You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
Let's hope this isn't what November 2020 has in store for us...
In a novel in which there is not much in the way of action or adventure, the success of the story hinges on an author’s ability to put readers into the minds and hearts of her characters. Literary elements like setting, style and tone also become important in character-driven novels. Thankfully, Ms. Fagan has a wonderful way with words and is more than capable of creating an intellectual and compelling story. She proved herself in her debut novel and does so again in The Sunlight Pilgrims.
The timing of the release of The Sunlight Pilgrims is quite intriguing. On the one hand, it is difficult to imagine a world turning into a frozen wasteland at the same time we are experiencing record temperatures and massive heat waves across the globe. On the other hand, what better way to cool down than with a book that takes place in unimaginably frigid temperatures. Along the same lines, given the fact that the freezing temperatures in the novel are a direct result of global warming and the melting of polar ice, the timing of the novel’s publication makes sense. For, every day our global temperatures are hotter than normal and every minute more polar ice melts and impacts the oceans’ currents, it brings us closer to this fictional scenario.
Speaking of that, the fictional world of Ms. Fagan’s is simultaneously brutal and gorgeous. Snow and cold temperatures always bring a sparkling clarity to the atmosphere, something Ms. Fagan is able to capture in her descriptions of the Scottish highlands. She brings to the reader the same sense of wonder and awe that fills a child at the first snowfall of the year. At the same time, there is the constant threat of death by hypothermia that forces you to respect Mother Nature. It brings an added tension to the novel as the characters fight for their very survival.
While The Sunlight Pilgrims is undoubtedly a warning about the damage we are doing to our environment, the story is at heart one about relationships. Ms. Fagan, through her characters, explores every type of relationship with delicacy and without criticism. Parent-to-child, child-to-parent, friends, lovers, neighbors, relationships to self, to the thing we call identity and to places we call home – they all drive these characters and the story as they prepare for the worst. The emotional connections among them, as well as the characters themselves are exquisitely written.
The Sunlight Pilgrims is a very quiet novel. The world, and subsequently Estella, Constance, and Dylan, are preparing for the brutal winter and doing everything to make sure they survive. Yet, they are also going about their lives. Bonfire Night still occurs. There are get-togethers and work and chores and the general mundacity of living. There is grief and love, laughter and tears. There is life, and there is death. The pending disaster simply adds a layer of urgency to their lives and an undercurrent of tension to the story. It is an extremely well-written novel as well, bringing a vibrancy to the harsh landscape and a sense of hope to each of the characters. It is a novel that may not be garnering a lot of attention right now but will impress those readers who find it with its bleak and beautiful story.
The timing of the release of The Sunlight Pilgrims is quite intriguing. On the one hand, it is difficult to imagine a world turning into a frozen wasteland at the same time we are experiencing record temperatures and massive heat waves across the globe. On the other hand, what better way to cool down than with a book that takes place in unimaginably frigid temperatures. Along the same lines, given the fact that the freezing temperatures in the novel are a direct result of global warming and the melting of polar ice, the timing of the novel’s publication makes sense. For, every day our global temperatures are hotter than normal and every minute more polar ice melts and impacts the oceans’ currents, it brings us closer to this fictional scenario.
Speaking of that, the fictional world of Ms. Fagan’s is simultaneously brutal and gorgeous. Snow and cold temperatures always bring a sparkling clarity to the atmosphere, something Ms. Fagan is able to capture in her descriptions of the Scottish highlands. She brings to the reader the same sense of wonder and awe that fills a child at the first snowfall of the year. At the same time, there is the constant threat of death by hypothermia that forces you to respect Mother Nature. It brings an added tension to the novel as the characters fight for their very survival.
While The Sunlight Pilgrims is undoubtedly a warning about the damage we are doing to our environment, the story is at heart one about relationships. Ms. Fagan, through her characters, explores every type of relationship with delicacy and without criticism. Parent-to-child, child-to-parent, friends, lovers, neighbors, relationships to self, to the thing we call identity and to places we call home – they all drive these characters and the story as they prepare for the worst. The emotional connections among them, as well as the characters themselves are exquisitely written.
The Sunlight Pilgrims is a very quiet novel. The world, and subsequently Estella, Constance, and Dylan, are preparing for the brutal winter and doing everything to make sure they survive. Yet, they are also going about their lives. Bonfire Night still occurs. There are get-togethers and work and chores and the general mundacity of living. There is grief and love, laughter and tears. There is life, and there is death. The pending disaster simply adds a layer of urgency to their lives and an undercurrent of tension to the story. It is an extremely well-written novel as well, bringing a vibrancy to the harsh landscape and a sense of hope to each of the characters. It is a novel that may not be garnering a lot of attention right now but will impress those readers who find it with its bleak and beautiful story.
