The Islands at the End of the World

The Islands at the End of the World (2014), a young adult adventure novel by Austin Aslan, is the first book in The Islands at the End of the World series. In 2014, it was ranked one of the Best Books of 2014 by Kirkus Reviews and listed by BookRiot as a top 100 must-read book in the category of young adult science fiction.

Sixteen-year-old Hawaiian Leilani Milton loves surfing. She has epilepsy, a condition that makes her an outsider. Both of her parents are professors of ecology, and they have lived on the island of Hilo for three years.

As the story begins, Leilani and her best friend, Tami, are on their way to go surfing when they hear a tsunami-warning siren. A meteor has crashed into the ocean north of Hawaii. There is no wave, and eventually, the threat is downgraded. This allows Leilani to make it to the doctor’s appointment she has the next day. Her father, Michael, has arranged for her to receive experimental treatment for her epilepsy on the island of Oahu. Leilani’s epilepsy causes severe seizures, leading to her being dropped from the gymnastics team four years ago.



Leilani is nervous about the drug trial since it will require her to stop taking her current medication. She is afraid of having a severe seizure while trialing the new medication. In addition, if she has one seizure while on the trial drug, she will have to return to taking her old medication.

Leilani and Michael board the forty-minute flight to Oahu and arrive at the clinic. However, before Leilani can begin taking her tests, strange things begin happening around the world. Financial markets are either shut down or collapse, and several world leaders go missing. Unable to leave Oahu, Leilani and Michael check into a hotel on the beach. Soon after that, the internet connection in the hotel goes out, and then the electricity all over the island. The stress causes Leilani to have a seizure, during which she hears a strange voice talking to her and asking for “the means of life.”

By the next day, it is clear that electricity, satellite networks, and devices all over the world are not operational. A geomagnetic storm is interfering with the earth’s magnetic field, causing all electronics not to work. In addition, rogue tsunamis are striking beaches across Hawaii; these are also believed to have something to do with the storm.



Leilani and her father attempt to leave Oahu, but they are unable to get a flight until the following week. The island is under martial law and there are food and gasoline shortages. Leilani has several more seizures, each of which is accompanied by a vision of a mysterious entity talking to her.

When rioting breaks out on the island, Leilani is put in a refugee camp where she meets Aukina, a handsome National Guard soldier. After several days, Michael decides that they should break out of the camp. Aukina warns Leilani that nuclear reactors on the island will soon start to fail and leak radiation. He gives her wire cutters to help her escape from the camp.

Leilani and her father flee the camp and steal a boat, but her father is shot and wounded. They start out to sea in the boat but soon run out of gas and risk being smashed on the rocks of the coastline. They are shipwrecked on the island of Kalaupapa and then, rescued by an old man in a traditional Hawaiian canoe.



The old man, Akoni, is a healer who operates on Michael and treats Leilani’s injuries. She tells him about her seizures. He suggests that they are an opportunity to communicate with whatever is causing the storm. Unable to get home, Leilani and Michael join Akoni’s community of Hawaiians who live in the traditional way. He does keep a ham radio, and through this Leilani learns that there have been nuclear reactor meltdowns all over the world, but no trace of radiation has been detected.

Leilani realizes that the storm is somehow preventing a nuclear catastrophe and that she can hear it because of her epilepsy. Akoni arranges for her to return to Hilo, but once there, he urges her to go to the sacred mountain on the island to talk to the invading force.

The novel ends as Leilani realizes that she may be the only person who can save the planet, setting the book up for a sequel.