The Age of Miracles

Jul 02, 2012 Dwight Okita rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book. I read it in one 24 hour period. Great example of soft sci-fi/fabulist fiction. It's like a cross between Alice Sebold's book The Lovely Bones and Lars Van Trier's film Melancholia. In some ways, I also thought about Diary of Anne Frank. A young girl faces a possible apocalypse in MIRACLES. It's YA dystopia but more charming and whimsical than, say, The Hunger Games. Ultimately it is a book that celebrates life with one hand, as it erases life with the other.

The language of th...more I loved this book. I read it in one 24 hour period. Great example of soft sci-fi/fabulist fiction. It's like a cross between Alice Sebold's book The Lovely Bones and Lars Van Trier's film Melancholia. In some ways, I also thought about Diary of Anne Frank. A young girl faces a possible apocalypse in MIRACLES. It's YA dystopia but more charming and whimsical than, say, The Hunger Games. Ultimately it is a book that celebrates life with one hand, as it erases life with the other.

The language of the book is poetic and intoxicating. The consequences of the slowing earth are imagined in rich and provocative detail.

SPOILER ALERT.
I did think the author cheated just a bit here and there. It's a brilliant cheat. There are times the hero Julia says things like: "That was the last time I EVER ate strawberries." Or I NEVER saw so and so again. That kind of language hints that she might die at the end, or that the world ends in the last chapter. In fact, the character and the world still go on by the novel's end, albeit precariously. I think the more honest phrasing would have been: "That was the last time I ate strawberries this spring." Because as long as the earth spins and she is alive, she can't truly know that she will NEVER eat strawberries again. Even if strawberries become extinct, technically she can not know that by some twist of fate she won't eat them again.

It's a small thing and I think the author was very clever to use this sleight of hand. It made me think that the girl or the world were going away.

It's a book I will think of for some time. As a writer myself of speculative, trippy fiction -- I am in the process of analyzing the many things this book did right!

By the way, I love fabulist fiction like this. If you do too, you might check out my novel THE PROSPECT OF MY ARRIVAL. It's about a human soul that's allowed to preview the world before deciding whether to be born. (It's soft sci-fi so it may not appeal to hard sci-fi readers.) The book was a finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. http://amzn.to/ozbXC4
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Apr 22, 2013 Mark rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I received a proof of the book and was particularly interested in reading it straight away as the concept of the Earth's rotation slowing down and its consequences on the human race sounded excellent. Walker, however, fails to run with the idea to its full potential. I just didn't feel the sense of doom, panic and 'catastrophe' the tagline leads you to believe will happen; all of her explanations of human/animal behaviour are halfhearted and not fully developed. The book could have been signific...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Jared rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Starts off well but quickly fizzles into a pretty benign coming of age story. Also, while I'm not necessarily a stickler for hard science in my sci fi, it seemed like the author was too lazy to research the actual effects of the Earth slowing and just ignores the basic laws of the physical sciences. So much so that it really did take away from the story.
The whole apocalypse angle was incidental and unnecessary to the plot. A bland story all dressed up with nowhere to go.

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Mar 21, 2013 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Let me start by stating that Karen Thompson Walker received a $1 million dollar advance for this manuscript in the U.S., and another million in the U.K. That's the launch point for this review; whether or not it warrants those astronomical price tags.

[Some spoilers beware]

Before I'd even heard the hype of this book, I was just online researching for more "Semi-Unique End of the World" novels--because I'm probably a misanthrope.

After reading Everything Matters! and Galapagos, I just wanted somet...more Let me start by stating that Karen Thompson Walker received a $1 million dollar advance for this manuscript in the U.S., and another million in the U.K. That's the launch point for this review; whether or not it warrants those astronomical price tags.

[Some spoilers beware]

Before I'd even heard the hype of this book, I was just online researching for more "Semi-Unique End of the World" novels--because I'm probably a misanthrope.

After reading Everything Matters! and Galapagos, I just wanted something light (about the apocalypse...) to tread through during breaks at work, or before bed. Low and behold, The Age of Miracles. Toted as a book, "A bit too intense for the YA crowd, and not quite heavy enough for a full-on adult labeling", my curiosity was piqued. Although, when I started reading, I did think that it skewed more towards YA territory--not just because the narrator is, in fact, a middle-schooler. Another reviewer had it right in saying the scientific explanations were fairly "soft". And while some of the metaphors were interesting, they tried a little too hard to appear profound (like with the pregnancy analogy and how everything seems strange after you dwell on it for too long, yada yada).

I appreciated how effectively sparse it was in the detail department throughout, but it didn't work as well with the character descriptions. The development of Julia and her family was a little skim milky, and though I did find myself eventually caring about the repercussions for Joel cheating on his neurotic wife, etc, it shouldn't take me almost 200 pages (out of a 260 page novel) to finally give a shit. Also, Walker pushed the character clichés a little too close to the limit: the kooky-but-full-of-sage-wisdom grandfather, the loner Bieber-bangs boy, the artsy woman who teaches piano and just looks like she watercolor paints 24/7. Although, in the author's defense, clichés are often useful, sometimes fantastic--that's how they became clichés in the first place (think Hallmark cards and how they're sappy, but effective). However, they have to be wielded in such a way that almost makes you forget they're stereotypes.

Also, Julia is probably the most vapid eleven-year-old I've ever "met"--even pre-global devastation, and despite the fact that she narrates herself from an older perspective looking back on herself.

The book is definitely a quick read, and while it probably won't leave you with any house-rocking, resonating epiphanies, it is an interesting look at a panicked, declining--and pretty close-to-home--world. That said, if I had to read one more description of how the breeze affected the fucking eucalyptus trees, the only miracle the title would indicate would've been how I didn't bludgeon Walker with her own novel.

