Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
I would give this 3.5 stars simply because it is a crazily readable account of a possible, and unexpected, version of the apocalypse. I had some issues with the detached voice of our narrator which I think was mostly due to the fact that the woman is already grown and reflecting on her adolescent experience of the decay of the planet and of human relationships. Maybe this retrospective telling is necessary to build the suspense of the progression of the situation but I still think it would've been a stronger novel told in the girl's voice, not the woman's, and told in greater detail. It has the feel of a long short-story, if that makes sense. Still, it's a tragically good idea at the root of it.
Um. Solar Power? Wouldn't that have solved a lot of the problems presented in this book?
The Age of Miracles is a story about a young girl living in California during a period of time when the Earth is slowing on its axis and the effects it has on her family, friends and the world. Some other reviewers had issues with how the author portrayed the ecological impact of the Earth slowing. I didn't have a problem with this though - we really have no idea what would happen if the Earth slowed and days were 50 hours long. I think that the artistic license taken here is fine - the book is more about Julia's journey than the exact scientific reasons and reactions.
However I did have some issues, namely how people are using so much electricity that the internet goes down. As I stated above, if the Earth was having hours upon hours of sunlight, then solar power should have been utilized to help the greenhouses grow the fresh food. That was a glaring plot hole.
And Seth Moreno! What was going on with him? He just disappeared and left her heartbroken. How sad this book was! Julia is totally alone in the end, at least her parents didn't break up but I mean, I would've either liked her to have found happiness in the end or to be like "The Earth will end in XX days" or something. Some sort of closure was needed!
But it's such an interesting concept for a book, and the author does well to flesh out the characters and you really are hooked to see how the Earth's slowing affects the characters next.
The Age of Miracles is a story about a young girl living in California during a period of time when the Earth is slowing on its axis and the effects it has on her family, friends and the world. Some other reviewers had issues with how the author portrayed the ecological impact of the Earth slowing. I didn't have a problem with this though - we really have no idea what would happen if the Earth slowed and days were 50 hours long. I think that the artistic license taken here is fine - the book is more about Julia's journey than the exact scientific reasons and reactions.
However I did have some issues, namely how people are using so much electricity that the internet goes down. As I stated above, if the Earth was having hours upon hours of sunlight, then solar power should have been utilized to help the greenhouses grow the fresh food. That was a glaring plot hole.
And Seth Moreno! What was going on with him? He just disappeared and left her heartbroken. How sad this book was! Julia is totally alone in the end, at least her parents didn't break up but I mean, I would've either liked her to have found happiness in the end or to be like "The Earth will end in XX days" or something. Some sort of closure was needed!
But it's such an interesting concept for a book, and the author does well to flesh out the characters and you really are hooked to see how the Earth's slowing affects the characters next.
I wasn't sure if I would like this coming-of-age in a future-dystopic-catastrophic-world. The concept alone, that the earth suddenly and inexplicably begins to slow in it's rotation. It was interesting and a little scary to contemplate! I will admit that the writing stuck with me so much that during the day I would feel a sudden sense of dread, then realize it wasn't from anything actually happening to me, it was residual from reading this book. That's pretty amazing. And though I thought it would limit the concepts I most wanted to explore (shouldn't it be written from a scientists point of view? A hero? A government official?), the 12 year old coming of age in this world was so fascinating, I couldn't put the book down. Where did it lose a star? I think I was hoping for it to be longer, find out what happens to the world, to society. We are very much limited to what is happening in a 12 year-old's world. But it was good, I'd recommend it.
Read a beautiful Indispensable copy from Powells. I quite like the writing style and perspective. Straightforward and matter of fact. I'd read anything this author puts out.
I enjoyed reading this book, I think it had a lot of potential. Unfortunately I feel like it flatlined and never recovered. There was no rising action, no denouement. I really wanted more for it. :(
Maybe it's because I read 1Q84 before this book...but what is with authors not wrapping up their novels?? This book is a very quick read. The plot is interesting and sucks you in and as a (once) teenage girl I found the narrator relatable. What I did not like was the excessive foreshadowing and buildup (If I had known then it was the last grape I would ever eat...DUN DUN DUN) that lead to NOTHING. The ending did not explain anything and was a total cop out. I did enjoy everything else up to the end of the book. The concept is pretty frightening and plausible.
