A review by cubaitlubin
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

adventurous challenging emotional reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I lie in the sea and feel more lost than ever, because I'm not meant to be homesick, I'm not meant to long for the things I have always been so desperate to leave.

It isn't fair to be the kind of creature who is able to love but unable to stay.

Wild. This ended up being way more than I expected - certainly an adventure to the ends of the earth in a near-dystopian world grappling with the realities of extinction in the face of climate change, but so much more. This character, her trauma, her connections and calling to these creatures, her relationship with her husband. There was a bigger yet more intimate world in this book, and because the depth of character and backstory was so unexpected, I was compelled even more. 

But there won't be any more journeys after this one, no more oceans explored. And maybe that's why I am filled with calm. My life has been a migration without a destination, and that in itself is senseless. I leave for no reason, just to be moving, and it breaks my heart a thousand times, a million. It's a relief to at last have a purpose. I wonder what it will feel like to stop. I wonder where we go, afterward, and if we are followed. I suspect we go nowhere, and become nothing, and the only thing that saddens me about this is the idea of never seeing Niall again. We are, all of us, given such a brief moment of time together, it hardly seems fair. But it's precious, and maybe it's enough, and maybe it's right that our bodies dissolve into the earth, giving our energy back to it, feeding the little creatures in the ground and giving nutrients to the soil, and maybe it's right that our consciousness rests. The thought is peaceful.