As for a numerical score, I'm vacillating between 2.5 and 3. As for it's worth (besides the fact that I understand it will probably make a very lucrative Sundance film), did Walker really earn her millions? Absolutely fucking not. But that's how the world turns. Or doesn't.
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Feb 03, 2013 Sheena Lambert rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Most books I read a book serve as a form of escapism, a little welcome holiday from life.
But some books get inside your head, altering how you see your own life, even as you are reading them. Changing your perspective on the real world.
The Age of Miracles is one of those books. The Da Vinci COde had a little of the same effect - I never looked at his paintings in the same way again. But the Age of Miracles did it better. Without spoiling anything, I can say that the book begins with the mass-re...more Most books I read a book serve as a form of escapism, a little welcome holiday from life.
But some books get inside your head, altering how you see your own life, even as you are reading them. Changing your perspective on the real world.
The Age of Miracles is one of those books. The Da Vinci COde had a little of the same effect - I never looked at his paintings in the same way again. But the Age of Miracles did it better. Without spoiling anything, I can say that the book begins with the mass-realisation that the earth's spin is slowing down. The phenomenon is termed The Slowing. I read the book in half a week, and found myself nervously watching the skies more than once over those few days. Was it me, or was the sunsetting very late? Did the moon look particularly orange and large, or did it always look like that at this time of year? Hmmmm.......
The premise behind the book is fantastic. A quarter of the way through, I was sure this would be a 5-star rating (only my second for a novel on Goodreads). The writing is great. The main character, being an 11-year-old girl, is the perfect heroine, insofar as the writer can never get TOO scientific, which suits the reader. There is enough science here to deal with, but it never gets annoyingly-complicated.
But I had one major gripe with the book. A third of the way through, I was waiting for the main plot to start. Two-thirds of the way through, I was still waiting. And at the end, it became apparent that there was to be no main story-line, apart from The Slowing, and how it effected everyone and everything over the course of a year. More of a memoir, than a novel.
Now, perhaps this was what the author intended. Maybe she thought that The Slowing was story enough in itself. And maybe she was right. I still was excited to get back to the book every night, and I enjoyed almost every part of it.
But there was the odd time where I felt a little patronised (for example, the effect on the tides was repeatedly explained, as if the reader mightn't have grasped it the first time) and most chapters began with a discription of some new effect The Slowing was having, all of which was interesting, but became a little repetitive. Had there been another narrative, a main storyline running through the book, I think The Miracle of Ages would have been a 5 star rating.
But even as it is, I would highly recommend it, especially to anyone with an interest in science or the environment. A great read.(less)

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Aug 11, 2012 Emily May rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-na, dystopia-utopia, 2012, boring, coverly-love

2.5
This is yet another rating I really struggled with because, though I can't say I really enjoyed it, the novel is beautifully written in a very evocative way that makes you want to write down a quote every few pages. But it comes back to that whole writing vs story matter that has stopped me from giving many prettily-worded books a high rating.

The dystopian aspect of The Age of Miracles creeps in slowly and in a mostly subtle and non-threatening manner. Basically, the normal 24 hour day begin...more

2.5
This is yet another rating I really struggled with because, though I can't say I really enjoyed it, the novel is beautifully written in a very evocative way that makes you want to write down a quote every few pages. But it comes back to that whole writing vs story matter that has stopped me from giving many prettily-worded books a high rating.

The dystopian aspect of The Age of Miracles creeps in slowly and in a mostly subtle and non-threatening manner. Basically, the normal 24 hour day begins to slowly lengthen, first by minutes, then later by hours. Scientists from around the world appear on TV discussing this strange occurrence - how could this have happened? Why did no one see it coming? Eventually, more subtle and weird changes begin to happen to do with the Earth's gravity: birds dropping to the ground, unable to fly; cars colliding in accidents that would have easily been avoided before.

This is one of those slow-moving stories, the major plot line is that these changes take place but the subplots that should be what happens when it does, how this affects people's lives... they are small and seem rather undramatic, particularly for this genre that needs a little oppression, some serious danger, a very real threat. I read this novel feeling like no one was in any real peril and that the most tragic event was that Julia - the eleven year old narrator - grew apart from her best friend.

I guess that the intention of the author was to show the subtle effects to lives when people experience fear and uncertainty. Walker wanted to show how relationships break down and people change, and she did do that. But there's no real sense of catastrophe here, no panic, the fear they feel is more a touch of nerves over what might happen than it is a spine-chilling terror. It's too gentle, too subdued, too focused on what I didn't care about.

The description would have you think that this is a science fiction kind of tale where the Earth's rotation starts going crazy... hardly, it's the day-to-day problems of a suburban Californian family and how badly they deal with their routine being disturbed. Also, the ending is highly unsatisfying and read like the bullshitting of someone who doesn't have the answers to the questions they've opened up. Unless your idea of a good reading experience depends totally on the language/writing, I recommend giving this one a miss and maybe just reading the pretty quotes on the book page.(less)

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Aug 13, 2012 Jeanette rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: all-fiction, america, young-adult-books

When John Donne wrote "Busy old fool, unruly sun, Why dost thou thus?" he wasn't thinking of the end of the world. But what if the earth began misbehaving so badly that it made the sun appear unruly indeed? What if the end of life as we know it came not with the Biblical Apocalypse or Armageddon, but instead with a slow unraveling of the diurnal cycle? And what if this happened when you were eleven-going-on-twelve, and just trying to navigate the 6th grade social scene?

Answer these questions an...more When John Donne wrote "Busy old fool, unruly sun, Why dost thou thus?" he wasn't thinking of the end of the world. But what if the earth began misbehaving so badly that it made the sun appear unruly indeed? What if the end of life as we know it came not with the Biblical Apocalypse or Armageddon, but instead with a slow unraveling of the diurnal cycle? And what if this happened when you were eleven-going-on-twelve, and just trying to navigate the 6th grade social scene?

Answer these questions and you have the story of Julia, a Southern California girl of the not-too-distant future. Julia narrates the story as an adult, looking back on that first year of "the slowing." It's a foregone conclusion that the world didn't end, because she's still alive many years later to tell the story. I was still curious enough to keep reading, though. I wanted to see what sorts of climatological, physiological, and sociological changes might arise if the earth began to spin ever more slowly. Those changes I will not reveal, because they comprise the most compelling aspects of the novel.

