LoveReading4Kids Says
LoveReading4Kids Says
June 2025 Book of the Month
Xavier Oak is a thirteen-year-old who’d rather be doing anything besides embarking on a summer trip with his father and pregnant stepmother. He’d much rather stay home with his brother and mother or play Dungeons and Dragons with Selena, the coolest girl around. Despite all of this, Xavier resigns himself to his fate and goes on the trip to the cottage by the lake.
The problem? When he wakes up on his second day at the cottage, the lake is…gone.
It’s like the cottage itself has been plucked from the ground by a giant and put somewhere else.
On the verge of panic, Xavier, his dad and stepmother go exploring in a desperate attempt to figure out what has happened.
They discover two things:
They are trapped inside some sort of dome.
They are completely on their own.
Although they appear to have enough supplies at hand to maintain their survival, a whirlwind of questions pummel their minds. Where are they? Who brought them here? How do they escape?
Three years pass before anything happens. Three years of routine and fading hope.
Then, out of the blue, another family enters the dome and everything changes.
The two groups discover they have nothing in common. In fact, they don’t see eye-to-eye on anything, including the theories as to how they arrived in the dome.
What follows is a tense exploration of the power of disinformation, conspiracy theories, captivity, climate change and control.
The Best of All Worlds is fast-paced and engaging, a thought-provoking look at larger, Us vs.Them rhetoric while still focusing on captivity’s impact on the individuals within the dome. I really enjoyed Oppel’s deep-dive into current social divides and the long lasting impact it has on our collective psyche.
It’s a genre-twisting survivalist sci-fi thriller built for fans of books like Unwind by Neal Shusterman, Gone by Michael Grant and The Giver by Lois Lowry.
Lucas Maxwell
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About
Best of All Worlds Synopsis
Welcome to the Dome. I hope you emjoy your stay!
When Xavier wakes up on the first morning of an enforced family weekend away with his pregnant stepmum and dad, he doesn't recognise where they are - it's as if the house has inexplicably been transported to the set of a video game, inside an impenetrable dome where the family have been 'donated' chickens, goats, wheat to help them survive. There is no trace of their mysterious captors and no way to escape.
Three years later, he's sixteen and resigned to life without the internet, other people, let alone a girlfriend... when suddenly another family appears, one with vastly contrasting political ideologies and priorities.
In the confines of this strange world, Xavier and 17-year-old gorgeous Mackenzie are thrown together, Mackenzie's erratic father becomes obsessively fixated on escape, and tensions between the two families begin to rise with devastating and tragic consequences...
Kenneth Oppel's most thrilling novel to date is challenging, provocative and unforgettable.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781916558458 |
| Publication date: |
5th June 2025 |
| Author: |
Kenneth Oppel |
| Publisher: |
Guppy Books an imprint of Guppy Publishing Ltd |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
256 pages |
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Press Reviews
Kenneth Oppel Press Reviews
'A masterpiece – as soon as you finish it you’ll want to talk to someone about it’ – David Levithan
'master of atmosphere’ – The Bookseller
‘Fast-paced, thought-provoking, twisty - the most unexpected book plot of the year and I am here for it!’ – Melissa Welliver
'Completely gripping and immersive, Best of All Worlds is a viscerally powerful and irresistible read. An absolute must read!’ – Louisa Reid
‘heart pounding and mind blowing in equal measure’ - Erin Hamilton, My Shelves Are Full
'Immersive, suspenseful, thought-provoking and a survival tale like no other.' Alison Brumwell, Librarian and former YLG Chair
Author
About Kenneth Oppel
Kenneth Oppel’s Airborn won a Printz Honor Award, and the Canadian Governor General’s Prize. Its sequel, Skybreaker, was a New York Times bestseller. His award-winning Silverwing trilogy has sold over 1 million copies worldwide, and has been adapted as an animated TV series and stage play. Movie rights in This Dark Endeavour have been bought by the producers of Twilight. Read the author's biography here.
Ken lives in Toronto with his wife and children
More About Kenneth Oppel