I'm so sad because I remember really liking this book when I read it in middle school.
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I am still thinking about this book because it is a bit between - between genres, age groups, how many stars. I feel it's YA, but I'd be careful about the young person I'd recommend it to. The narrator is a realistic middle-class eleven year old, so there is nothing like swearing or hard words or too grown-up situations, but the underlying problem - the earth's rotation is stopping - is . An anxious, nervous worrying kid should not read this book.
Julia is a very young girl - a year away from her first training bra, she loves soccer, and she has a crush on a boy. Her father is a doctor, her mother a teacher. Julia is taking piano lessons and she has two pet cats. Then one day, there is an announcement in the news from the US government that scientists had detected two things - the earth is slowing down its spin so that the 24 hour day is now 25 hours, and that gravity is tugging heavier on all of earth. After the initial panic, life goes on as usual. But inescapably, the days become longer, and wildlife and gardens begin dying. During the overturning of everything people are accustomed to - steady electrical power, birds, 24 hour clock - Julia is 'coming-of-age', going to school, learning about friendships, watching her parents not quite work well together. In the meantime, the effects of the earth's rotation changes everything about the future, but yet nothing, almost, about daily life. People hoard, suicide, divorce, disappear, start apocalyptic cults, build underground shelters, but still tend to their families, go to work and to school, and put their gardens inside hothouses.
The idea of what might happen if the earth's rotation slowed is intriguing, if scary. However, the author pulls her punches in this surprisingly lightweight exploration of such an event. If she took out that underlying scenario, this would be a too ordinary elementary school (6th grade?) level book. As it is, it's about two and a half stars, but I rounded up on that because it is an interesting scenario.
Spoiler
without a solution, so that the inevitable death of life on earth is obvious from the beginning to anyone with a slight science education. The story is actually a remembrance of a young woman telling of her eleventh year up to her twelfth birthday and a few months beyond that. She is going to college, but she has no idea if they will be alive on earth before graduation.Julia is a very young girl - a year away from her first training bra, she loves soccer, and she has a crush on a boy. Her father is a doctor, her mother a teacher. Julia is taking piano lessons and she has two pet cats. Then one day, there is an announcement in the news from the US government that scientists had detected two things - the earth is slowing down its spin so that the 24 hour day is now 25 hours, and that gravity is tugging heavier on all of earth. After the initial panic, life goes on as usual. But inescapably, the days become longer, and wildlife and gardens begin dying. During the overturning of everything people are accustomed to - steady electrical power, birds, 24 hour clock - Julia is 'coming-of-age', going to school, learning about friendships, watching her parents not quite work well together. In the meantime, the effects of the earth's rotation changes everything about the future, but yet nothing, almost, about daily life. People hoard, suicide, divorce, disappear, start apocalyptic cults, build underground shelters, but still tend to their families, go to work and to school, and put their gardens inside hothouses.
The idea of what might happen if the earth's rotation slowed is intriguing, if scary. However, the author pulls her punches in this surprisingly lightweight exploration of such an event. If she took out that underlying scenario, this would be a too ordinary elementary school (6th grade?) level book. As it is, it's about two and a half stars, but I rounded up on that because it is an interesting scenario.
Quick and easy read. Part science fiction with a unique look at the slow possibilities of people living their lives while the Earth dies around them instead of some catastrophe that instantly changes the world. But more so it is the story of a young girl who is losing her friends, loving her first love and learning what it means to grow up regardless of what is happening around her. It was interesting enough with the science of the world dying to keep me reading but the, I'm assuming, intentioned poignancy just didn't do it for me. Probably better suited for a YA audience but still entertaining enough that I can't complain that I read it. And how refreshing to finally read a book that is NOT part of a trilogy!