Karen Thompson Walker is a fine representational writer. There are no heart-stopping passages, but neither are there any boring or poorly-written ones. The narrowness of the focus robs the story of a certain measure of its potential. We often see very little of what's happening in the world outside Julia's girlish set of concerns. In that sense it feels more like a young adult novel, with plenty of cross-over potential into the adult market.

What Walker does well is show how various citizen groups and government agencies behave when we are faced with a crisis. The government will always tell us to just keep shopping and all will be well. Certain people will panic, hoard food, and otherwise behave erratically. Factions will form, speculation will abound. But most of us will just keep soldiering on, adapting to the changes as best we can and stifling our deepest fears. Like it or not, the earth is our only home, and we're stuck here until further notice.

3.4 stars
Review copy provided by the publisher.

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Jul 07, 2012 Emily Crowe rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the story of how we begin to remember. Well, no, not really. But that particular Paul Simon lyric has been swirling in my head this morning and I was just itching to use it. This is actually the story of the day the earth stood still, uhh, slowed down. And the days after that, and the days after that. Nobody knows why the earth's rotation has slowed, but Julia is eleven the day this discovery is announced on the news, with varying degrees of panic.

At first the effect is subtle, resulting...more This is the story of how we begin to remember. Well, no, not really. But that particular Paul Simon lyric has been swirling in my head this morning and I was just itching to use it. This is actually the story of the day the earth stood still, uhh, slowed down. And the days after that, and the days after that. Nobody knows why the earth's rotation has slowed, but Julia is eleven the day this discovery is announced on the news, with varying degrees of panic.

At first the effect is subtle, resulting in a few extra minutes each day, but before long there is a worldwide dilemma on how to handle the growing length of days--and there is much debate whether to follow the 24-hour clock time of old, or to establish "real time" that coincides with each new solar day. "Clock timers" declare dominion over the "real timers" and marginalize them in society in much the same way all minority groups have been marginalized through the ages.

The first indication that the world might be headed for end times is the demise of the birds. The new gravity from the slowed rotation has crippled their ability to fly and navigate. Next, the magnetic field changes and weather becomes unpredictable. Crops wither under 24+ straight hours of sun followed by an equal period of darkness. Newly erected greenhouses powered by sunlamps deplete the energy grids. Clearly it's only a matter of time before all food sources will disappear.

In the meantime, Julia is just trying to make sense of what is happening in her personal life amidst these larger world turmoils. Her best friend's family moves away to join a desert Mormon collective in Utah. Her unrequited crush finally approaches her. Her mother succumbs to gravitational sickness. Her father may or may not be having an affair with a "real timer." In other words, a typical adolescence.

In other, other words, this is a coming-of-age, pre-apocalyptic novel.

I think I just coined the word "pre-apocalyptic." If I didn't, please don't disabuse me of the notion just yet.

The book is, overall...pretty good. I liked it. I didn't rock my world; there were no profound insights into the human experience; and at no point was the prose so spectacular that I wanted to read something a second time in order to savor it. It's simply a quick and easy read with a moderately interesting premise, but I'm a little perplexed about the pre-publicity buzz surrounding this book. The manuscript created a bidding war in the publishing world and word on the street is that the author walked away with a cool million from her US publisher and another $500k each from her Canadian and UK ones. Since this is a debut novel and not a particularly brilliant one I that, I just have to wonder if the publishing world's head is up its collective arse. You can't read a major newspaper these days without coming across an article touting the demise of the book world as we know it. And it's moves likes this, which are questionable at best and asinine at worse, that makes me doubt both publishing's business acumen and sense of value.

Which of course means that this book will probably be a raging bestseller and a major motion picture and I am just the lone voice in the wilderness who questions it all.(less)

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Jun 09, 2012 ☆Jessie☆ (Ageless Pages Reviews) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, general-and-literary-fiction, 2012-reviews, 2012-reads, reviewed, arc, edelweiss-arc

Read This Review & More Like It On My Blog!

I love when books can surprise you. I had a general idea of what to expect with Karen Thompson Walker's meandering, character and thought-driven novel about the end of the world, but I had no idea how bittersweetly she could spin this science fiction-adjacent tale of change, hope, young love, and death. I somehow assumed that this thoughtful exploration of the Earth's "slowing" would be a young-adult effort, but though protagonist and narrator Julia...more Read This Review & More Like It On My Blog!

I love when books can surprise you. I had a general idea of what to expect with Karen Thompson Walker's meandering, character and thought-driven novel about the end of the world, but I had no idea how bittersweetly she could spin this science fiction-adjacent tale of change, hope, young love, and death. I somehow assumed that this thoughtful exploration of the Earth's "slowing" would be a young-adult effort, but though protagonist and narrator Julia is a preteen, The Age of Miracles should not be confused for a simple young-adult story; don't be deceived as I was. Karen Thompson Walker proves herself more than adept at crafting a unique, easily-envisaged scenario in which for her characters to live or die here, and it is contemplatively engaging from the get-go. Though this is a debut author, there is clearly a lot of talent at play within this new author's fertile and expansive imagination — this is one novelist whom I will be sure to watch in the future.

I was struck by the author's writing within pages. Simple and spare, Walker and Julia are gifted with an easy but strong voice, alive with imagery. Walker has a gift for striking descriptions and a unique way with words, one easily lent to creating atmosphere and tension within the novel (from the ARC, page 8: "We did not sense at first the extra time, bulging from the smooth edge of each day like a tumor blooming beneath skin.") Her style fits this loosely apocalyptic story; the focus is not on the extreme events that happen as a result of the slowing (like "solar superstorms" or "gravity sickness"), nor in finding/explaining the cause for the change, but rather on the effects of the aforementioned on Julia and her family. As the world and the things taken for granted fluctuate and stretch, so too do the inner lives and previously unassailable facts of life for Julia, her father and mother.

