A review by sadiereadsagain
The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan

4.0

This is an apocalyptic/dystopian novel, but it is far more driven by the characters than by the impending new Ice Age which looms large around them. Grief-shrouded Dylan finds himself in a caravan park in the Highlands of Scotland, the ashes of his mother and grandmother some of the only belongings he has brought with him from the repossessed family home, a vintage cinema in London. As the world freezes around them, he forms a bond with his survivalist neighbour Constance and her daughter Stella, who is in her first year of living as a female. The dropping temperatures and increasing difficulties of living in the worst winter Scotland has ever seen force them together, and the connections between them are closer than it first appears. Stella was a character I hadn't anticipated going in to this book, and she really is the heart of the story. I felt the adult characters were more of a backdrop to her, although I did also really like the backstory and grief around the loss of Dylan's family too. Fagan's writing is sparse, yet there is real beauty in it, and the penetrating cold comes through in the reading. I wanted a bit more in that respect, to really feel the desperation of living in such a harsh climate. But maybe that would have been to the detriment of the relationship stories that make this book so intriguing, so I guess if it was a choice between the two then Fagan struck the right note.