The concept of this story is so fascinating — worlds defined by their differing temporal structures, where ‘everyone has the same 24 hours’ is not only false, but the main oppressive force in their society. The world is so refreshingly unique with an equally intriguing magic (science?) system that I wish we got more of a chance to explore the intricacies of, though I’m hopeful it’ll be something that gets expanded on in book two.

As fascinating as the set up is, the beginning of this book was a bit of a struggle to get through. It picks up massively after the 40% mark, but the development of certain characters in the latter half of the book is … interesting. Moon as a Salesman, Lunati, and narrator was exciting to follow alongside, and I loved finding out more about his people and his past. Margo, however, paled in comparison, with her frightened-schoolgirl turned hardened-revolutionary persona and nothing much else besides. I don’t doubt there being a reason her chapters were written in third-person (unlike the first-person in Moon’s), but it wasn’t explained and the resultant clash in narratives didn’t do much to help the already growing disconnect I felt with her. Considering how much I usually adore Caroline O’Donoghue’s character writing, Margo was a bit of a letdown for me; Moon definitely felt like the better written one out of the two. I’m excited to see where she goes from here, especially considering the ending, and I don’t doubt O’Donoghue when it comes to making me love a character — flaws and all.

That being said, I did give this book a good rating because I did really enjoy it. I loved the horror of death creeping ever closer, I loved seeing the consequences of choosing (or refusing) to travel, and I loved exploring the oppressive force of time as a tool of oppression. I likely would have given this a higher rating if it had focused more on those things, on the revolution and the science behind it all, and less on the (kind of average) romance. But I also would have given this a higher rating if Margo had been a more compelling character to make the romance one I could root for. Those things, I hope, are things we’ll see improved in the sequel, and I’m already excited to find out how much more of this world there is to explore!

I came into this novel from O'Donoghue's Gifts series, which I absolutely adore, so I was super excited to get into this.

Sci-fi românce îs not the genre I would usually choose, but I really enjoyed the story. It follows Margo, who find herself in a new world whilst travelling on a train to Dublin. The plot line was rich, the world building vast and the characters charming. The social commentary was really quite advanced for a YA novel.

A really great read - the only thing I am sad about is that it ended on a cliffhanger, so I have to wait to see what happens! I definitely recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley for the arc.

“They had 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.”

I think the best way I can sum up my experience of reading Skipshock is that I started out taking meticulous notes for a review but they very quickly devolved into screeching and telling my husband how he needed to read this one IMMEDIATELY. I read it when it came out - about two weeks ago now - and I am already tempted to give it a second go around.

Margo is sixteen, pissed off, and on a train to boarding school. Moon is a salesman, travelling through worlds, living hand-to-mouth. So when Margo pops up on Moon’s train, they are both confused, to say the least - but curious, too. What follows is a novel that is part love story, part YA coming of age, and part mind-bending fantasy. Skipshock is, somehow, keeping dozens of plates spinning, all in perfect harmony - it is a feat of a novel.

See, in the world of the novel, time is a slippery thing. In the North, a day can pass in as little as two hours, whereas in the South, it’s the opposite. And, as Moon says, “a day is a day is a day”, so people living in the North have short, difficult lives. Add a hostile government (complete with ultra-violent state police) and a disease, Skipshock, that sets in if you travel too much, there’s an awful lot of worldbuilding here; it’s absolutely fascinating stuff and never falls victim to the boring exposition dump.

The dual narrative - Margo in the third person and Moon in the first - allows the reader to experience the world(s) through brand new eyes and jaded ones; the clashing POVs really add to the immersion into the world.

There's an undercurrent of loneliness here that adds a real melancholy to the story.
It is also two things that O’Donoghue readers know she excels at: very funny and very sexy. A bunch of lines made me laugh out loud (the swan on the lead!!!) and the scenes involving Moon and Margo’s romance, while kept pretty PG, are nonetheless swoon-worthy.

An astonishing, breathless, towering achievement of genre-hopping, Skipshock is utterly fantastic and I can’t wait for its sequel to arrive with us as soon as possible. I’d recommend this to anyone who loves fantasy, romance, or just a damn good story. Strong contender for my book of the year.

Every so often a book comes along that feels genuinely fresh; something that hasn’t been done before. Skipshock, the newest book from Caroline O’Donoghue, is the first book for me in 2025 that feels that way. It’s a bit fantasy, a bit romance, a bit sci-fi, a bit adventure all in one beautifully blended smoothie of excellence. I’m going to try and remain as vague as I can beyond that, bar some essentials. When I started reading I knew that 1) O’Donoghue was the author and 2) there would be some stuff about time, and to be honest I think that’s all you really need.