Julia grows up, and into her role as narrator, quite fast in a world where "dark days" and "white nights" are the norm, and her character is neither stunted nor fully-dimensional. Hampered, perhaps, by the very short length of this novel (only 212 pages in ARC form), I never quite connected to Julia. I was curious about whether the cards would fall as I predicted, but I never fully invested in her as character. Like the particularly apt reference to the Gary Paulsen novel Hatchet and akin to its protagonist Brian, young Julia finds her way alone in an unfamiliar, and hostile world. I rooted for her in her suburban catastrophes; I just didn't love her. All the characters, from dad Joel to hippie Sylvia, feel sketched-out, rather than fully drawn and realized. Despite this, I was fully involved in the story unfolding throughout The Age of Miracles - the steady stream of new revelations, the twists and turns of the more mundane plotlines and above all, Thompson Walker's inimitable prose, kept my attention firmly affixed to the page.

Though quite short and not completely perfect, The Age of Miracles is a bittersweet and worthy addition to the science fiction/apocalyptic genre. Karen Thompson Walker's foray into writing is largely a success on many counts - it is original and compelling and distinctly written. It is, I hope, a pleasant harbinger of more to come from the debut novelist. I will definitely be tuning in as well as going forth and recommending this book for those seeking a slower-paced, more introspective take on the end of the world.

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May 13, 2012 Kara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-contemp, animals-die, arc, blog-tour, california, depressing, for-review, i-cried, literary, own, the-tough-stuff, tlc-book-tours

The Age of Miracles is a beautifully written book. The prose is gorgeous and vivid with some great imagery, but it never goes over the top. The plotting is subtle, and the book is definitely more about the characters than what happens to the world they are living in. That is not to say there isn't a plot, but it is definitely not a plot-heavy story. It also has some very interesting and well-executed coming-of-age aspects. Make no mistake though. This is not a YA book. It does have a little cros...more The Age of Miracles is a beautifully written book. The prose is gorgeous and vivid with some great imagery, but it never goes over the top. The plotting is subtle, and the book is definitely more about the characters than what happens to the world they are living in. That is not to say there isn't a plot, but it is definitely not a plot-heavy story. It also has some very interesting and well-executed coming-of-age aspects. Make no mistake though. This is not a YA book. It does have a little crossover appeal because the protagonist is eleven, but at the same time, some of the topics covered and underlying themes are more geared towards an adult reader. Most YA books have a very distinctive plot and medium to fast pacing, and I felt this book had more of a meandering style. Definitely a literary book.

It's also a little difficult to shelve. But to talk about that, you have to understand the setting and plot a bit. Basically, Julia and her family are living in modern times. Then one day, the earth's rotation starts to slow. It starts to rotate slower and slower, and gradually, over time, the world and Julia's family starts to fall apart. The days lengthen, the nights lengthen, and suddenly 3:00 A.M. happens in broad daylight, and 3:00 in the afternoon falls in the pitch dark. It messes with everyone's equilibrium and some people continue to live their lives by the 24 hour a day clock, while others start living on real-time. That is to say they get up with the sun and go to sleep when the sun sets, even when the days grow longer. Scientists have said that our bodies would eventually adjust to a changing world (it's called a circadian rhythm) but I don't know about that. Anyway, so that's what is going on in the world. But the main plot is more about what happens to Julia and her family while all this is going down. That's the summary in a nutshell. The reason why I say it is difficult to shelve is because it is clearly NOT a dystopian novel, but at the same time, even though the world is ending, it's not exactly post-apocalyptic either. So it just goes under Adult Fiction and Contemporary for now, even though there is more to it than that. Got it? GOOD.

I don't really have much else to say. I'm going to leave you with a few passages from the book that I thought were absolutely gorgeous, but I feel like this book needs to be experienced, and there is not a lot I can say that hasn't already been said. If what I have stated above has you interested in the book, then I definitely think you should read it. But I also think it's not a book for everyone. There are a lot of the-world-is-ending books out there right now. But this book doesn't really fit with those books. Even though it's the same genre, it's very different. So I can't say, "If you loved those books you will love this one," because that is not necessarily true. Here are some quotes from the book that I fell in love with.

When we finally understood what was happening that morning, Hannah and I rushed outside to check the sky for evidence. But the sky was just the sky--an average, cloudless, blue. The sun shone unchanged. A familiar breeze was blowing from the direction of the sea, and the air smelled the way it always did back then, like cut grass and honeysuckle and chlorine. The eucalyptus trees were fluttering like sea anemones in the wind, and my mother's jug of sun tea looked nearly dark enough to drink.

After the slowing, every action required a little more force than it used to. The physics had changed. Take, for example, the slightly increased drag of a hand on a knife or a finger on a trigger. From then on, we all had a little more time to decide what NOT to do. And who knows how fast a second-guess can travel? Who has ever measured the exact speed of regret?

Gorgeous writing. The whole book is like that. I hope you pick it up if it sounds like something you might enjoy. (less)

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Jul 04, 2012 Francine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-lit, bildungsroman, dystopian-world, speculative, young-adult

The Age of Miracles was both beautiful and extremely frustrating. Beautiful because the writing was exquisite; Karen Thompson Walker writes simply but succinctly. She's very expressive and knows her way around the written word. While I don't think it was as beautifully written as The Art of Fielding, her writing was sophisticated, evocative and nuanced; without trying too hard, her words successfully evoked the images and emotions needed to further her narrative, something which many other write...more The Age of Miracles was both beautiful and extremely frustrating. Beautiful because the writing was exquisite; Karen Thompson Walker writes simply but succinctly. She's very expressive and knows her way around the written word. While I don't think it was as beautifully written as The Art of Fielding, her writing was sophisticated, evocative and nuanced; without trying too hard, her words successfully evoked the images and emotions needed to further her narrative, something which many other writers try and fail to do. It almost reminded me of the beauty behind Colson Whitehead's Zone One, another book that I thought was both beautifully written but extremely frustrating.

So here are my reasons for loving this book:
- this was a true coming-of-age novel
- Thompson Walker did not shy away from themes of loneliness and ostracization that oftentimes comes with growing up
- the death of the human race mimicked the death of the earth, which was also an analogy for that tumultuous period between the end of childhood and the start of adulthood

It was a good story...if it had focused on the coming-of-age portion of the story, it probably would've been more successful. However, when taken in with the sci-fi aspects of the story (the earth's rotation is slowing down, causing longer days and longer nights, which leads to the eventual dying of the earth), it fails miserably.

