Where the World Ends

  • Type: Books
  • By: Geraldine McCaughrean
  • Age Category: Teens
  • Genre: Historical Fiction
  • Recommended by: Tom S.
  • ISBN/UPC: 9781250225498
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Survival on a deserted island without a palm tree nor parrot in sight

Quill, living on a remote Scottish island in the early 1700s, is set ashore on a desolate sea stack to hunt birds with a small band consisting of three men and a handful of other boys. But when the boat that was supposed to pick them up doesn’t arrive, the crew faces the prospect of having to survive winter with no shelter but a rocky cave and no food beside what they can capture from the dwindling flocks of birds.

It’s this situation that brings on the heart of this story, which perceptively examines the mental devices the various characters use as they attempt to deal with this harsh truth. The village bully, the mystic, the jack-of-all-trades, the young everyman with a secret: Will kindness and camaraderie prevail among them, or will the castaways turn on each other as they fight to survive?

Try this if you’re a reader who likes psychologically suspenseful stories where the ending is in doubt until the very last pages.