Skipshock brings together Margo, a young teenager making her way to Dublin on a train, and Moon, a salesman who travels across various worlds trying to make a living. They meet on a train that starts somewhere between Cork and Dublin and ends on a world called New Davia, where Margo is quickly sucked into something bigger and wilder than the school she thought was waiting for her at the end of her journey. New Davia has its own unique relationship to time, as do all the other worlds around it, and Margo has to learn to fit herself into this new movement of days.

Skipshock is YA but it doesn’t read like it; as with the Gifts series, O’Donoghue has a capacity to write for young adults in a way that feels like her work was just written for, well, people. Margot and Moon, and those that surround them, never feel like anything less than fully developed people existing in a wonderfully built world. That world is harsh and unequal, and Skipshock has a lot of interesting things to say about how that inequality can be fought against. I’ve seen a lot of discussion recently around the idea that if you want to have a village around you to support you when you need it, you need to be willing to be a villager yourself. Skipshock is full of characters that provide Margo and Moon with their village; from Vesna who owns the boarding house they stay at, to Taiyo who guides them towards the resistance, to Saffy who provides them safe harbour on perhaps the most dangerous world they stay at. Although Margo and Moon are the primary focus of this story, they do not get where they are going alone.

This is not a novel purely of helpful side characters who give our heroes useful items for their quest, however. In the recent Lord of the Rings focused episode of Magical Garbage, a miniseries of the podcast Sentimental Garbage in support of the book, O’Donoghue herself talks about how good fantasy sets up it’s villains. Listening to that discussion after reading Skipshock I was struck by how she has very much achieved that here, as well as previously in the Gifts series. Our main antagonist’s actions genuinely chilled me, and how O’Donoghue presents their impact on Margo is some of the most beautiful and subtle writing I’ve experienced in a long time.

The romance element is masterfully and subtly done; I did know to expect romance when I started reading, but the eventual intertwining of Margo and Moon is so well crafted that it almost felt like it had snuck up on me. I think it’s particularly well done for the YA audience; it feels authentic and genuine but never strays into the territory of ‘that one really should be moved to the general fiction section unless we want complaints from parents’ that used to haunt my days as a bookseller.

In 2022, Molly-Mae Hauge bravely reminded us all across multiple podcasts that we all have the same 24 hours in a day. The same 24 hours as Beyonce, even! I both love and loathe this quote - I love to wind up my partner by saying it, and I hate it because, obviously, we do not all have the same time available to us. Skipshock reminds me in so many ways of that quote, in a very literal sense. This is not a universe where every citizen has equal time available to them, and O’Donoghue delivers the impact of this in ways that sometimes genuinely made me need to pause reading and ponder whether I wanted to throw my iPad across the room.

A good fantasy book always needs a good map, even more so when that fantasy stretches across multiple worlds that fit together in strange way, and the book itself and the related maps are beautiful. I first read Skipshock as an eARC that didn’t yet have these and the beautiful section dividers included; they are frankly gorgeous and add another layer of discovery to the novel.

The only downside I found to Skipshock was the ending… and then I learned there is a sequel coming, and the downside was gone. This is a book I know I will be thinking about for a long time; hopefully Walker Books bless us with the release date for part two soon.

The most engaged and engrossed I've been in a YA fantasy in many years.

Earth-born Margo is onboard a train to her new school in Dublin when she suddenly and accidentally steps through a portal into another realm. Here, the trains are used to carry passengers between different, interconnected worlds.

Except these worlds are not as connected as they used to be. Few are allowed to travel between them now, mostly army/police and salesmen. Salesmen like Moon, who she meets on board this train.

He takes her under his wing and soon they have embarked on a journey together, with rebels looking to fight the unfair travel system in place and the way the worlds are ruled.

In this realm, time is money and power: the richest worlds are in the south, where days are long. In the north, days are much shorter. Time and lives pass more quickly. Travelling between them makes you ill. I loved the concept and adage of 'time is luxury' borne out in this way.

I also thought it was an important commentary on prejudice and how we fear the unknown - particularly communities very different to ours - through the story of Moon and his people's plight.

I loved the richness of the worlds (particularly Kaise), the diverse and interesting cast of characters, and the way this book played out.

All I can say now is that it better be the start of a series, because I need to read what happens next.

Turns out, we don’t all have the same twenty-four hours in a day. This book was such a well-written and unique take on inter-dimensional travel, tackling themes of oppression and rebellion. Reading this book is like if The Wizard of Oz crashed into Interstellar and landed on top of Mortal Engines. It was so intriguing to read about in a horrifying “I need to appreciate all the hours in my day now” kind of way, I simply could not put it down.

