Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
An excellent literary science fiction novel set in the very near future. The polar ice caps are melting, triggering the worst winter on record. In a trailer park in Scotland, a group of people try to get each other through the snow and cold. Fagan is a fine writer and tells a compelling story.
Quiet and crisp and bright and sweet, like the title suggests.
I first heard about this book in NPR's Best Books of 2016 list. All I had was their short summary to go off of. I was pleasantly surprised to find that of the two main characters, one is a trans girl and one is a bisexual man. This is good representation that doesn't make a big deal out of its sexual diversity, but is still a hugely integral part of the book.
Was I dissatisfied by the ending? No. I knew, in a way, what will happen after the book ends, but strangely enough it doesn't matter. All of the characters get closure, and they're all happy together, so it doesn't matter if the actual apocalypse part of the plot doesn't get closure.
Much like Station Eleven, this is a book about the apocalypse. And much like Station Eleven, what it's really about is people: their relationships, how they respond to difficult times, and what they need to survive. Nothing about this book felt like science fiction. It was the perfect soft apocalypse story.
Was I dissatisfied by the ending? No. I knew, in a way, what will happen after the book ends, but strangely enough it doesn't matter. All of the characters get closure, and they're all happy together, so it doesn't matter if the actual apocalypse part of the plot doesn't get closure.
Much like Station Eleven, this is a book about the apocalypse. And much like Station Eleven, what it's really about is people: their relationships, how they respond to difficult times, and what they need to survive. Nothing about this book felt like science fiction. It was the perfect soft apocalypse story.
3.5
This book was small and yet what should have taken me a day took over a week. I have to dock points for that. This wasn't the kind of book that draws you in, or even seems to want you around. Part of this is the writing style itself- the lack of quotation marks and strange jumping around in time. Another piece of it is that it's in present-tense, which always hinders my reading experience. Combined with the aforementioned style, it was a perfect storm of reading issues.
I don't really understand the point of this book, and I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of a true arc. I feel like I'm saying this a lot this year, but I wanted to like this book more than I did.
I appreciated Stella and her story line but all the characters were conceptualized in a way where you think they're in depth but then when questioned about it you really have no reason for saying so.
People say this book feels like a dream, and I'd agree. Fagan captures the feeling of endless winter and uncertainty, but all in all is so difficult to get a solid hold on I genuinely do feel like I'm trying to remember the dream I had a few minutes ago. Is that a good thing? No idea.
This book was small and yet what should have taken me a day took over a week. I have to dock points for that. This wasn't the kind of book that draws you in, or even seems to want you around. Part of this is the writing style itself- the lack of quotation marks and strange jumping around in time. Another piece of it is that it's in present-tense, which always hinders my reading experience. Combined with the aforementioned style, it was a perfect storm of reading issues.
I don't really understand the point of this book, and I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of a true arc. I feel like I'm saying this a lot this year, but I wanted to like this book more than I did.
I appreciated Stella and her story line but all the characters were conceptualized in a way where you think they're in depth but then when questioned about it you really have no reason for saying so.
People say this book feels like a dream, and I'd agree. Fagan captures the feeling of endless winter and uncertainty, but all in all is so difficult to get a solid hold on I genuinely do feel like I'm trying to remember the dream I had a few minutes ago. Is that a good thing? No idea.
This book was good but just left me with a slight sense of wanting. It just doesn't really tie together the elements into a thematic whole for me and so was merely good rather than great.
I don't want to be too harsh on this as it actually has so many interesting elements. It follows Dylan as he is forced to move from his cinema in London to a caravan park in Scotland which contains an interesting group of characters but particularly mother and daughter Constance and Stella (who has just begun transitioning that year). Much of the book is devoted to their lives together and them learning about themselves.
Oh yes and the economy has collapsed and, due to climate change, a giant snowstorm is heading to Europe possibly destroying all human life as we know it.
It also took a while to get used to the style, of long paragraphs of ruminations combined with short snappy dialogue where it is not always clear who is talking. However, once I had grown accustomed to this it was a very fascinating way of writing.
I don't want to be too harsh on this as it actually has so many interesting elements. It follows Dylan as he is forced to move from his cinema in London to a caravan park in Scotland which contains an interesting group of characters but particularly mother and daughter Constance and Stella (who has just begun transitioning that year). Much of the book is devoted to their lives together and them learning about themselves.
Oh yes and the economy has collapsed and, due to climate change, a giant snowstorm is heading to Europe possibly destroying all human life as we know it.
It also took a while to get used to the style, of long paragraphs of ruminations combined with short snappy dialogue where it is not always clear who is talking. However, once I had grown accustomed to this it was a very fascinating way of writing.
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I had no idea what to expect from this book and it still managed to kind of blow my mind.
Also, the author included a playlist to go along with the book at the end so.....it was kind of perfect for me.
In a time when the weather is starting to drastically change, Dylan moves to a tiny town as he grieves the deaths of his mother and grandmother. He quickly meets and becomes involved in the lives of Constance and Stella, a mother and daughter who are making changes of their own. While the world around them changes, these three have to learn to adjust to and trust each other.
I'm not entirely sure how to categorize this book - is it a family drama? Is is SFF? It's certainly speculative.....but it doesn't feel like your typical speculative fiction. And the genre-bending is part of the beauty of this book. It's unlike anything else I've read and I enjoyed it immensely.
This is a very slow book. While the wider plot is that the earth is basically entering a new ice age, most of the story focuses on the individual struggles of each main character and their relationships with each other and the world around them. In a lot of books (and, in fact, some that I've read recently), this slow, internal conflict would be drive me insane. But for this book, it worked very well. In fact, in some ways, the outer world's climate conflict is superfluous in relation to the issues the characters are confronting. But the climate changes also help our characters put their own issues into a wider perspective. Jenni Fagan strikes this balance brilliantly and it makes for a really enjoyable read.
Also, Stella is one of my favorite narrators in recent memory. She's a strong-willed teen trying to become independent, while still grappling with her identity and her place in the community. Her perspective is so intriguing and (sometimes) hilarious, partly because it's so different from my own. Her chapters were my favorite to read.
Recommended for those who enjoy slow, quiet, introspective books.
Also, the author included a playlist to go along with the book at the end so.....it was kind of perfect for me.
In a time when the weather is starting to drastically change, Dylan moves to a tiny town as he grieves the deaths of his mother and grandmother. He quickly meets and becomes involved in the lives of Constance and Stella, a mother and daughter who are making changes of their own. While the world around them changes, these three have to learn to adjust to and trust each other.
I'm not entirely sure how to categorize this book - is it a family drama? Is is SFF? It's certainly speculative.....but it doesn't feel like your typical speculative fiction. And the genre-bending is part of the beauty of this book. It's unlike anything else I've read and I enjoyed it immensely.
This is a very slow book. While the wider plot is that the earth is basically entering a new ice age, most of the story focuses on the individual struggles of each main character and their relationships with each other and the world around them. In a lot of books (and, in fact, some that I've read recently), this slow, internal conflict would be drive me insane. But for this book, it worked very well. In fact, in some ways, the outer world's climate conflict is superfluous in relation to the issues the characters are confronting. But the climate changes also help our characters put their own issues into a wider perspective. Jenni Fagan strikes this balance brilliantly and it makes for a really enjoyable read.
Also, Stella is one of my favorite narrators in recent memory. She's a strong-willed teen trying to become independent, while still grappling with her identity and her place in the community. Her perspective is so intriguing and (sometimes) hilarious, partly because it's so different from my own. Her chapters were my favorite to read.
Recommended for those who enjoy slow, quiet, introspective books.