Best of All Worlds
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Best of All Worlds
Narrated by:
Barrett Leddy
Buy Now for £12.77
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Narrated by:
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Barrett Leddy
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By:
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Kenneth Oppel
From award-winning author Kenneth Oppel comes a startling, can't-wait-to-talk-about-it-with-someone novel that defies genre to create a teen survival thriller unlike any you've read before. For fans of Leave the World Behind, A.S. King, M.T. Anderson, and Margaret Atwood.
Xavier Oaks doesn't particularly want to go to the cabin with his dad and his dad's pregnant new wife, Nia. But family obligations are family obligations, and it's only for a short time. So he leaves his mom, his brother, and his other friends behind for a week in the woods. Only . . . one morning he wakes up and the house isn't where it was before. It's like it's been lifted and placed . . . somewhere else.
When Xavier, his dad, and Nia go explore, they find they are inside a dome, trapped. And there's no one else around . . .
Until, three years later, another family arrives.
Is there any escape? Is there a reason they are stuck where they are? Different people have different answers — and those different answers inexorably lead to tension, strife, and sacrifice.
In this masterpiece, award-winning author Kenneth Oppel builds a heart-stopping story that feels very much of our moment, where our very human choices collectively lead to humanity's eventual fate.
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Critic reviews
Named the Children's Book of the Year by The Times
Shortlisted for the 2026 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards, Young Adult/Middle Reader Award category
Nominated for the 2025 Governor General's Literary Award — Young People's Literature — Text
One of YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults, 2025
A #1 Kids Indie Next Pick
One of YALSA's Top Ten 2026 Best Fiction for Young Adults
One of YALSA's Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers
A Shelf Awareness Best Book of 2025
One of Indigo's Best Ten Books of 2025
A 2025 Indigo Best of the Year (So Far)
One of Quill & Quire's Favourite Young Readers Titles of 2025
A Canadian Children's Book Centre Best Book for Kids and Teens, Fall 2025
A Financial Times Best Young Adult Book of 2025
A 2026-2027 Florida Teens Read Award Nominee
PRAISE FOR Best of All Worlds:
"Oppel centers a persistent and intelligent protagonist in this unassuming but riveting novel. Compact yet brimming with tense atmosphere, it’s a sharp examination of society and isolation presented as a thriller set in a deceptively bucolic landscape." —STARRED REVIEW, Publishers Weekly
"Stereotypes on both sides of the political aisle are deftly explored through these characters, but above all, this is the definition of a page-turner. . . . A thought-provoking, uncomfortable thriller that readers won’t be able to forget. Highly recommended." —STARRED REVIEW, School Library Journal
"[A]n inventive, dramatic work of speculative fiction about accepting uncertainty and surviving change. . . . Oppel brilliantly withholds confirming the truth of the Oaks's and Jacksons' circumstances until the novel's crucial climax, ensuring readers will race through the chapters to Oppel's expert landing of a close. An excellent read-alike for fans of Neal Shusterman and Gary Paulsen." —STARRED REVIEW, Shelf Awareness
"Oppel . . . leaves readers to sift the evidence through their own social and political convictions. The plot heats up when the mysterious overseers are revealed along with a terrifying secret, and cultural frictions mount between the two families." —Kirkus Reviews
"[T]his already fantastic story takes even more incredible twists and turns, with issues that will strike readers as surprisingly timely and current. . . . [T]he first thing I did was reread the whole book in hopes of finding answers to the questions I still had about this well-crafted story — one that kept me guessing right to the end." —Bernie Goedhart, Montreal Gazette
"[I]mmediately puts the reader on edge with a thick atmosphere of suspense and danger." — Young Adult Library Services Association
Shortlisted for the 2026 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards, Young Adult/Middle Reader Award category
Nominated for the 2025 Governor General's Literary Award — Young People's Literature — Text
One of YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults, 2025
A #1 Kids Indie Next Pick
One of YALSA's Top Ten 2026 Best Fiction for Young Adults
One of YALSA's Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers
A Shelf Awareness Best Book of 2025
One of Indigo's Best Ten Books of 2025
A 2025 Indigo Best of the Year (So Far)
One of Quill & Quire's Favourite Young Readers Titles of 2025
A Canadian Children's Book Centre Best Book for Kids and Teens, Fall 2025
A Financial Times Best Young Adult Book of 2025
A 2026-2027 Florida Teens Read Award Nominee
PRAISE FOR Best of All Worlds:
"Oppel centers a persistent and intelligent protagonist in this unassuming but riveting novel. Compact yet brimming with tense atmosphere, it’s a sharp examination of society and isolation presented as a thriller set in a deceptively bucolic landscape." —STARRED REVIEW, Publishers Weekly
"Stereotypes on both sides of the political aisle are deftly explored through these characters, but above all, this is the definition of a page-turner. . . . A thought-provoking, uncomfortable thriller that readers won’t be able to forget. Highly recommended." —STARRED REVIEW, School Library Journal
"[A]n inventive, dramatic work of speculative fiction about accepting uncertainty and surviving change. . . . Oppel brilliantly withholds confirming the truth of the Oaks's and Jacksons' circumstances until the novel's crucial climax, ensuring readers will race through the chapters to Oppel's expert landing of a close. An excellent read-alike for fans of Neal Shusterman and Gary Paulsen." —STARRED REVIEW, Shelf Awareness
"Oppel . . . leaves readers to sift the evidence through their own social and political convictions. The plot heats up when the mysterious overseers are revealed along with a terrifying secret, and cultural frictions mount between the two families." —Kirkus Reviews
"[T]his already fantastic story takes even more incredible twists and turns, with issues that will strike readers as surprisingly timely and current. . . . [T]he first thing I did was reread the whole book in hopes of finding answers to the questions I still had about this well-crafted story — one that kept me guessing right to the end." —Bernie Goedhart, Montreal Gazette
"[I]mmediately puts the reader on edge with a thick atmosphere of suspense and danger." — Young Adult Library Services Association
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