The book is written in a split POV style between the FMC Margo, a naive teenage girl ripped from her world, and the MMC Moon, whose days are catching up to him quicker than he can outrun. The universe is incredibly packed with detail and lore that leave you feeling like you’ve just walked out of the blockbuster of the year, and the mechanisms by which this book runs are so creative to learn about. There was very little “romance” in this, and rightfully so with all the chaos going on around them, but I appreciated the sub-plot and the sprinkling of traditional tropes. The supporting cast of characters were brilliant and gave me almost Throne Of Glass vibes with how connected you feel to the story as a whole. I believe this book is intended to be the first instalment in a duology, and with this one ending on such an intense note, I will be counting the days until the next release!

Thank you to Caroline O’Donoghue and the publishing/NetGalley team for allowing me the opportunity to give an advance review of this book. This was such a unique read that I couldn’t help but devour, and I’d love to award 4.5/5 stars ✨

Molly Mae said we all have the same twenty four hours in a day and Caroline O'Donoghue said hold my drink.

As always, thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for this E-Arc. I have been a fan of Caroline O'Donoghue since Promising Young Women and yet I have never indulged in her YA fantasy novels before. This is, of course, my own failing entirely. Skipshock is a book that is divine, delightful and devastating all in equal measure; it is an ingenious twist on the fantasy/sci fi genre and a tale that is packed with detailed world building and relatable yet remarkable characters. I don't often find myself wishing to delve back into the mind of a teenage girl and yet O'Donoghue captures all of the magic and all of the trauma of that age in such an effortless way that you find yourself swept up in Margo's journey.

To summarise, much like many of us who get on a train in the UK or Ireland, Margo's journey takes an unexpected turn and rather than arriving five hours late to Dublin with a promised delay repay hitting her bank account in five-ten business days, she ends up in a world that runs on a six hour day rather then our standard twenty four. Saved by a man who frankly makes a facial scar tattoo work too well for him, she quickly learns that Earth is just one of many worlds but that every world possesses a different amount of time each day. You can be time rich or time poor and your life is utterly defined by it.

I can't actually give anything more away as one of the delights in any well-written fantasy book is the slow unfurling of the world and its many players and rules. In this novel, you are left wondering and guessing, drawing links as and when you need to in the narrative, and yet it is never frustrating because the world is so immersive. There are huge themes at play here: growing up (and how childhood skips and jumps and you blink and suddenly you have thighs); privilege and how wealth and social class equates to so much of it but also the way time itself is parsed differently depending on your world and family and connection and how these influence time and how we spend it. I particularly loved the exploration of how those of with more limited time can still seize it, still forge a meaningful life but that it is undoubtedly harder, thornier and more challenging.

If you have never read any of O'Donoghue's work (or if you have), then I can assure you that her writing style here is like a really smooth glass of whiskey. It's elegant and fluid but still rich in detail and imagery. If there is one thing in life that's true, it's that Caroline O'Donoghue can write a cracking simile. She creates character to become invested in and dynamics that are complicated and difficult but hold real heart and truth at their centre. You will feel things; she will rip your heart out and stomp on it several times and then hand it back to you with the promise that maybe the next chapter won't make you want to cry but also you'll laugh and smile and generally feel warmer about the fundamental goodness of most of humanity.

If anything, this book, even at almost 400 pages, felt like a prologue to a great sprawling series. The world feels too rich, too filled with untapped potential, for it not to go on for many more books with many more adventures. I, for one, cannot wait for the sequel!

Caroline O' Donohue does it again with a stunning sci-fi romance story that will have you on the edge of your seat and hit you right in your heart too.

Skipshock
By Caroline O'Donoghue

I made the most rookey mistake. The Rachel Incident was one of my favourite books of 2023, so when Skipshock appeared on Netgalley, I hit request faster than it took me to realise that it is a YA book. I'm completely the wrong reader for this book, but I gave it a fair go. The reasons I had to quit say more about me than the book so I'm just going to share a few observations that may help other readers decide if it's for them.

This fantasy has interesting world building, where places are recognisable, but time passes at different paces. For most people, worlds are inaccessible from each other, but certain people can travel between, and the system has wear and tear so it's possible to get lost in the wrong world.

There's a romance, which at 45% was just beginning to become angsty. There's found family and villains.

Some parts have elements of "The Wizard of Oz", there's some similarity to "A Darker Shade of Magic" and I even found myself thinking about parts of the original "Star Wars"

I can't see myself returning to this as I couldn't summons any interest, but I can see this being a huge hit with it's intended audience.

Thanks to #Netgalley for providing a pdf. As always these are my honest opinions.