The science is weak. I had to stop nearly a dozen times in disbelief. While Thompson Walker does not go into details, specifically so that she wouldn't have to deal with the science, what did end up in the book irked me to the point of distraction. I finally had to tell myself to really suspend disbelief...to the point where I found myself glossing over some of the "earth dying" parts.

It's a good thing -- a really good thing -- that I enjoyed Julia's story. The heartbreaking end of her friendship with Hanna evoked painful memories of lost friendships in grade school; similarly, her growing friendship and initial romance with Seth reminded me of early crushes and never quite knowing how to behave around boys. Her reaction to the decline of her parents' relationship was real, as were her feelings of not belonging anywhere or to anyone (I, too, remember lunchtimes in the library, in grade school!).

I think this book is worth reading, but I must warn other science geeks out there: don't concentrate on the science! Don't try to think too much or too deeply. Just enjoy the story for what it is: a story of a young girl getting ready to leave her childhood behind.(less)

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Sep 05, 2012 Sara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Se dovessi paragonare questo libro a qualcosa che adoro, lo paragonerei alla cioccolata calda: da bere nelle sere d'inverno, sotto una coperta, magari mentre fuori piove. No, non sono impazzita amici miei, è che "L'età dei miracoli" mi ha lasciato addosso una sensazione di calore indescrivibile, proprio come la cioccolata calda che ci scalda il cuore.
L'ho comprato ed iniziato il giorno dopo l'uscita ed, immergendomi nella lettura, mi sono sentita parte di essa, come se la nostra protagonista, Ju...more Se dovessi paragonare questo libro a qualcosa che adoro, lo paragonerei alla cioccolata calda: da bere nelle sere d'inverno, sotto una coperta, magari mentre fuori piove. No, non sono impazzita amici miei, è che "L'età dei miracoli" mi ha lasciato addosso una sensazione di calore indescrivibile, proprio come la cioccolata calda che ci scalda il cuore.
L'ho comprato ed iniziato il giorno dopo l'uscita ed, immergendomi nella lettura, mi sono sentita parte di essa, come se la nostra protagonista, Julia, mi avesse presa per mano per farmi conoscere la sua storia..come un'amica. E proprio come Julia, sembra quasi di vedere il mondo cambiare, anzi, sarebbe meglio dire "rallentare", come se le giornate si allungassero per davvero, mentre le ore scorrono e con esse la vita della nostra Julia che cambia radicalmente ma giorno per giorno, adattandosi a quello che è il nuovo modo di muoversi della terra, i nuovi orari di alba e tramonto, le nuove abitudini..fino alla riflessione che, persino una cosa così "lontana" dalla quotidianità come la rotazione terrestre, cambiando, è in grado di cambiare non solo le abitudini, ma anche i pensieri e gli atteggiamenti delle persone: così, mentre il mondo si divide tra i classici "sono tutte cavolate" e "il mondo presto finirà", Julia si divide tra giornate iniziate col buio e finite con la luce, tra una madre ipocondriaca e un padre non troppo sincero, tra un'amicizia svanita nella frazione di un saluto con la mano e una mano nuova e tanto attesa da stringere. La nostra protagonista cercherà il suo posto in un mondo che non ha nessuna certezza, e dovrà far leva sulla propria voglia di andare avanti, nonostante tutto, per realizzare i propri desideri e crescere.
Karen Thompson Walker ci regala un quadro tanto dolce quanto struggente in alcuni momenti, aiutandoci a comprendere ogni evento, anche grazie ai pensieri di Julia ed alla sua crescita interiore, di fronte al pericolo, alle incertezze, ai cambiamenti..in un'età in cui si cerca di mantenere tutto così com'è, con le amicizie che si pensa possano durare tutta la vita e le famiglie che paiono non avere segreti. Così, ecco che una ragazzina di dodici anni, si affida alle parole, raccontando ciò che accade ogni giorno (con riflessioni che sembrano decisamente più grandi della sua età) forse per cercare di alleggerire il peso di ogni cosa, forse per lasciare una testimonianza e non sentirsi sola..mentre tu, lettore, non puoi far altro che sederti, con il suo racconto in mano, leggere ogni periodo e sentirti così tanto vicino a lei, da volerla abbracciare.

Ho amato ogni singola pagina di questo romanzo: mi è entrato dentro come un vento fresco d'estate, trasformatosi di tanto in tanto in un uragano in grado di scuotere ogni animo. Non ve lo so descrivere in un modo migliore, non è uno di quei libri che, una volta letti, si sa perfettamente come poterli descrivere, è più un viaggio da scoprire: avete presente quando vedete qualcosa di talmente bello che, quando vi chiedono "dai, racconta, com'è?" non sapete far altro che dire "dovresti vederlo!" ..ecco, "L'età dei miracoli" non si può apostrofare o descrivere, si può solo leggere e gustare lentamente, esattamente come la cioccolata calda d'inverno.(less)

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Dec 09, 2012 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Good enough that it made me rethink my opinion of Tom Perrotta's similarly themed book The Leftovers, also released this year. In this as well as Perrotta's novel, something like the apocalypse comes to the suburbs. In The Leftovers, the possible rapture vanishes a random assortment of people, many nonchristian. Those left behind continue with their adult suburban lives with the additional problem of militant religious groups (who were not taken away) and a strange doomsday suicide cult.

In the s...more

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Aug 23, 2012 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: imagined-worlds, usa-contemporary, read-2012

Look. I don't live in a vacuum. I know this is one of the most talked about books of the summer. Big displays in bookstores, frequent author appearances on my favorite public radio station cultural programming, reviews in my newspapers and journals of choice (that I didn't read - by the way - so I wouldn't spoil my experience). So hard I did try to consider this book on its own merits, without expectations. But I'm human. Given the hype, I'm gonna hope for a miracle.

Okay, maybe not a miracle. B...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Cathleen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

4.5 stars. A story full of wonder and impact. This is a remarkable book, and I found myself enveloped right from the start. The premise is imaginative, the developments perceptive, and the narrator heartbreakingly engaging. I can't help but wish the author had taken it a bit farther or deeper, but still I know this is one I will eagerly recommend.