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Characters were the strongest point of this book, and also really great kind of poetic writing that reminded me a bit of Memory of Water or Station Eleven. Having a young trans girl as one of the main characters was a nice surprise, and Stella really is a pretty cool kid! Really liked the friendship between Stella and Dylan too. As far as apocalyptic fiction goes I'd say this one strays pretty far from the norm and is slower paced. The book is about grief, chosen family and unconventional family, friendship and about both the very mundane and spectacular moments of life, and does all of it very well.
ACTUAL RATING: 3.5
I've been struggling to rate this for a few hours because I really enjoyed quite a lot of things about the novel but I also felt something was lacking. The narrative is great, as well as Fagan's writing style. It's true there is no much action. It's pretty much a character-driven novel. It's all about the characters and their struggles during the hard times they have to face when the temperature of the Earth starts to plummet rather quickly, everything freezes over and the whole planet becomes a white surface.
However, I was expecting that the environmental catastrophe would have a bigger role in the story and it didn't. I mean, it obviously poses a threat to the characters and it's present always but I was hoping for something more than didn't come. So keep it in mind. All in all, it's a very engaging read and I recommend it.
I've been struggling to rate this for a few hours because I really enjoyed quite a lot of things about the novel but I also felt something was lacking. The narrative is great, as well as Fagan's writing style. It's true there is no much action. It's pretty much a character-driven novel. It's all about the characters and their struggles during the hard times they have to face when the temperature of the Earth starts to plummet rather quickly, everything freezes over and the whole planet becomes a white surface.
However, I was expecting that the environmental catastrophe would have a bigger role in the story and it didn't. I mean, it obviously poses a threat to the characters and it's present always but I was hoping for something more than didn't come. So keep it in mind. All in all, it's a very engaging read and I recommend it.
I read this book over many Mondays - it stayed in the bag for Monday swim class and I didn’t care enough about it to read it at other times. It has its moments of brilliance - a great character in a transgender teen, its setting in a future Scotland where climate change has resulted in an ice age. It was a decent 3, maybe 3.5 ⭐️ read for me
I have wanted to read Jenni Fagan's The Sunlight Pilgrims since it was published. I very much enjoyed The Panopticon when I purchased it on a whim a couple of years ago, solely because there was a favourable quote by Ali Smith on the cover. I hadn't read too much about the storyline of The Sunlight Pilgrims before I began, other than that it was set in a remote part of Scotland in the very near future, and took climate change as its central focus.
The Sunlight Pilgrims was almost immediately engrossing. It has an entirely different feel to The Panopticon, but it is just as human. Fagan really gets inside the heads of her characters, and weaves believable, and sometimes relatable, backstories. She handles her young transgender character, Stella, with such depth and empathy.
The Sunlight Pilgrims gives a rather scarily believable look at a world so altered by climate change, and so soon! Yes, its effects are dramatic, but Fagan handles everything so well, and deftly. Enjoyable and incredibly thought-provoking.
The Sunlight Pilgrims was almost immediately engrossing. It has an entirely different feel to The Panopticon, but it is just as human. Fagan really gets inside the heads of her characters, and weaves believable, and sometimes relatable, backstories. She handles her young transgender character, Stella, with such depth and empathy.
The Sunlight Pilgrims gives a rather scarily believable look at a world so altered by climate change, and so soon! Yes, its effects are dramatic, but Fagan handles everything so well, and deftly. Enjoyable and incredibly thought-provoking.
Completion: To be honest the first twenty pages were a bit rocky, and I became a little worried about what I had gotten myself into. Without giving anything away, the author took some risks with the characters that seemed a bit shocking at first. However, as the story went on, the characters moved past their shocking introductions and became fleshed-out characters.
Writing/Style: The scenic descriptions of Scotland in winter are vivid and beautiful. Fagan goes deep into the minds and struggles of these characters which I really appreciated, and she took the time to represent and really invest in the life of Stella, a trans teen living in the caravan park Dylan goes to. I found that having a complex queer main character was a real plus of this book.
Characters: After the first twenty pages, the characters started to move beyond their initial shock value, and I found them to be endearing and quirky. Stella was lively and funny, Dylan supportive and sympathetic, and Stella’s mom complex and interesting.
(I must note that the summary above is seriously misleading, focusing solely on the character Dylan, despite the fact that he shares page time and narration equally with Stella, a trans teen he meets in the caravan park. This omission, while of no fault of the author’s, leaves a bad taste in my mouth because it seems like marketing tried to erase Stella because she was a queer character despite the fact that she is one of the strong points of this novel…)
Plot/Pacing: The plot largely revolves around Dylan’s grief over the loss of his mother and grandmother and Stella’s struggle for acceptance during the beginning years of her transition. I felt that this content and the connection between Dylan and Stella were strong and powerful. My only qualm is the ending which seems incomplete, vague, and a bit of a cop-out.
World-Building/Atmosphere: Scotland and the Scottish caravan park community felt fully realized, but the dystopian element fell way short (which I will explain more in my Sub-genres section). If I didn’t want to go to Scotland before, I definitely do now.
