82. Skipshock

  

82. Skipshock. Caroline O'Donoghue. 2025. 400 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, YA dystopia, YA speculative fiction, YA romance]

First sentence: The most common response I get when I tell people what I do for a living is: I couldn't do a job like that. What they mean is they wouldn't do a job like this. Every so often a new gruesome story circulates about salesmen, and what traveling between time speeds does to one's physical health.

Premise/plot: For readers who get a thrill out of speculative fiction with uniquely crafted worlds, Skipshock is a novel I'd highly recommend. It is a premise-driven novel. Moon and Margo are the narrators. Moon is a salesmen, traveling between worlds, racing against time almost. Margo is an Irish girl on her way to boarding school. Both traveling by train--albeit in different worlds. But when Margo finds herself on Moon's train, things will never be the same. Moon knows that Margo's sudden appearance could change his life forever--and not in an instant romance way. To the right people, Margo could mean a quick sell, big money. He could buy his way out of his [doomed] lifestyle and settle down in a world. Margo doesn't trust Moon fully, but, she's in a strange new world surrounded by people who are--through her eyes at least--strange, odd, dangerous. She is far, far, far from home and if she ever wants to get back home she'll have to risk trusting somebody.

So the premise???? Different "worlds" connected via trains have their own times. For example, some worlds have a TWO HOUR day; some worlds have a SIX HOUR day, etc. Obviously the shorter the day, the shorter the lifespan. Time has everything to do with the haves and have nots.


My thoughts: What did I love about this one? I loved the world-building. I loved the characterization. I loved the relationships. I loved the plot. I enjoyed the twists and turns. Did I see one particular twist coming? YES. If I had read this as a young teen would I have seen it coming? Probably not. Knowing what was likely coming did not change my enjoyment of the novel.

Quotes:

• That's what being in love actually is, at the end of the day. It makes the strong parts of you weak, and the weak parts of you strong.
• No anxiety, no artificiality. Just the ease of being with the person you most want to be with, in the very moment you want to be with them.
• For the first time in her life, she had a person. She and Moon had been born in different places and brought up in different ways, but regardless, one thing was very clear to her. They had each spent most of their lives lonely. Her in a cold house; him in a cold world. They were houseplants that people forgot to check on. And now they had each other. There was a feeling of boundlessness, of growing, of feeling like you could do things. Somehow, she didn't need to wonder if he felt this way, too. She knew it.
• She understood love as a wobbling table, as a three-legged dog. You had to take the weight of a limb when it went missing. You had to hold the other person up. It was the only way you could both make it to the end.

 

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