The start of another gorgeous universe by Caroline, I loved how unique this concept was!!! The universe change from Dublin to a completely different world and learning how it's been used to harbour something very important...can't wait to see where this goes

Unable to read this due to download problems but I will be getting this when it releases as such an interesting unique premise and I was really excited when I discovered this.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me access to this book on NetGalley and my local Little Book shop for hosting a Proof is in the pudding event where I received the physical proof of this book.

While I do not often find myself reading Young Adult fantasy often anymore, I did really enjoy this story. The magic and world system is really intriguing, it’s hard to believe it isn’t real!

This will definitely be the next big young adult series like the Hunger Games or Divergent. I did find the story very fast to read, I was taken back to my teen times when I was reading these sort of stories.

Even though I loved the story, I did question the romance in this book, it seemed rather rushed! Hopefully it will improve with further books.

I have already shared my love for this book with my friends and followers on Instagram, I can’t wait to have more people to talk to about the story.

Skipshock is a genre-bending, richly imaginative novel that delivers on every promise of its tantalising premise. Having previously enjoyed Caroline O'Donoghue's All Our Hidden Gifts series, I started this new book with high expectations – and it exceeded them all!

Skipshock is the story of Margo, a teenager who finds herself thrown into an alternate world after a strange encounter on a train bound for her new boarding school. The shift from a balmy Irish summer to a world of alien winters and six-hour days is both disorienting and utterly enthralling. From the first page, you are drawn into a dazzlingly strange and complex realm, where time is currency, travel is power, and secrets lie around every corner.

The world-building is extraordinary. Every detail is layered with care, making the entire experience feel immersive and eerily real. The idea of time being the most valuable resource is a thought-provoking concept, raising questions that linger long after the final page. How would our lives change if we had less than twenty-four hours in a day?

Margo is a standout protagonist; brave, curious, and vulnerable in equal measure. Her journey feels urgent and emotional, particularly as she begins to connect with Moon, the enigmatic travelling salesman. Their dynamic is brilliantly handled, building tension and tenderness in equal measure. Moon himself is a captivating character, full of secrets, charisma, and complexity. Together, they form a duo you can’t help but root for.

It’s a fast-moving story that still allows room for reflection and character development. The genre-blending – sci-fi, fantasy, romance, and more – is deftly handled, creating a rich, layered novel that feels entirely original.

And then there’s the ending. Skipshock leaves us on a cliffhanger that is both thrilling and excruciating. I need to know what happens next! Skipshock is my favourite book of the year so far, and here’s hoping this is just the beginning of Margo and Moon’s story.

Love Caroline O'Donoghue's work. I am came to Skipshock not loving sci-fi so was a bit apprehensive about how I would get on - but I thoroughly enjoyed the magic in her Gifts series, which is also not typically my genre, so I started Skipshock cautiously optimistic.

Margo Madden is on a train to Dublin when she slips into a new dimension. She befriends a travelling salesman, Moon (fit), to navigate the new worlds she finds herself in. Time doesn't work the same in the new worlds and society is nothing like she's used to. Can Margo get home?

There's lots to love in the novel. Fans of O'Donoghue will be glad to see her signature wit and charming characters are aplenty here. The story is both suspenseful and epic. The issues faced by the worlds in Skipshock mirror contemporary society. O'Donoghue has some things to say about the world and wants her reader to think about them (in particular, migration and injustice feature heavily). Skipshock would be a great jumping board into discussions on IRL issues both historically and ongoing (teachers and people with teens in your life - this would be a good buddy read).

WIth that said, this is a story very deep on lore. Which I'm sure will be a huge selling point for lots of readers! And is very suited to its YA/sci-fi genre - but some adult readers may not be able to get on board with the 'hall of bears' or silver seeds etc etc.

Also that cliffhanger................................... when is book two??

I guess I'm in!

i have not read YA for a little while now i can say with a happy heart that this book has reopened my love for these books all over again and filled me with excitement .




Skipsshock well what a read , i thought it was so much fun very fast paced read, Caroline writing was wonderful but she love pulling the carpet from under your feet then twist you round like you blindfolded .

i thought the setting for the story was very unique and magical i loved this world so very much . so well written .

the way Caroline describes the setting and the characters i thought was beyond words she is very clever .

I enjoyed the multiple PVOS i think it always helps understanding the characters better .

i got to say i think this is one of my favourites this year .

5 burning bright stars

4.5 stars

SKIPSHOCK is a stunning sci-fi full of multiple worlds where time is different.