Sub-genres (Romance, Humor, Mystery, etc.): I’m the last one to say that genre is useless or distracting, but in the case of this book, the dystopian part of the story was really unnecessary. The story is about Dylan dealing with loss and Stella dealing with transition in the setting of a small Scottish community in winter, and the end of the world is left on the back burner. The dystopian element adds nothing to this, and often times the characters seem separate from the supposed horrors going on in the “end of times”.
While the news speaks of disaster, the characters do not seem to react to it any more than they would for an especially harsh winter, and they certainly do not change because of this element. There are only two times that the characters interacted with the dystopian world: a minor incident toward the end and the ending itself. Personally, I believe that if the dystopian world had been scraped nothing would be lost, and more time could have been spent on the characters and the setting.
FINAL VERDICT: Despite its flaws, The Sunlight Pilgrims offers some endearing characters facing their personal struggles. The setting of a small Scottish community in winter is unique and interesting, and the queer representation is much appreciated. If you are searching for a book with engaging characters, a fascinating setting, and queer representation, then look no further. However, if you are looking for thrilling or haunting dystopia, then the search continues.
*I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.
Writing/Style: The scenic descriptions of Scotland in winter are vivid and beautiful. Fagan goes deep into the minds and struggles of these characters which I really appreciated, and she took the time to represent and really invest in the life of Stella, a trans teen living in the caravan park Dylan goes to. I found that having a complex queer main character was a real plus of this book.
Characters: After the first twenty pages, the characters started to move beyond their initial shock value, and I found them to be endearing and quirky. Stella was lively and funny, Dylan supportive and sympathetic, and Stella’s mom complex and interesting.
(I must note that the summary above is seriously misleading, focusing solely on the character Dylan, despite the fact that he shares page time and narration equally with Stella, a trans teen he meets in the caravan park. This omission, while of no fault of the author’s, leaves a bad taste in my mouth because it seems like marketing tried to erase Stella because she was a queer character despite the fact that she is one of the strong points of this novel…)
Plot/Pacing: The plot largely revolves around Dylan’s grief over the loss of his mother and grandmother and Stella’s struggle for acceptance during the beginning years of her transition. I felt that this content and the connection between Dylan and Stella were strong and powerful. My only qualm is the ending which seems incomplete, vague, and a bit of a cop-out.
World-Building/Atmosphere: Scotland and the Scottish caravan park community felt fully realized, but the dystopian element fell way short (which I will explain more in my Sub-genres section). If I didn’t want to go to Scotland before, I definitely do now.
Sub-genres (Romance, Humor, Mystery, etc.): I’m the last one to say that genre is useless or distracting, but in the case of this book, the dystopian part of the story was really unnecessary. The story is about Dylan dealing with loss and Stella dealing with transition in the setting of a small Scottish community in winter, and the end of the world is left on the back burner. The dystopian element adds nothing to this, and often times the characters seem separate from the supposed horrors going on in the “end of times”.
While the news speaks of disaster, the characters do not seem to react to it any more than they would for an especially harsh winter, and they certainly do not change because of this element. There are only two times that the characters interacted with the dystopian world: a minor incident toward the end and the ending itself. Personally, I believe that if the dystopian world had been scraped nothing would be lost, and more time could have been spent on the characters and the setting.
FINAL VERDICT: Despite its flaws, The Sunlight Pilgrims offers some endearing characters facing their personal struggles. The setting of a small Scottish community in winter is unique and interesting, and the queer representation is much appreciated. If you are searching for a book with engaging characters, a fascinating setting, and queer representation, then look no further. However, if you are looking for thrilling or haunting dystopia, then the search continues.
*I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.
A bleak, but quickly moving tale of the impending global ice age, Fagan's fable is frequently poetic and moving, but just as often oblique and sometimes impenetrable. The central character of transgendered Cael/Stella is stunningly realized, but the adults don't quite fare so well, being delineated mainly by their quirks than any recognizable humanity.
I enjoyed this until the end. Just feel like there wasn't a real ending?
Apocalyptic visions of the future usually brim with dramatic conflict amidst large-scale destruction in society. Jenni Fagan takes a much more soft-treading and realistic approach to representing probable outcomes of climate change in her novel “The Sunlight Pilgrims” where a group of characters hole up in a Scottish caravan park for the onslaught of a cataclysmically cold winter in the year 2020. Rather than any explosive end to civilization, it seems much more likely that in the future life will still continue much as it is until the effects of rising global sea levels make an unavoidable difference to our daily lives. Here it’s represented by a slow-moving iceberg making its way to the British Isles. Meanwhile many huddle within the commercial comfort of IKEA hoping that it’s not really happening. Amidst this coming crises, a fascinatingly unique group of characters at the margins of society deal with their own personal struggles while preparing for coming of another Ice Age.
Read my full review of The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan on LonesomeReader
Read my full review of The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan on LonesomeReader