Additional comment: I don't consider this to be inherently a YA book. Quite frankly, I am aggravated by the increasingly widespread belief that if a bo...more

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Sep 06, 2012 Melissa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: apocalyptastic

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It was pretty illuminating to read this now, as summer is totally overstaying its welcome with more 90+ temps even though it's September(enough is enough, am I right Denver?). In this book the Earth suddenly starts spinning more slowly & as the days get longer & longer, it turns out my sad, dead lawn would feel right at home with all every other dead plants that are a consequence of this unexplained phenomena. The "slowing" is told from the perspective of young Julia so there's not a lot...more It was pretty illuminating to read this now, as summer is totally overstaying its welcome with more 90+ temps even though it's September(enough is enough, am I right Denver?). In this book the Earth suddenly starts spinning more slowly & as the days get longer & longer, it turns out my sad, dead lawn would feel right at home with all every other dead plants that are a consequence of this unexplained phenomena. The "slowing" is told from the perspective of young Julia so there's not a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo, which is very all right with me. This is much more about strange emotional changes that take place when the world is coming to an end, albeit very slowly.

This book perfectly captures the way I think the majority of us feel, sadly enough, about actual climate change. We get freaked out about it for a few days, we go mad & try to change things or stockpile food, and then eventually we forget & it's business as usual again. So it is here, with Julia's mom being the only member of her family taking things seriously enough to hoard peanut butter & toilet paper. Julia is more concerned with why her best friend no longer talks to her, if Seth Moreno really likes her, and is that really her father who's supposed to be at work she sees through the window dancing with the neighbor? The scapegoats of this apocalypse are "real timers," people who sleep when it's dark & stay up when it's light, even as daylight gets longer & longer. Everyone else keeps "clock time" and they go to work at 9:00 like usual despite the fact they're often doing it in darkness. Almost all the action takes place in Julia's neighborhood so there's very little sense of what's happening around the world, especially in poorer countries, but again, that's okay. The only unforgivable sin is that near the end, the Earth's magnetic field is disrupted, radiation is such a problem no one can go outside anymore, more ominous developments are on the horizon - then all of a sudden Julia's 23 & there's no mention of anything that's happened over the previous 10 years of her life. (less)

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Jul 15, 2012 Cherylann rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopian-society, books-on-the-nightstand

I started listening to this book on Audible, and I can highly recommend the audio - the narrator was very good. However, I got so into the story that when my husband came home from the store with a copy of the book, I quickly put the audio down and dug in to the print. I needed to find out how the story ended. When I started the book, I expected it to be another work of dystopian fiction. I expected a cross between Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeiffer and The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I quic...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Will Byrnes rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-and-children

Growing from pre to teen is tough enough, but when the entire planet slows down, it makes the transition a whole lot tougher. Julia is a charming every-girl living an average life in southern California. Her coming of age joins with a slow-apocalypse vision in a merging of genres.

The ARE volume I read includes no explanation for why the earth’s rotation suddenly begins slowing. [Unless of course, I am an older, blinder coot that I realized, and just missed it] I have read that the cause was sup...more Growing from pre to teen is tough enough, but when the entire planet slows down, it makes the transition a whole lot tougher. Julia is a charming every-girl living an average life in southern California. Her coming of age joins with a slow-apocalypse vision in a merging of genres.

The ARE volume I read includes no explanation for why the earth’s rotation suddenly begins slowing. [Unless of course, I am an older, blinder coot that I realized, and just missed it] I have read that the cause was supposed to have been a large earthquake, but it is possible that that was edited out.

In any case we have parallel story lines here. One is Julia coming of age and other is the earth maybe coming to its end. The two interact as we would expect they might. In any coming of age, particular of an American middle-class girl, there are a host of items one would expect, a checklist, of concerns that might be in any bildungsroman. Social anxiety, feeling like an outsider, attraction to a boy, problems with friends, having to cope with obnoxious peers, concern about physical development, concern about physical appearance, including exposure, beginning to see flaws in parents, beginning to appreciate complexities of the world. Check, check, check, check, and so on. There is not much in the arc of Julia’s experience of growing that stands out here. It is clearly the external events that make this more than yet another tale of growing up.

The event is called “the slowing.” Unfortunately it requires a large act of faith to accept the premise, but let’s make the assumption, just for now. If the earth were to begin slowing how might this manifest? It is here that the strength of the story lies. The details Walker offers are fascinating, and include many symptoms that might not feel all that newsworthy. I would not be surprised if Walker had scoured the news for oddities to include here. Changes in the earth’s electromagnetic field are significant, exposure to prolonged periods of both light and dark have catastrophic effects on plant life. Birds plunge from the sky for no obvious reason, gravity itself increases. I liked how she projected a likely separation of people into two camps, those who stayed with life based on a 24 hour clock, regardless of light and dark, clock-timers, and another group that attempted to adjust themselves to the light and dark cycles that the slowing earth offered, real-timers. It was clear that a lot of thought went into the cascading reactions of earth’s biomes and its people to the change. Most of it made sense. Some did not.

Even were the earth to slow down, one would expect the rate of slowing to be fairly constant. In Walker’s vision the rate of change varies from day to day, and even the direction of the change fluctuates. I wonder if this is actually possible for an earth-sized planet. I would be interested to know what her source was for this possibility. I came across one particular item that was bothersome beyond that:

I wanted to think that somewhere on the other end of time, a hundred light years from then, someone else, some distant future creature might be looking back at a preserved image of me and my father at that very moment in my bedroom.

Really, did the author never hear of Star Wars, in which Han Solo incorrectly uses the word “parsecs“ as a measure of time when it is really a measure of distance? Ditto here. It is conceivable that Julia might mistake light years for a measure of time, but one must wonder if it is the author who got this one wrong. This would be surprising as it is clear Walker did a lot of research for this book. Another was when everyone was terrified by an eclipse. Even in a slowed down earth, one would expect that science would still be able to predict such events and offer public notice. This sort of thing is jarring and challenges one’s ability to suspend disbelief.

