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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
"The Age of Miracles is a beautifully written book. The prose is gorgeous and vivid with some great imagery, but it never goes over the top. The plotting is subtle, and the book is definitely more about the characters than what happens to the world they are living in. That is not to say there isn't a plot, but it is definitely not a plot-heavy story. It also has some very interesting and well-executed coming-of-age aspects. Make no mistake though. This is not a YA book. It does have a little crossover appeal because the protagonist is eleven, but at the same time, some of the topics covered and underlying themes are more geared towards an adult reader. Most YA books have a very distinctive plot and medium to fast pacing, and I felt this book had more of a meandering style. Definitely a literary book."
I agree with the reviewer.
I agree with the reviewer.
I thought this was a fabulous book. 12-year-old Julia's world changes forever when the earth's rotation starts slowing down, resulting in longer days and nights. I was impressed with how realistic all the side effects and problems seemed to be and there was very good government speak, etc. But I'd still highly recommend this one.
Spoiler
But then it just ended! No resolution, no real hope for the future. I was waiting for it to go somewhere and it never really did - that knocked off one star.
Touching and probably not the best book to read as you hunker down to ride out Hurricane related storms. The YA factor of this book was very true - I'd say 6th grade and up for language and content. However, there were aspects of this story that felt very real and true to me as an adult, and I really appreciated the story even if the ending felt rushed.
I really liked this book although I can't really pinpoint why. Coming of age, soft sci-fi, full of sadness.
Listened to this. While I liked it overall, the words I would use to describe it are not great: slow, boring, depressing... I'm sure I missed many details while listening due to zoning out.
I loved this book. It is a beautiful coming of age storing set in an alternate reality where the rotation of the world is slowing. Although the main character is 11 years old, the voice, at times alludes to the future. Walker has created characters that are deep and flawed, sorrowful and joyful at times. And real. I loved Julia and could relate to her feelings as a girl with a crush. WHile the world around her is slowing down - the people in her life are trying to adapt - and not always easily. Although it is hard to imagine the world 'slowing', the science behind the affects of the slowing are believable. I highly recommend it.
Heartbreaking, beautiful written end-of-the-world story. Although I have doubts about the science that Walker uses in the novel, I like very much that she doesn't hold the punches and the Apocalypse, even if it is a soft one, is truly, and without any hope, a destroyer of the worlds.
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker is a quiet book with incredible tension that pulled me in from the first page. The narrator is Julia, a girl in middle school who lives with her parents in California. One day, experts announce that the earth’s rotation has changed, and the time of “the slowing” begins. “The freeways clogged immediately. People heard the news, and they wanted to move. Families piled into minivans and crossed state lines. They scurried in every direction like small animals caught suddenly under a light. But, of course, there was nowhere on earth to go.”
The book follows Julia and her family over the coming months and years as the earth’s rotation slows. Once I started reading it, I could not put The Age of Miracles down. The author does an excellent job presenting a plausible series of events on earth after the slowing begins. Days and nights become longer and longer, and humans and animals are affected in various ways. People struggle to carry on despite their worry and fear. Relationships falter.
The strain as the planet continues to slow gets more and more intense, and that’s what kept me reading. I felt like I too was living through 24 hour periods of sunlight followed by 24 hours of dark.
The Age of Miracles is a book driven almost entirely by character and world building. There is very little plot. The author is a good writer. She is able to believably capture the emotions of her characters and has a wonderful way with words. As the earth’s rotation slows, gravity is also affected, and the birds are among the first species to start dying and becoming extinct. While Julia and her father are taking a walk, her father spots a seagull. “I hadn’t seen a live one in weeks,” Julia says. “It did seem amazing, in that moment, that there had ever existed a creature with the power to fly.”
The last two chapters left me somewhat unsatisfied, and I was a bit puzzled by the title. It is taken from this passage: “This was middle school, the age of miracles, the time when kids shot up three inches over the summer, when breasts bloomed from nothing, when voices dipped and dove. Our first flaws were emerging, but they were being corrected. Blurry vision could be fixed invisibly with the magic of the contact lens. Crooked teeth were pulled straight with braces. Spotty skin could be chemically cleared. Some girls were turning beautiful. A few boys were growing tall. I knew I still looked like a child.” One of the questions throughout the book is how the main character’s childhood would have been different without the slowing, but the book is not enough about a normal middle school time period for the title to make sense to me.
However, that is a minor quibble. If you like good writing and getting sucked into a “what if” scenario, I recommend The Age of Miracles.
I read an advance reader’s edition of The Age of Miracles. It is scheduled to be published on June 26, 2012.
The book follows Julia and her family over the coming months and years as the earth’s rotation slows. Once I started reading it, I could not put The Age of Miracles down. The author does an excellent job presenting a plausible series of events on earth after the slowing begins. Days and nights become longer and longer, and humans and animals are affected in various ways. People struggle to carry on despite their worry and fear. Relationships falter.
The strain as the planet continues to slow gets more and more intense, and that’s what kept me reading. I felt like I too was living through 24 hour periods of sunlight followed by 24 hours of dark.
The Age of Miracles is a book driven almost entirely by character and world building. There is very little plot. The author is a good writer. She is able to believably capture the emotions of her characters and has a wonderful way with words. As the earth’s rotation slows, gravity is also affected, and the birds are among the first species to start dying and becoming extinct. While Julia and her father are taking a walk, her father spots a seagull. “I hadn’t seen a live one in weeks,” Julia says. “It did seem amazing, in that moment, that there had ever existed a creature with the power to fly.”
The last two chapters left me somewhat unsatisfied, and I was a bit puzzled by the title. It is taken from this passage: “This was middle school, the age of miracles, the time when kids shot up three inches over the summer, when breasts bloomed from nothing, when voices dipped and dove. Our first flaws were emerging, but they were being corrected. Blurry vision could be fixed invisibly with the magic of the contact lens. Crooked teeth were pulled straight with braces. Spotty skin could be chemically cleared. Some girls were turning beautiful. A few boys were growing tall. I knew I still looked like a child.” One of the questions throughout the book is how the main character’s childhood would have been different without the slowing, but the book is not enough about a normal middle school time period for the title to make sense to me.
However, that is a minor quibble. If you like good writing and getting sucked into a “what if” scenario, I recommend The Age of Miracles.
I read an advance reader’s edition of The Age of Miracles. It is scheduled to be published on June 26, 2012.