Create and share wishlists and easily view your order history.
Re-send account confirmation
Please note: requests using email addresses that aren't tied to an account will be ignored to keep customer details secure. If you do not receive an email within 30 minutes, you either do not have an account or your account is already confirmed.
Reset your password
Please note: requests using email addresses that aren't tied to an account will be ignored to keep customer details secure. If you do not receive an email within 30 minutes, you do not have an account.
Reset your password
Get started with your online account. To identify yourself, enter the email address you gave when signing up in store.
Become a Readings Member to make your shopping experience even easier. Sign in or sign up for free!
Set in a universe where time is a resource – coveted and exploited, the key to power and privilege – comes a dazzlingly inventive sci-fi fantasy romance by a bestselling Irish author.
Margo is on a train to a new boarding school when she slips into another dimension, passing from the height of Irish summer into the chill of an alien winter, from a 24-hour day to one that begins and ends in just six hours. From a stranger on the train – a travelling salesman by the name of Moon – she learns that New Davia is part of a world scarred by uprisings, travel bans and world sealings. Power is determined by time – who has it, who doesn’t, and who has the freedom to travel between time zones.
Can Margo find a way to get back home – or will she choose to stay in a world where her teenagehood is slipping away faster than ever before, but where she may have found the only person with whom she would choose to spend eternity?
$9.00 standard shipping within Australia
FREE standard shipping within Australia for orders over $100.00
Express & International shipping calculated at checkout
Set in a universe where time is a resource – coveted and exploited, the key to power and privilege – comes a dazzlingly inventive sci-fi fantasy romance by a bestselling Irish author.
Margo is on a train to a new boarding school when she slips into another dimension, passing from the height of Irish summer into the chill of an alien winter, from a 24-hour day to one that begins and ends in just six hours. From a stranger on the train – a travelling salesman by the name of Moon – she learns that New Davia is part of a world scarred by uprisings, travel bans and world sealings. Power is determined by time – who has it, who doesn’t, and who has the freedom to travel between time zones.
Can Margo find a way to get back home – or will she choose to stay in a world where her teenagehood is slipping away faster than ever before, but where she may have found the only person with whom she would choose to spend eternity?
I loved this book so much I read it twice! Caroline O’Donoghue is the author of the romance novel The Rachel Incident, a supernatural young adult (YA) series, and host of the popular podcast Sentimental Garbage, but her new YA novel Skipshock is unlike anything she’s done previously.
When 17-year-old Margo is on a train to Dublin, something strange happens: suddenly she is on a different train in a world where no one has even heard of Dublin. The only other passenger is Moon, who, although the same age as her, has been working for years as a travelling salesman. Here, as in the Railhead series by Philip Reeve, trains transport people between worlds. However, worlds differ in the length of hours that constitute a day, and Margo has just landed in a world with only a six-hour day. ‘Skipshock’, like jetlag, is an unfortunate physical side effect caused by the challenge of moving rapidly between worlds.
There is a dominant power, the Semper, trying to control the trains and thus all the worlds. There is also a well-organised resistance called PACT; an ostracised race, the Lunati, to which Moon belongs; and a watch, given to Margo by her father, that can break trains connecting worlds. This watch makes Margo an important figure to both the Semper and PACT.
Skipshock is science fiction, with all the high concepts and fascinating ideas you’d expect, but it’s also a character-based romance between Margo and Moon. Written with the utmost authenticity and compassion, it makes you wish with all your heart that, against all odds, things will work out for them. My only complaint is that the cliffhanger ending will remain unresolved for readers until the sequel is published in 2026! Skipshock is an entirely original and utterly brilliant novel for adults and teens aged 14+.
Featured in
See what the Readings’ team have to say on the blog, discover related events and podcast episodes.