The book reads very fast. Julia is an attractive narrator, someone who readers can root for. Walker keeps the plot moving forward and gives us plenty of information about what is happening in the world without seeming to force anything. She offers plenty of imagery to enhance the characters’ experience and tweak our concerns about this world. We really do expect that the changes in the larger world will reflect, or at least enhance, the changes in our narrator. Walker does not disappoint here. An example:

Maybe it had begun to happen before the slowing, but it was only afterward that I realized it: my friendships were disintegrating. Everything was coming apart. It was a rough crossing, the one from childhood to the next life. As with any other harsh journey, not everything survived.

And another:

Some things that happen during youth, you carry with you into later life, and certain experts were already predicting an approaching tidal wave of cancers

So why did I not love this book?

First of all, even with all the apocalyptic material it contains, and despite the wishes of Random House, (and other publishers who have forked out millions, yes millions for this book) this is a YA book. It is actively annoying to be reading a book that clearly is meant for a YA reader and have the publisher’s marketing department pretending it is intended for readers who are way post adolescence, praying for that crossover hit. It would not shock me at all if RH convinces the author to have her name printed at K.T. Walker in hopes of giving her work a subliminal boost in growing Potter-like legs. Really, label it properly. Secondly, the growing up aspect of this novel seemed garden variety to me. Been there, read that. I enjoyed reading The Age of Miracles (with the world falling apart, one presumes that the miracles here have to do with the characters and not the things happening in the world, or they would have had to call the book The Age of Horrors) and would happily recommend this book to kids from 10 to 17. But older than that, not so much.
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Feb 17, 2013 Melissa Crytzer Fry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

I’m not sure I’d have read this book if not for the Goodreads First Reads program (I won a copy in late January) because I generally don’t gravitate toward middle grade, YA, or books with young protagonists. BUT this book, with its crossover appeal to adults, really was a wonderful surprise.

And any book that spurs a reader to action upon completion is definitely a book that has made its way into the subconscious. Case in point: an hour after closing the cover on The Age of Miracles, I felt compe...more I’m not sure I’d have read this book if not for the Goodreads First Reads program (I won a copy in late January) because I generally don’t gravitate toward middle grade, YA, or books with young protagonists. BUT this book, with its crossover appeal to adults, really was a wonderful surprise.

And any book that spurs a reader to action upon completion is definitely a book that has made its way into the subconscious. Case in point: an hour after closing the cover on The Age of Miracles, I felt compelled to get outside and bask in some sunshine – to notice the things around me. I will be thinking about the “what ifs” the book poses for months to come.

This story, about a 12-year-old girl (told by her reminiscing 23-year-old self) really appealed to my environmental senses. What really would happen if the Earth’s day-night cycles were radically changed by some scientific anomaly? How would people cope? How would the environment change? Would people look back on past environmental behaviors and wonder if they could have done something differently?

Even though this is essentially a 12-year-old’s coming-of-age story, the novel hints at these larger issues – especially the notion of cause and effect, with respect to the environment. We see insects multiply with the death of birds; vegetation dying due to prolonged, intense sunlight; psychological changes when sleep is withheld. But we also think about the cause-effect role of man over time as the novel briefly contemplates acid rain, melting glaciers, tainted water supplies, etc.

Some have criticized the book for glossing over the emotions that might occur in such a disaster. But I knew this was a book written for a younger crowd, so I felt comfortable with the author’s decision to exclude the melodrama. And it made me think: an 11 (soon to be 12) year old girl might just view the changing world in such simplistic terms and only later be able to look back with critical eyes.

This line, at the latter part of the book, sums up the themes of the novel perfectly: “Love frays and humans fail, time passes, eras end.”

Great contemplative read.
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Jul 10, 2012 Kate Z rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was drawn to this book as a kind of "apocalyptic fiction" (when we come to the "end of the world" how will people adapt and carry on?) but it was more of a YA-type coming of age book.

The book is told from the point of view of 12 year old Julia who lives in San Diego when the earth's rotation slowly begins to slow down. Over the course of the novel a day on earth stretches from 24 hours to over one hundred which means there are 60 hours of day followed by 60 hours of darness or night. The magne...more I was drawn to this book as a kind of "apocalyptic fiction" (when we come to the "end of the world" how will people adapt and carry on?) but it was more of a YA-type coming of age book.

The book is told from the point of view of 12 year old Julia who lives in San Diego when the earth's rotation slowly begins to slow down. Over the course of the novel a day on earth stretches from 24 hours to over one hundred which means there are 60 hours of day followed by 60 hours of darness or night. The magnetic and gravitational fields of the earth begins to change as well and both of these things affect crops and the entire eco-system. The tides change and entire communities along the coast are wiped out, whales beach themselves along miles of beaches and most families get their own greenhouses and special sodium solar lamps to grow their own food. For a while a kind of chaos follows as most of daily life is tied to the clock - when school begins and ends for example, soccer practice, work. As the days (and nights) start to expand it means that sometimes people have to do normal "daylight" activities during the dark - say, for example, soccer practice, which is held at 3 PM every day. Suddenly at 3 PM it's dark on some days. Additionally the rotation is constantly slowing so the day might be 25 and a half hours today but 27 hours tomorrow then 30 hours the next day. Scientists struggle (and fail) to predict the rate of the slowing and also to understand what caused it. Like SAD, the people on earth begin to be affected by these changes in the amount of daylight and some, like Julia's mom, are afflicted with something known as "the Syndrome" where they suffer a myriad of symptoms. Decisions must be made and most of the world decides to follow "clock time" where things stay on the same 24 hour clock that we've always known. Some people, however, decide to live in "real time" and they form communities or communes in the desert where they go and live by the light - staying awake for 20 and 30 hours of daylight and then sleeping for 20 or 30 hours of darkness.

All of this serves as the backdrop for "tween"ager Julia who must navigate friendships, a potential boyfriend, and her parents' relationship. Unfortunately for me, the real story of this novel was this and I just didn't care enough about Julia or her troubles to give this book a higher rating.
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Nov 20, 2012 Tanya Patrice rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Emily Janice Card. The narrator did a pretty good job, but I thought she read very slowly, and the book itself is about a slowing ... all this slowness sometimes left me a bit bored & weary.

