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The Best of All Worlds
The Times Children's Book of the Year 2025
The trip to the cottage should have been a fun family weekend for thirteen-year-old Zay, despite another summer of extreme weather. At least, that’s what his father and stepmother had in mind when they planned the weekend getaway.
But that was before Zay’s older brother, Sam, decided to stay behind. Before Zay, Caleb, and Nia discovered their surroundings had inexplicably transformed overnight. Before they realized they were trapped inside a dome. And before the weekend turned into three long years.
If this were a game, Zay would know how to win it. But this is no game. There is no trace of their mysterious captors, no clue as to their motives, and no way to escape. The only rule is survival. Just when Zay and his family have all but given up hope, something new shows up in their strange another family.
The Jacksons are polar opposites of Zay’s family. Conservatives from Tennessee, they believe a government conspiracy is behind their strange abduction, and they’re willing to do just about anything to prove it and find a way out. Despite their family’s differences, Zay begins to fall for their daughter, Mackenzie. For the first time since their captivity, he begins to think he could be happy living inside the dome. But tensions rise as the Jacksons continue searching for a way out, and their actions trigger unexpected and dangerous consequences—for everyone.
The trip to the cottage should have been a fun family weekend for thirteen-year-old Zay, despite another summer of extreme weather. At least, that’s what his father and stepmother had in mind when they planned the weekend getaway.
But that was before Zay’s older brother, Sam, decided to stay behind. Before Zay, Caleb, and Nia discovered their surroundings had inexplicably transformed overnight. Before they realized they were trapped inside a dome. And before the weekend turned into three long years.
If this were a game, Zay would know how to win it. But this is no game. There is no trace of their mysterious captors, no clue as to their motives, and no way to escape. The only rule is survival. Just when Zay and his family have all but given up hope, something new shows up in their strange another family.
The Jacksons are polar opposites of Zay’s family. Conservatives from Tennessee, they believe a government conspiracy is behind their strange abduction, and they’re willing to do just about anything to prove it and find a way out. Despite their family’s differences, Zay begins to fall for their daughter, Mackenzie. For the first time since their captivity, he begins to think he could be happy living inside the dome. But tensions rise as the Jacksons continue searching for a way out, and their actions trigger unexpected and dangerous consequences—for everyone.
Audible Audio
Published July 3, 2025
43 people want to read
About the author
Kenneth Oppel
87 books2,740 followersI was born in 1967 in Port Alberni, a mill town on Vancouver Island, British Columbia but spent the bulk of my childhood in Victoria, B.C. and on the opposite coast, in Halifax, Nova Scotia...At around twelve I decided I wanted to be a writer (this came after deciding I wanted to be a scientist, and then an architect). I started out writing sci-fi epics (my Star Wars phase) then went on to swords and sorcery tales (my Dungeons and Dragons phase) and then, during the summer holiday when I was fourteen, started on a humorous story about a boy addicted to video games (written, of course, during my video game phase). It turned out to be quite a long story, really a short novel, and I rewrote it the next summer. We had a family friend who knew Roald Dahl - one of my favourite authors - and this friend offered to show Dahl my story. I was paralysed with excitement. I never heard back from Roald Dahl directly, but he read my story, and liked it enough to pass on to his own literary agent. I got a letter from them, saying they wanted to take me on, and try to sell my story. And they did.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 10, 2025
Kenneth Opel's 2025 sci-fi thriller The Best of All Worlds asks us to consider if our catastrophe-ridden Earth is a preferable living space more than one created by compassionate, highly intelligent aliens for us where we're never sick or disfigured by accidents, where we can eat food we grow or raise, where there are no money worries because we're provided with electricity, gifts, a replica of our house.
The story is told by sixteen-year old Xavier, or Zay, who wakes up one morning to no lake outside his window. His house is surrounded by trees without birds, only chickens and goats in pens, and a barn with hayloft.
His bewildered family soon discover there are no other people or buildings and they're enclosed by a very high, self-repairing wall on all sides.
Three years later they're still there, but Zay will witness another house and farm being built in minutes by little, buzzing creatures and he and his family expect their first neighbors, Very exciting! When they finally arrive, they're convinced it's a military experiment on Earth and the ex-military father is determined to find a way out. Zay is pretty much sure they were transplanted by aliens and not on Earth, but gives the man an idea of how to escape, although he would regret it.
I had a good hunch that Zay was right about their situation. The question was what the aliens would do, if anything, to them and why. It sounds as if Earth was facing another pandemic as well as other disasters caused by irreversible changes from people living there,
Highly provocative, fascinating read!
The story is told by sixteen-year old Xavier, or Zay, who wakes up one morning to no lake outside his window. His house is surrounded by trees without birds, only chickens and goats in pens, and a barn with hayloft.
His bewildered family soon discover there are no other people or buildings and they're enclosed by a very high, self-repairing wall on all sides.
Three years later they're still there, but Zay will witness another house and farm being built in minutes by little, buzzing creatures and he and his family expect their first neighbors, Very exciting! When they finally arrive, they're convinced it's a military experiment on Earth and the ex-military father is determined to find a way out. Zay is pretty much sure they were transplanted by aliens and not on Earth, but gives the man an idea of how to escape, although he would regret it.
