Reviews

4.5 stars.

Franny has wandered her entire life. She always feels unsettled and feels the need to seek something out. As we meet her, she is starting to track some Arctic terns as they begin their long migration from Greenland to Antartica. The world is in a dire place, many animal species have gone extinct and the Arctic tern are amongst the last birds on Earth. Franny fears this may be the terns' last migration. Franny convinces the captain of a small fishing vessel to follow the tracker ping. She promises that where the birds go, there will be fish. As the ship journeys south, the crew (and the reader) begin to realize that Franny has a mysterious past of her own. Through a series of flashbacks we learn some more about Franny's past and that it has it's share of secrets.

This was a beautiful and melancholy planet. Though the book is set at an unknown time in the near future, it feels all to real with the impending threat of global warming. We learn that many wild species have gone extinct but that domesticated animals are still alive due mostly to the fact that humans ensure they survive as a food source. The currents have become more dangerous and the fish population is also drastically depleted. The world is close enough to our own that we can picture it. I saw the book as more character-driven though. Franny is an unreliable narrator. but I felt empathetic towards her and whatever mysterious forces drive her. She is definitely someone with a lot of issues and we get some peeks as the book progresses as to what may have caused some of those issues.

What to Listen to While Reading
Global Warming by LPX
Meticulous Bird by Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
Angels by The xx
Arctic Tern by Aaron Lansing
A closeness by Dermot Kennedy
Sleepwalking by Modest Mouse
First Love/Late Spring by Mitski
Wanderer by Cat Power

Thank you to the publisher for the advanced review copy!