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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
The characters are interesting, but could use more fleshing out. There's a lot of great stuff here, Dylan's descriptions of Babylon, Stella's thoughts on her body, but the book lacks any sort of momentum, and feels like an unfinished first draft. The moment you get the antagonist in the room with the rest of the characters the book ends. And I don't even know if I would call Stella's dad a real antagonist, except that Dylan and Stella don't like him. The extremely cold weather, which should overshadow the book with a sense of doom, feels more like a non-issue. The main characters don't seem to struggle with it any more than a normal winter. They drink gin and go sledding, with the occasional mention on the news about the Thames freezing and snow in Morocco.
Stella is the most interesting character, her feelings about her body and fears about puberty forcing her into an unfamiliar body were very moving.
Stella is the most interesting character, her feelings about her body and fears about puberty forcing her into an unfamiliar body were very moving.
In 2020 Ice Age Scotland, Dylan moves from London to a faraway caravan park between land and sea. There, in the worst winter humankind has lived through, he meets Constance and her daughter, Stella, former boy who is struggling to get her new identity accepted by her classmates and their community.
I think this is actually the first time I read a book discussing transgender people. And it was so well done. I mean, I don't have much reading experience in this field, as I just mentioned, but honestly, you can't help but feel for Stella and want her to be happy in her own skin. It's truly sad to see her trying to live as herself (a girl) and everyone else picking and insulting her because she used to be a boy. It was unbelievably touching, all the more because Stella is an incredible human being, the life of this novel and just GREAT. I love her okay ? She's precious and she deserves all the good in the world.
The book isn't just about Stella, it is also about Dylan finding out about his identity and about love, and friendship. I think it could be read like a nordic tale or something. It's not magical but it has the tone of a fairy tale somehow. It is about so many important thing like ecology, and roots and sticking out for yourself, and judgmental people. All of it, so well done !
And this writing, seriously, this writing was superb. I should have known when I saw that this was published by Hogarth Press in England, because that's Virginia Woolf's publishing house and OF COURSE I would love their publications ! Some sentences, descriptions and wording were so beautiful, I re-read them many times trying to grasp the entirety of their beauty and meaning.
"Her mother resembled winter"
This book is a gem, raw and unsophisticated, full of beauty and light, when the entire the world is slowly, but surely, tipping over in the darkness.
I think this is actually the first time I read a book discussing transgender people. And it was so well done. I mean, I don't have much reading experience in this field, as I just mentioned, but honestly, you can't help but feel for Stella and want her to be happy in her own skin. It's truly sad to see her trying to live as herself (a girl) and everyone else picking and insulting her because she used to be a boy. It was unbelievably touching, all the more because Stella is an incredible human being, the life of this novel and just GREAT. I love her okay ? She's precious and she deserves all the good in the world.
The book isn't just about Stella, it is also about Dylan finding out about his identity and about love, and friendship. I think it could be read like a nordic tale or something. It's not magical but it has the tone of a fairy tale somehow. It is about so many important thing like ecology, and roots and sticking out for yourself, and judgmental people. All of it, so well done !
And this writing, seriously, this writing was superb. I should have known when I saw that this was published by Hogarth Press in England, because that's Virginia Woolf's publishing house and OF COURSE I would love their publications ! Some sentences, descriptions and wording were so beautiful, I re-read them many times trying to grasp the entirety of their beauty and meaning.
"Her mother resembled winter"
This book is a gem, raw and unsophisticated, full of beauty and light, when the entire the world is slowly, but surely, tipping over in the darkness.
Buddy read with Cari :3
3.5
I hate having mixed feelings. I hate it because they make it much more difficult to actually express something coherent about the book, and I usually like writing reviews to clear my head about how much I liked the book itself. Anyway, overall it's for sure a positive rating, but I can't say I'm not confused because of some things...
The ending...ugh. Now, I don't dislike open endings. I'm usually open to any kind of ending, what matters to me is to see an ending that seems to fit with the story and that is still realistic. This time around I can't say I'm satisfied: I don't think that that can be considered an ending. It was very anticlimatic and abrupt. There's this slow build-up to it and then...nothing. I didn't expect something perfect, with a bow and a cherry on top, but I still expected something that would actually solve some of the story's problems.
I also had problems with the plot. Well, to be fair, I didn't feel like there was an actual plot, which isn't a bad thing per se in my book. There aren't many things that I absolutely dislike in books, and character driven books are not on the list. (On the list are things like too much drama, lack of communication, cheating, OOC characters...)
