The Age of Miracles

I try to avoid reviews. I don't like to go into books (or movies) with any preconceived notions whatsoever. But it was hard to avoid the hype and praise surrounding Karen Thompson Walker's The Age of Miracles.

It is a coming of age story. Julia is eleven. She's a bit of a loner. She's struggling through sixth grade with just the beginning of an idea of boys. She is newly dumped by her closest friend. Her mother gets sick. Her father becomes a little distant.

Okay. . . sounds rather ordinary, right? Except this is all happening when the earth's rotation slows down. First the days become longer, then devastation hits in all the ways we imagine. (Although. . . no zombies.)

In the first few pages, I was a little skeptical. The writing was fine, but not mind-blowing. Julia was (and kind of remained) not the most exciting girl out there. But as the story went on, the story itself became more interesting. The writing was still just fine. But the storytelling was great. I saw myself in Julia and appreciated the truth in the eleven year old girl hanging onto weak threads of friendships, not being invited to parties, ignored by boys, and so on.

Unsuprisingly, for me, the change in the earth was the most interesting. How people adapted, how they didn't. People who kept to "real time" versus people who kept to "clock time." Who were the crazy ones? How would we adapt? How would we handle the imminent end of times? I think I'd go nuts, frankly. Hopefully I won't have to ever have an answer to that question.

This book is definitely recommended for the interesting take on the pre-apocalyptic world. It won't blow your mind (like I said before) but it is a good little read and a wonderful freshman debut for the author.