BEST OF ALL WORLDS, by Kenneth Oppel, Scholastic Press, June 3, 2025, Hardcover, $19.99 (young adult)
A boy and his family are forced to live cut off from the rest of the world in Best of All Worlds, a YA novel by Kenneth Oppel.
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. —Synopsis provided by Scholastic Press
I struggled at first with Best of All Worlds, but I gave it a second try, and I’m glad I did, because, wow, this suspenseful dystopian read hits hard.
Kenneth Oppel’s writing has an almost quiet feel to it — one with a sense of something lurking just out of sight. His ability to set the tone with just a few words hooks you and keeps you reading.
At the center of the story is Xavier, a teen boy stuck inside a dome with his dad, stepmom and 3-year-old brother. As you can imagine, it’s not the kind of life a teen dreams of. So, when another family arrives; one with a teen girl, you can imagine his interest, even if that means going against his parents.
Best of All Worlds is a thought-provoking read that moves quickly — I read it all in one day.
As a side note, Best of All World’s font size is tiny, almost as if Scholastic was trying to stick to a specific page count no matter what. It could dissuade some readers from picking it up. I’ve never seen this from the publisher before, and I hope it was a one-off thing.
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