Some of my favourite books are very character driven, but still, the plot has to go somewhere, eventually. In this case I feel like there are too many issues there haven't been addressed.
That said, The Sunlight Pilgrims isn't a bad book. It's actually quite interesting, because it isn't your typical apocalypse-centered book. While the summary reminded me a bit of Station Eleven, this isn't anything like it, because it's focused on the months prior to the actual event and mainly deals with the characters' lives as the temperature drops.
The character development is probably the element I liked the most. The book truly gives us an insight to the characters' psyche and I did like the two PoVs. Stella's point of view was probably the most interesting one, because she's extremely strong and yet, fragile. Born in a boy's body she has always felt like that wasn't who she really was. I really liked how complex and yet relatable her character was. She is obviously scared, because her body is changing and she's afraid of looking like someone she isn't on the outside, but at the same time it's clear that she's incredibly strong.
The writing was quite good too. It wasn't too lirical, but it was elegant. Kind of classy anyway.
However I can't say I was completely satisfied with the book. I do think that the author developed some themes pretty well and I appreciated some of her choices, but I'm not that impressed.
3.5
I hate having mixed feelings. I hate it because they make it much more difficult to actually express something coherent about the book, and I usually like writing reviews to clear my head about how much I liked the book itself. Anyway, overall it's for sure a positive rating, but I can't say I'm not confused because of some things...
The ending...ugh. Now, I don't dislike open endings. I'm usually open to any kind of ending, what matters to me is to see an ending that seems to fit with the story and that is still realistic. This time around I can't say I'm satisfied: I don't think that that can be considered an ending. It was very anticlimatic and abrupt. There's this slow build-up to it and then...nothing. I didn't expect something perfect, with a bow and a cherry on top, but I still expected something that would actually solve some of the story's problems.
I also had problems with the plot. Well, to be fair, I didn't feel like there was an actual plot, which isn't a bad thing per se in my book. There aren't many things that I absolutely dislike in books, and character driven books are not on the list. (On the list are things like too much drama, lack of communication, cheating, OOC characters...)
Some of my favourite books are very character driven, but still, the plot has to go somewhere, eventually. In this case I feel like there are too many issues there haven't been addressed.
That said, The Sunlight Pilgrims isn't a bad book. It's actually quite interesting, because it isn't your typical apocalypse-centered book. While the summary reminded me a bit of Station Eleven, this isn't anything like it, because it's focused on the months prior to the actual event and mainly deals with the characters' lives as the temperature drops.
The character development is probably the element I liked the most. The book truly gives us an insight to the characters' psyche and I did like the two PoVs. Stella's point of view was probably the most interesting one, because she's extremely strong and yet, fragile. Born in a boy's body she has always felt like that wasn't who she really was. I really liked how complex and yet relatable her character was. She is obviously scared, because her body is changing and she's afraid of looking like someone she isn't on the outside, but at the same time it's clear that she's incredibly strong.
The writing was quite good too. It wasn't too lirical, but it was elegant. Kind of classy anyway.
However I can't say I was completely satisfied with the book. I do think that the author developed some themes pretty well and I appreciated some of her choices, but I'm not that impressed.
Compelling characters and beautiful writing but the plot is frozen solid for the entire book, just like the Ice Age world Fagan has created.
Man I loved this! I just totally want to go live in caravan. The characters were so lovely, I laughed my head off and am so sad to lose them. Really lovely.
I could not get into this one, you guys. I tried, and gave it about 75 pages, but the characters didn’t click with me at all and the writing style seemed forced and awkward to me. I was hoping this would be a post apocalyptic story similar to Station Eleven, but it didn’t come close for me. This might just be a wrong book, wrong time kind of thing, but I wasn’t willing to keep going with this one to see if it could grab me, so it’s off to the “abandoned” shelf for now! Anybody out there who can convince me to keep with it?!
Meh. I‰ЫЄll probably never read another book by this author. It could have been an interesting story except the characters and plot never fully developed.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Transphobia, Dysphoria
Minor: Incest
I really liked this book! The story line held my interest and I felt invested in the characters. So much so, that I was sad when it ended so abruptly!!!! WHAT HAPPENED?!? DO Dylan and Constance live happily ever after? How does Stella's transition go? Does spring ever come??? I feel like I know what she was implying with the ending, but I'm holding out hope for a book 2 ??