I had a good hunch that Zay was right about their situation. The question was what the aliens would do, if anything, to them and why. It sounds as if Earth was facing another pandemic as well as other disasters caused by irreversible changes from people living there,
Highly provocative, fascinating read!
September 12, 2025
Why I chose this book: This book was suggested at a recent library conference I attended, and I've read another book by Oppel that I enjoyed, so I decided to give this newest one of his a go.
Brief summary: Zay and his family take a trip to their cottage only to get stuck there forever, but it's not really their cottage, it's a replica of their cottage and they're surrounded in every which way by impenetrable walls. At first, Zay is determined to find a way out, but after his dad has a close call with something unexplainable beyond the walls, they realize they're stuck, and their leading theory is that they've been kidnapped by aliens. But when another family is placed into the walls with them, and the patriarch of that family, Riley, is determined to escape, Zay's resolve to leave strengthens. What will happen when Zay and Riley team up to create a new escape route? For fans of dystopian and cosmic horror.
What I didn't like about this book: I listened to the audiobook, and I'm not sure if it was the narrator or the way the book was written, but the narration felt kind of stilted. The POV is from Zay, whose plucky narration feels a bit at odds with the bizarre circumstances. I also felt a little underwhelmed by the ending, .
What I like about this book: What a strange book! I read this fast, determined to learn what forces were behind the impenetrable walls. I like the inclusion of modern political topics, like conspiracy theories, and I like how Oppel uses narrative to show how dangerous conspiratorial rhetoric can become in survival circumstances. I like the cosmic horror feel of this book, this feeling of being a small human controlled by forces much bigger and unseen, or impossible to understand.
Brief summary: Zay and his family take a trip to their cottage only to get stuck there forever, but it's not really their cottage, it's a replica of their cottage and they're surrounded in every which way by impenetrable walls. At first, Zay is determined to find a way out, but after his dad has a close call with something unexplainable beyond the walls, they realize they're stuck, and their leading theory is that they've been kidnapped by aliens. But when another family is placed into the walls with them, and the patriarch of that family, Riley, is determined to escape, Zay's resolve to leave strengthens. What will happen when Zay and Riley team up to create a new escape route? For fans of dystopian and cosmic horror.
What I didn't like about this book: I listened to the audiobook, and I'm not sure if it was the narrator or the way the book was written, but the narration felt kind of stilted. The POV is from Zay, whose plucky narration feels a bit at odds with the bizarre circumstances. I also felt a little underwhelmed by the ending, .
What I like about this book: What a strange book! I read this fast, determined to learn what forces were behind the impenetrable walls. I like the inclusion of modern political topics, like conspiracy theories, and I like how Oppel uses narrative to show how dangerous conspiratorial rhetoric can become in survival circumstances. I like the cosmic horror feel of this book, this feeling of being a small human controlled by forces much bigger and unseen, or impossible to understand.
January 3, 2026
🐐 🐐 🐐 🐐 / 5 goats that need tending for The Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel
What the hell did I just read?
This story is less about what is happening, and allllll about the ethical and moral conundrums that the characters face along the way. The nitty gritty “what ifs” and “yeah, but what would YOU do”. I kinda imagine that’s how this book was written; x1 packet of scenario prompts branded as dinner party conversation starters, x1 author, and maybe an actual dinner party where friends and acquaintances played out weird alternative realities, with said author taking notes.
I didn’t know how I wanted the story to go, and I don’t even know if I’m satisfied with the ending (except the last line, tho. Well played, Oppel… well played). All I know is that I was hooked and had to keep going. The writing was simple enough to follow and fall into. I feel like this is speculative sci-fi, if that is a thing (isn't sci-fi by nature speculative?), and… I dunno how I feel about it. I imagine this is how a lot of people felt when The Matrix was released 😂
What the hell did I just read?
This story is less about what is happening, and allllll about the ethical and moral conundrums that the characters face along the way. The nitty gritty “what ifs” and “yeah, but what would YOU do”. I kinda imagine that’s how this book was written; x1 packet of scenario prompts branded as dinner party conversation starters, x1 author, and maybe an actual dinner party where friends and acquaintances played out weird alternative realities, with said author taking notes.
I didn’t know how I wanted the story to go, and I don’t even know if I’m satisfied with the ending (except the last line, tho. Well played, Oppel… well played). All I know is that I was hooked and had to keep going. The writing was simple enough to follow and fall into. I feel like this is speculative sci-fi, if that is a thing (isn't sci-fi by nature speculative?), and… I dunno how I feel about it. I imagine this is how a lot of people felt when The Matrix was released 😂
April 8, 2025
If I saw a 6-year-old acting like Noah, I'd think he was quite gifted. A three-year-old is barely out of diapers. There's no way a kid that age would be making their own D&D character, even if they did misspell 'dexterity.'
July 21, 2025
Intriguing. Couldn't put it down. Highly recommend.
October 19, 2025
I read this as a novel geared towards teens and it’s excellent as that. Fresh storyline, easy to read, relatable; I really enjoyed this book.
November 23, 2025
It was... fine? I guess. I think I was expecting a lot more from this book, but it was certainly something. It wasn't my favorite read, but I definitely didn't hate it either.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews