Book Review-- The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

eBook
Release date: June 26, 2012
Publisher: Random House
Author: Karen Thompson Walker
Thank you to Net Galley and Random House for providing this eBook for review!

“It still amazes me how little we really knew. . . . Maybe everything that happened to me and my family had nothing at all to do with the slowing. It’s possible, I guess. But I doubt it. I doubt it very much.” Luminous, haunting, unforgettable, The Age of Miracles is a stunning fiction debut by a superb new writer, a story about coming of age during extraordinary times, about people going on with their lives in an era of profound uncertainty. On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life—the fissures in her parents’ marriage, the loss of old friends, the hopeful anguish of first love, the bizarre behavior of her grandfather who, convinced of a government conspiracy, spends his days obsessively cataloging his possessions. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues. With spare, graceful prose and the emotional wisdom of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker has created a singular narrator in Julia, a resilient and insightful young girl, and a moving portrait of family life set against the backdrop of an utterly altered world.

Wow. Wow, did I love this book.
One day, the world just starts to slow down. The days get longer and longer. The earth suffers and mankind must find a way to adapt--or not.
But life goes on like 'normal', and The Age of Miracles is the story of one girl and her family during this very odd time.

The research the author put into this book was seriously amazing. The changes and effects are just fascinating.
I LOVE how much detail she actually went into. And it's NOT boring science-y stuff, either. It's interesting and cool and scary!

Julia is a wonderful character. Very real and easy to relate to.

The writing is fantastic. It sucks you in right from the start and doesn't let go until you're done. I'm VERY impressed with Ms. Walker's debut novel. It doesn't read like a debut at all!

The ONE issue I have with The Age of Miracles is that it's NOT an adult book.
This reads as a YA novel, through and through-- albeit a YA novel for older teens because of the subject.
I'm worried that this book will fall flat because the publisher is marketing it as an adult book.
I REALLY hope that doesn't happen because this wonderful, terrifying, sad, sweet novel DESERVES to be read, praised and remembered!

I'd definitely recommend this book for older teens, 15+, and to you young-at-heart adults, too.
The subject of this book would make for some GREAT conversation with your teens!