Far off the north western coast of Scotland lies a handful of remote islands called St. Kilda. In the 18th century these islands were inhabited by fowlers, people whose job it was to harvest the many species of sea birds that live there. Every year a handful of boys are brought to an even more remote island, called the Warrior Stac. They are dropped off and left for two or three weeks. The idea is that when they return they will be men, hardened by the island's merciless ways. The boys will have to fend for themselves, harvest birds for food, find shelter and survive on their own for a little while. Three weeks go by and nobody picks the boys up. They aren't too concerned. Then another week goes by, and another. Then they lose count. When one of the boys falls, hits his head and has a vision of the end of the world, fear begins to set in. Has the world ended on their little island home a few miles away? Have the angels of heaven forgotten about them? With no trees on the island and winter approaching, building a raft that can get them home is out of the question. As the weather deteriorates and the boys' morale plummets, Quill must try to keep himself sane along with his fellow castaways. Desperation soon turns to anger, and there is in-fighting amongst the boys. There are three adults with them, one of them falls into a deep depression and does little to nothing to stop the fear. The other becomes a religious zealot, forcing the boys to choose between their god and their survival. Where the World Ends is a truly harrowing tale of survival and hope. Told beautifully from Quill's perspective, it digs to the bone of the psychological trauma that one would most certainly experience when faced with the unthinkable. This is a book you will fly through, you just have to know what happens to these boys. With lots of twists and turns and beautiful passages, I can't recommend it enough.
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3/11/2018 12:31:13 pm
This looks fab! Thanks for linking up to the British Books Challenge
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