Reviews with content warning for Car accident - Migrations

Our heroine is a scientist obsessed with an endangered species that she loves dearly. In fact, she often identifies more with the animals she studies than with her fellow humans. She has significant trauma in her past, some of which is alluded to only obliquely so that the reader slowly pieces together what happened via flashbacks sprinkled throughout the novel. As the novel begins, our heroine has travelled to a foreign land on a possibly-doomed quest to save her species, where she's greeted with distrust - or even outright hostility - from the locals who feel their livelihood is threatened. However, over time, she forms a found family of sorts with a motley crew of people who develop respect for her obsession even if they don't always understand it.

My only issue with my synopsis of Migrations above is that it applies equally to McConaghy's subsequent novel "Once There Were Wolves." As it happens, I read Once There Were Wolves first, so it felt fresher to me then and Wolves is my favorite of the two. There are certainly differences between the novels, but I must admit that as I began Migrations, I was pretty quickly struck by the similarities. Nevertheless, I enjoyed Migrations and found it very moving. It takes place in a near future where most species are going extinct at a rapid pace, which is certainly a sobering premise. I would've preferred a slightly more straightforward recounting of the protagonist's past trauma (she's an unreliable narrator). But the well-developed characters and passion for nature were a draw for me.

I'd recommend this for fans of character-centric literary fiction, particularly with a passion for environmentalism.

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eruby's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book. Beautiful, aching, and tragic yet hopeful despite it all. I could hardly put it down between the beautiful writing and the snippets of Franny's past that left me wanting to know more. My only complaint is

that the very end where her father shows up felt abrupt and tacked on

. But overall I thought this book was breathtaking.

Editing to add that this book has made me extremely grateful for all the birds and other animals in the world, and has truly made me appreciate them when I see and hear them.

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corriejn's review against another edition

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Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I really, really hated this book. It was a gradual but very steady decline from being into it at the start, and just hating it more and more through the entire thing, right up until the end. I did not like the main character (or many of the other characters, for that matter). I hated the really creepy AF main romantic relationship. I hated how many things the author got wildly wrong about wildlife research and conservation (like things that were pretty egregious and would have been super simple to just google). I hated the whole storyline. I hated how predictable some of the things were, that the author tried to keep mysterious throughout the book and reveal later.

I do get why some people might like this book. They're just wrong. (Sorry, but did I mention I really really hate it?)

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thisiscourt's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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