This is both a book about changes happening DURING a major apocalyptic event & the life - sort of coming of age - of an 11 year-old girl. I like the IDEA of this book, but there were so many things that drove me batty. I got that this is a retrospective look bac...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Dan W rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A beautifully told story of a Middle School age girl grappling with her family and social lives coming unglued as the planet itself does the same. This book gracefully pares down the micro and macro forces of our daily lives and shows with playful clarity the lack of control any of us really has beyond our own decisions.

Our hero is a young girl who is teetering between childhood and adolescence with all the uncertainty and upheaval it brings. Her body, her family and her friends are all much mo...more

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Nov 06, 2012 Cecily rated it 4 of 5 stars

I picked this up because of the best-seller hype, but I've read the first two chapters can't help thinking - "wait a minute, I've read this before, right? Coming of age in a semi-apocalyptic world...oh, yeah, that's right. This is the same thing that a dozen different YA authors have been churning out for the past 5 years." We'll give it a few more chapters and see how it goes...

Not a bad book, but I'm not sure I agree with all the hype. Written from the perspective of Julia as an adult looking...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Jessica rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another end of the world scenario unfurls in this slim little book, but it's imaginative: the slowing. No vampires or nukes, no pandemic or apocalypse, exactly - just a time went time fell out of tune with nature. Suddenly, the earth's rotation begins to slow, and 11 year old Julia is an innocent part of it all. She's writing from the vantage point of time, which is sort of encouraging, but we learn nothing, really, of the repercussions the slowing brings to society, aside from radiation poisoni...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Wafaa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels-foreign, bookoholics-group

3.5 stars

I almost wanted to give her the forth star only for the last chapter..
nice novel, it made me feel so close to the characters in the novel...
the way she expressed her feelings was so smooth, she didn't make me feel that its a fiction novel when she described the whole situation of the SLAWING gradually...
I felt it so real , it may one day become real since we are continuing to destroy our planet....
she involved few true events in it which happened in reality like the death of the astron...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sometimes, the problem of being a book lover is that a gem can sit on your shelf for months after you've bought it as you get distracted by other titles, delve into a new book series before you can get to it. This was the case with 'The Age of Miracles'. For months, it sat on a pile of books that kept growing before I finally was able to sit down and read it. This is the story of eleven year old Julia who is in a time of her life that we all might remember and recognize, that awkward stage in on...more

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Jun 28, 2012 Melki rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: up-at-the-crack-of-doom, science-fiction, young-adult

I'm always wishing for more hours in the day.
More time to spend with family.
Time to finish all those stupid craft projects I've started over the years.
An extra hour or two to set aside just for reading.

But the slowing of the earth's rotation to gain more time...that's not exactly what I had in mind.

In 2010, I watched a show called Aftermath: When the Earth Stops Spinning on the National Geographic channel. (You can watch it on YouTube)
It scared the hell out of me!
As the simulated planet's rotat...more

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May 17, 2013 Esther rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: usa, 2013, 2013-from-my-own-shelves, my_library, speculative-fiction, ya

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I bought this book on a whim having heard so many great reviews.
The reviews were so enthusiastic that I rather expected to be swept off my feet by a delightful gem of a book. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, this book is good, just not that good.
It recounts the year in the life of a young teenage girl Julia, a coming of age story complicated by the fact that for some unexplained reason the Earth is slowing down causing the days to become longer and longer.
We gain a good imp...more I bought this book on a whim having heard so many great reviews.
The reviews were so enthusiastic that I rather expected to be swept off my feet by a delightful gem of a book. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, this book is good, just not that good.
It recounts the year in the life of a young teenage girl Julia, a coming of age story complicated by the fact that for some unexplained reason the Earth is slowing down causing the days to become longer and longer.
We gain a good impression of what is happening, how the changes affect Julia's neighbourhood and her family, the split between those who observe clock time and those who observe natural time.
What is lacking is a sense of peril or fear. As the situation degenerates and the Earth begins to die people just seem to be stunned and a little distant. No one panics, no one is overcome with hysteria. Even when people fall sick they seem to accept it with an equanimical fatality.
The colonies established by those observing natural time appear and then fade away without protest and almost without remark while the vandalism against the natural time observers who stay in the cities seems a half-hearted token rather than real discrimination or antipathy.

On a more personal level although Julia seems fond of her parents and them of her there was little more than polite interaction between them. As they experience probably the most distressing and confusing time of their lives they seem to have little to offer one another in the way of support or comfort.

Julia becomes more and more socially isolated as the school year progresses which lends a melancholy air to the narrative but also means that we lose our connection with her schoolmates and their point of view.
There is a short reprieve during her relationship with Seth but when he disappears from her life she seems to accept the situation with a depressing calm.

This is a provocative premise, competently recounted but like so much modern literary fiction it insists on being emotionally aloof, creating a barrier between the reader and any deeper feelings.
This book should have disturbed my sleep with feelings of dread and left me weeping at the fate of the Earth but instead I would remark that it was an interesting read.
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Aug 21, 2012 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

3.5 - how do you do 1/2 a star?
The genre label on the library book spine was Sci-fi, but I don't think this book is really sci-fi. The story is rooted on our planet, in a time about now, when the rotation of the earth begins to lengthen. There is no explanation, but as the days grow longer (and the nights grow longer) everything changes for 12 year old Julia.

This is a coming of age novel but not one I'd recommend to a teen. It's written in a slow, measured style, and there is so much left unsaid...more

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Aug 25, 2012 T. Greenwood rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked up this novel primarily because of the buzz but also because it is set in San Diego where Walker grew up(and where I now live).

The Age of Miracles follows Julia, a young girl on the cusp of adolescence in a world on the cusp of collapse. Julia's San Diego looks a lot like mine except for the one small detail that her earth has suddenly started to turn more slowly: days swelling by minutes at first and then by hours, circadian rhythms interrupted by pervasive daylight and, alternately,...more

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