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A review by theinquisitxor
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
5.0
There's a deep thread of melancholy woven throughout this book, but there is also hope and love and a mourning for the things we have lost. I adored this book, but it's also left me with a weight on my chest hours after finishing it. This will be a book that stays with me, and one that I will probably find myself thinking about a lot.
This book takes place in a future where climate change had devastated the earth. Almost all wild animals are close to extinction or extinct, and the seas are almost depleted of fish and sea life. Franny Stone is a woman trying to track the last of the Arctic Terns, as they undertake perhaps their last migration from Greenland to Antartica. Franny is able to convince a fishing boat to take her on, and make the journey across the world following the birds.
The book alternates between Franny's present on the boat, learning the ropes and making friends with the strange and wonderful crew, to her tragic and often saudade past. Franny is an Irishwoman who feels the sea in her bones, and has restless, wandering feet. Her past is certainly a mix of happy and sad, and she sees following the terns as a final cathartic journey.
This book made me feel. It made sad and anxious about our bleak future if we don't do anything about climate change. It also made me hopeful about how people try to do the right thing and try their hardest to stop the unstoppable. It made me mourn for the species we have already lost, and the future animals that will suffer because of climate change. I can see how some people could call this book 'predictable', but it's in a way a tragedy is. You know from the beginning that things are not going to go well, but you can't stop reading because what if? and then you crash right into the ending.
This book takes place in a future where climate change had devastated the earth. Almost all wild animals are close to extinction or extinct, and the seas are almost depleted of fish and sea life. Franny Stone is a woman trying to track the last of the Arctic Terns, as they undertake perhaps their last migration from Greenland to Antartica. Franny is able to convince a fishing boat to take her on, and make the journey across the world following the birds.
The book alternates between Franny's present on the boat, learning the ropes and making friends with the strange and wonderful crew, to her tragic and often saudade past. Franny is an Irishwoman who feels the sea in her bones, and has restless, wandering feet. Her past is certainly a mix of happy and sad, and she sees following the terns as a final cathartic journey.
This book made me feel. It made sad and anxious about our bleak future if we don't do anything about climate change. It also made me hopeful about how people try to do the right thing and try their hardest to stop the unstoppable. It made me mourn for the species we have already lost, and the future animals that will suffer because of climate change. I can see how some people could call this book 'predictable', but it's in a way a tragedy is. You know from the beginning that things are not going to go well, but you can't stop reading because what if? and then you crash right into the ending.