Reviews

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

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sarahetc's review against another edition

4.0

I'm glad I don't know much of anything about physics. If I did, I'm sure I'd be disappointed in this book. Or I'd be at least distracted enough by what are apparently faulty physics principles that I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the lyrical prose and precise, very lovable characters. And The Age of Miracles is full of lovely, light poetry about people and places and things we take for granted. It never becomes didactic or heavy-handed or trends into hard sci-fi territory. There are beautiful hints and allusions to hard sci-fi, which enhance the text and pique the reader's interest, and remain delectable and ephemeral, like the tastiest of amuse-bouches you get at a fancy restaurant.

Walker is all about the characters and the scientific oddity is merely a McGuffin to show reasonable people in extremely unreasonable circumstances behaving as reasonably as possibly. I connected with the protagonist, Julia, who is older before her time and wise beyond her years, yet still without the life experience that will let her understand why she feels the way she does. Her parents are messy and real. Her neighbors are strange but average. Her friends are typical, and in being so, completely unforgivable.

Aimee Bender's quote is the first of many on the back of the book. I didn't notice it until I had finished, but I spent the last third thinking, "This feels a lot like that lemon cake of sadness book." Take that for what it is-- light sci-fi, strange, but character-driven in a beautiful, resonant way.

meagan_young's review against another edition

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5.0

Karen Thompson Walker has such VOICE. Her novels are works of art.

I love that her stories are not so focused on the drama of the disasters. There is no one-upping of crazy events and catastrophes. She just writes about life. How inch by inch, a world crumbles, and life goes on. How do people cope? How does a disaster start and build? She doesn’t just start us at an unimaginable, apocalyptic world, she carries us along for the journey there.

I would read anything she puts out.

the_starless_sea's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

mcbibliotecaria's review against another edition

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4.0

this was a great start to my reading year. its short, sci fi but not heavy, and instead of focusing on the particulars it finds at the center an 11 year old girl coming of age under extreme and unbelievable circumstances. it leaves you wondering what you would do and in the end you just are in this world. highly recommend.

lcf1023's review against another edition

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2.0

Lovely writing, but not at all what I was expecting. I thought this would be a thrilled dystopian novel that explored the consequences of the earth’s slowing rotation, but instead it just served as an inconsequential backdrop to a typical and yawn-worthy YA middle school storyline.

katiescho741's review against another edition

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4.0

This is a YA book about the apocalypse. But it's not about a far-flung future/ dystopia...it's about the first days of the end of the world.
It manages to deal with the huge scientific ideas regarding the earth slowing down, and the small, emotional and practical changes that affect a family during something like that.
Julia has the life of a fairly typical socially awkward 11 year old...she deals with bullies, frenamies, and youthful crushes. I liked how Julia and her classmates weren't that interested in "the slowing" because they had more important things to think about; like the next birthday party, or buying a bra.
There's an interesting rift in society between the "real time" people, and the "clock time" people, which, had this been a normal sci-fi novel, I'm sure would have become some sort of twisted war of factions.
Any topic like this gets you thinking...what would we do? what could we do? The end of the book is left open. There isn't some magical scientific discovery that solves everything, but people are persevering ad so there is hope.