I loved the world of this novel, or rather worlds. They are a series of stacked worlds arranged in a dual axes of time and temperature. It was such a clever concept that had been so clearly thought through. What does it mean if there are only two hours in a day in some worlds and twenty in others? What does this do for wealth disparity and economy? How do you use that to control others? It's fascinating and I loved being able to see a variety of worlds.

The way the worlds were organised - dual axes description of temperature and time - was also such a nice, instinctive way of understanding how they related to one another. Go north, and the days get shorter. Go east and they get hotter.

Against this, we have a romantasy (what's the sci-fi equivalent?) about people from very different worlds and outlooks learning to trust each other and work together to survive and maybe start thinking about fighting back. Moon knows this world but his experience compared to her naivety is balanced by the weight he's carrying - secrets and guilt - that stop him really engaging with the worlds or people. While Margo has the willingness to make friends and connections.

I liked that we saw both of their perspectives and that they had such different narrative styles - Moon was told through first person present tense while Margo was third person past. This meant you could immediately work out who was talking even without the chapter titles and alternating structure.

I am assuming this is the first book in a series given it very much ends on a cliffhanger with a big reveal. I am hoping this is right because this was such a fun book and world.

Skipshock is a fantastic YA sci-fi that is completely unique and unlike anything I have read recently. The book is extremely well written with really wonderful world building and characters. It follows 16 year old Margo who is sent to boarding school but something happens on her train journey there and she finds herself in another world where she meets Moon a time travelling salesman. Together they must find a way to figure out how this happened and how to get Margo home. I loved the details in this book and the world building was brilliant. There were lots of plot points which were weaved into the story effortlessly and slowly came together as the story developed and I'm sure I would spot more in a reread! Overall this a unique and refreshing read. It ends quite the cliff-hanger and I am eagerly awaiting for when I will be able to re-join these characters and their worlds.

I wish that there were a "maybe" for the question about whether we would like to use the book in our courses. This is a huge " maybe". It is exceptionally well-written and it pulls me in right from the start with its exquisite writing and world-building. But the world is so different from the world we live in ( which is understandable as it is supposed to be like that) and from anything I have ever read ( which is a fantabulous thing) that I sometimes struggle to comprehend what exactly is going on at first. Yet it is precisely those questions whirling in my head that intrigued me and kept me reading. I wonder if my students will be able to comprehend this. Maybe after a few more years when they are in KS 4, I will use this.

It is a fantastic book, easily one of the best I have read lately.

I love anything Caroline O'Donoghue writes, and it's easy to drop everything to read her latest when she manages to up her game with each new book she publishes. Her latest, an epic sci fi romance for young adults, is out in June from @walkerbooksuk, and is set across a range of different worlds connected by train, on which Irish teenager Margo accidentally finds herself while on the way to boarding school.

Margo meets Moon, a travelling salesman who looks like her could be her age, but is world weary and suffering from Skipshock, a condition brought on by frequent travel between worlds. In this novel, worlds are measured by the amount of hours in a day, and while privileged Southerners have something closer to the 24 hours we take for granted, those in the North age rapidly in days as short as 2 hours each.

Margo soon realises she's in danger of a lot more than aging quickly, and while Moon may be her only hope to get home, can she trust someone with so much to lose?

TI've loved O'Donoghue's work from her first novel is the scale of her ambition, and I think in recent years she's really hit her stride, but keeps moving the bar higher for herself. This is definitely her most complex work to date, both in the premise of the book and what she does with it, but it's a really engrossing and entertaining read, rather than a book that feels bogged down by detail.

It's a book about time travel, I guess, but it's really a book about bodies, and aging, and those with the privilege of time. I thought about young people around the world forced by their geographies or particular circumstances forced to grow up too fast, and those who get to remain innocent of these struggles. I thought a lot about the idea of biological clocks too, and mortality and how our lifespans as well as overall health so closely depend on forces outside of our control.

I also swooned a surprising amount at a tattoo scene - this is a romance for the girlies who love LONGING.

There's just so much to think about with this novel, so I'm glad that it's clearly intended to be part of a series, but I'm absolutely raging that I can't just keep reading more about Margo and Moon now!

Thank you Walker Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

This was my first book from Caroline O'Donoghue and I did not dive into this book with any expectations but it blew my mind in the best possible way! The first half of the book and the beginning was lagging but other than that, i felt the narrative and writing style was strong as soon as the 25% mark was hit.

The world-building must be the most beautiful part of this book. It's so immersive and compelling that you wouldn't want to stop reading the book at all. The prose is lyrical and descriptions are vivid all throughout!

Moon and Margo are interesting characters to read about. Their backstories and character arcs are compelling to read about!

I cannot wait for the next book after that criminal cliffhanger!