The town of Journey’s End may not literally be at the end of the world, but it sure feels like it to Nolie Stanhope. Spending the summer with her scientist father in the tiny Scottish village isn’t exactly Nolie’s idea of a good time, but she soon finds a friend: native Journey’s Ender Bel McKissick.
While Nolie’s father came to Journey’s End to study the Boundary—a mysterious fog bank offshore—Bel’s family can’t afford to consider it a threat. The McKissick’s livelihood depends on the tourists drawn by legends of a curse. Still, whether you believe in magic or science, going into the Boundary means you’ll never come back—unless you do.
Albert Etheridge, a boy who disappeared into the Boundary in 1914, suddenly returns—without having aged a day and with no memory of the past hundred years. Then the Boundary starts creeping closer to the town, threatening to consume everyone within.
While Nolie’s father wants to have the village evacuated, Bel’s parents lead the charge to stay in Journey’s End. Meanwhile, Albert and the girls look for ways to stop the encroaching boundary, coming across an ancient Scottish spell that requires magic, a quest, and a sacrifice.
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“A magical adventure in which a strange fog threatens to consume a fishing village in Scotland needs a dynamic voice to narrate. Saskia Maarleveld meets that challenge with relish…Maarleveld effortlessly blends the characters’ American and Scottish accents and nails the differences between the Scottish of today and that of the early 1900s. As Nolie, Maarleveld is persuasive in convincing Bel to help vanquish the fog and charmingly enthusiastic as Albert gleefully takes to the new century he finds himself in.”
— AudioFile
“A spooky tale of friendship and adventure.”
— School Library Journal“The heart of the story…is not the supernatural phenomenon but the slowly developing relationships between the two girls…Readers who like their story’s threads, supernatural or otherwise, neatly tied up will find this journey’s conclusion perfectly satisfying.”
— Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books“The story meanders happily through local myth and legend, seamlessly blending an American and Scottish perspectives…Rife with emotion and adventure, Hawkins’ novel celebrates the joyful explorations of childhood and the sometimes-difficult lessons learned with age.”
— Publisher’s WeeklyBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Rachel Hawkins is the author of several books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Wife Upstairs and Reckless Girls, as well as multiple books for young readers. Her work has been translated in over a dozen countries. She studied gender and sexuality in Victorian literature at Auburn University.
Saskia Maarleveld is an experienced voice-over actress and Earphones Award–winning narrator. Raised in New Zealand and France, she is highly skilled with accents and dialects, and many of her books have been narrated entirely in accents other than her own. In addition to audiobooks, her voice can be heard in animation, video games, and commercials.