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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
Not an easy read, but I really liked the characters. Also really different, which is welcome in a season of voracious reading!
Interesting take on the Apocalyptic genre - impending apocalypse rather than post. Occasionally felt a bit too unreal. Interesting characters - Stella's gender transition and Dylan's discoveries about himself and his family forming interesting counterpoints to the changes going on in globally. Liked it, but didn't love it. 3.5 stars, rounded down.
I won this book in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.
I really enjoyed this book. It was served in 2020 when a new Ice Age is starting. Everything is uncertain yet in a trailer park in Scotland, people are dealing with regular life issues as the world seems to be deep freezing to an end. I enjoyed all the characters and really like Stella, who is dealing with pubert, transitioning to female, and trying to live life the best she can. All while her world slides into deep freeze and uncertainty.
I really enjoyed this book. It was served in 2020 when a new Ice Age is starting. Everything is uncertain yet in a trailer park in Scotland, people are dealing with regular life issues as the world seems to be deep freezing to an end. I enjoyed all the characters and really like Stella, who is dealing with pubert, transitioning to female, and trying to live life the best she can. All while her world slides into deep freeze and uncertainty.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Didn't grab me & didn't finish.
My thanks to Crown & Netgalley for the e-copy.
My thanks to Crown & Netgalley for the e-copy.
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Robert Frost
...This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
T.S. Eliot
The year is 2020. Global warming has caused the polar ice caps to melt, which in turn has caused glaciers to migrate further south than in recorded human history, bringing on a recorded-breakingly cold winter, and possibly the next ice age.
Dylan McRae has recently lost his grandmother, then his mother, then the Soho independent movie theatre that is the only home he ever knew. All that is left to him is a caravan in Scotland that his mother bought while she was dying of cancer. Slowly, he realizes why she picked this seemingly random location in an isolated corner of the island nation.
Constance Fairbain lives next door to Dylan, a survivalist who is at least theoretically prepared for a disaster such as this one. She has spent her 20 years of adulthood as an independent woman, carrying on love affairs with two different men, which has left her on the outskirts of her small community, raising a child fathered by one of the men. Her daughter, Stella, was born as a son, Cael, but has been transitioning in the face of impending puberty, despite backlash from her peers and the community in general.
While the dropping temperatures and the deaths caused by it are a stark backdrop, the real focus is the quiet grief and angst of the characters, who live on the periphery of the community, who refuse to conform and suffer the consequences.
The ending is too ambiguous for my taste, which is the only reason I rated this four stars instead of five. The writing is lovely and these characters, especially Stella and Dylan, from whose perspective the story is told, will stay with me for a long time.
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Robert Frost
...This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
T.S. Eliot
The year is 2020. Global warming has caused the polar ice caps to melt, which in turn has caused glaciers to migrate further south than in recorded human history, bringing on a recorded-breakingly cold winter, and possibly the next ice age.
Dylan McRae has recently lost his grandmother, then his mother, then the Soho independent movie theatre that is the only home he ever knew. All that is left to him is a caravan in Scotland that his mother bought while she was dying of cancer. Slowly, he realizes why she picked this seemingly random location in an isolated corner of the island nation.
Constance Fairbain lives next door to Dylan, a survivalist who is at least theoretically prepared for a disaster such as this one. She has spent her 20 years of adulthood as an independent woman, carrying on love affairs with two different men, which has left her on the outskirts of her small community, raising a child fathered by one of the men. Her daughter, Stella, was born as a son, Cael, but has been transitioning in the face of impending puberty, despite backlash from her peers and the community in general.
While the dropping temperatures and the deaths caused by it are a stark backdrop, the real focus is the quiet grief and angst of the characters, who live on the periphery of the community, who refuse to conform and suffer the consequences.
The ending is too ambiguous for my taste, which is the only reason I rated this four stars instead of five. The writing is lovely and these characters, especially Stella and Dylan, from whose perspective the story is told, will stay with me for a long time.
A good read on a cold wet weekend
Jenni Fagan is really a remarkable writer, bringing so much into her characters.
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Jenni Fagan is really a remarkable writer, bringing so much into her characters.
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Tried to read this but didn't finish it. I expected more of a dystopian plot from the description, but it was just a bizarre story that made little sense to me.
Ugh, so good! The characters, the setting, all of it!
I loved these characters and the beautiful descriptions of a freezing apocalypse. The trans teen story line was enlightening. The story was deeper than I fully understood which I see as my flaw and not that of the book.