SKIPSHOCK by Caroline O’Donoghue: A Master Class in World Building

Published by Candlewick/Walker Brothers Books in June 2025, this incredible YA novel by best-selling Irish novelist Caroline O-Donoghue is sure to garner many well deserved awards for its immersive, jaw-dropping, highly inventive world building. For writers of fantasy, science fiction, and romance, this genre-blending novel is a master class in how to create details and imagery that pull readers into the plot and keep them riveted from first page to last, and importantly, leave them eager for more. But don’t just take my word for it! Check out this starred review by Kirkus:

Readers will burn through the pages as they traverse gorgeous, fully realized worlds replete with their own varied dramas. . . . Incredibly immersive and utterly unique.

Within this carefully plotted yet wildly imaginative novel, the hours in a single day fluctuate wildly between worlds, from as little as 2 hours in the north to several weeks in the far south. While those fortunate to live in the south live longer, richer lives, this first book in this planned duology rests solely in the north and east, where, as the hours in each day shrink, aging and ultimately, death speed up rapidly. Thus, it isn’t hard to imagine that individuals with more power and influence live in the far south, while those relegated to the north are rugged and desperate. I’m always intrigued when authors make up original yet fully fleshed out worlds: this novel so utterly consumed my attention that I lost track of MY time! Apologies to my family, whose dinner was seriously delayed.

You’ll discover what the title SKIPSHOCK refers to early in the novel, so I feel that letting you know doesn’t reveal too much. It’s the reason why more people don’t clamber to become traveling salesmen like Moon, a rare survivor of the Lunati tribe massacre, the first narrator in this dual narrative. It turns out SKIPSHOCK is a condition that results from traveling frequently between worlds with disparate hours per day. It starts with a bloody nose and gets worse from there, ultimately leading to an untimely and rather unpleasant death. Worthy of note: Moon’s narration is written in intimate first person.

The second narrator is teen Margo from Cork, Ireland. Yes, the very same Ireland that exists our world. In contrast to Moon’s narration, Margo’s is written in 3rd person, and the narration differences totally work! Devastated by the mysterious death of her father a few years earlier and her mother’s lack of warmth, she is deemed troubled, isolated, and isolated and as the story starts, finds herself a lonely passenger on a train to boarding school in Dublin. Alas, instead of arriving at her planned location, she finds herself in a strange world and entangled with Moon, who is sitting in her seat. Whether Margo should trust Moon or not, she has no choice as a stranger in this very strange world. Especially when the gun-toting, vicious Southern Guard shoots without provocation (sound familiar?!?) and for some unexplained reason, take a special interest in Margo. With one evil guard in particular chasing her down, Margo must masquerade as a traveling salesperson and follow Moon into time-shortened worlds, which ravages both her mind and body. Through their forced travels, they encounter a number of morally gray characters, which makes Margo and thus readers increasingly concerned about her safety. And also makes you desperate to find out what will happen next!

I don’t want to spoil the immersive experience for you by revealing too many details. But I will share this: there is more to Moon and Margo and those around them than first meets the eye, which is gradually revealed. The ending drops us on such a mouth-hanging-open-in-shock relevation, you’ll understand why I’ll be snapping up the sequel the moment it becomes available.