inspired by true events, but some details have been changed for the plot

The action

 The action is narrated at the third person and Quill is the protagonist of the book. Even so, all the characters need to play their role for the story to be complete. The time line is nonlinear, Quill talks about their experiences on the island while remembering about Murdina Galloway and his love for her. The story is built slowly & a little confusing because of its metaphors & symbols. The place of the action is restricted, but also complex. We get to know every corner of the little island where they are castaways, but also its legends.

I think the folklore motifs, creatures and stories had a huge role in the story-building. They were the main pattern I especially remarked. It is an underdog story, the characters’ feelings are convincing and the whole book is in a continuous development: at first, the action is naïve, maybe even playful, just a bunch of kids and men who start their journey on a rock island for hunting, trying to reap off everything that surrounds them…

The characters realize soon the fall is coming and no one is coming for them, that is when the action becomes unstable, the circumstances as well. The daily contest between boys for catching more and more birds transforms into catching birds for avoiding starvation. That is the moment when disasters occur and people start to panic, when they are thrown out of their familiar space.

“𝐈𝐟 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐌𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐬 – 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐧𝐝 – 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐬 𝐐𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐥, 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐥𝐥, 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭.”

“Where The World Ends” by Geraldine McCaughrean

The characters

 Everything at the characters is so human! Their reactions, their role in the story when the situation is getting worse and it’s mandatory to adapt to the new life conditions. Some of them realize that what all of them “needed” in these excruciating times is a leader…a “religious leader”. Give someone too much power and disaster will find its way…

Inside the little “family” the chaos is settling down and the resources are getting less and less. All the boys have to tolerate the others and no secret will stay hidden anymore. The place of action is too restricted for being place for secrets there. The characters’ patience, good intentions, friendships or even… identities… are questioned. My personal opinion is that nothing will be the same again, not them… at least.

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