So I first heard about this one back in CBR V. I know this because I make Amazon wishlists for each year of the CBR in order to keep my TBR list from going bananas. I know, I’m a little crazy, but that’s got nothing on the statistics I run in excel on my reading habits. Anywho, story for another day. I kind of forgot about this one, until somewhere recently in a comment this year they mentioned how good The Age of Miracles was. And the light bulb clicked that evening at the library. All of this is my saying… I doff my hat yet again to all of you CBR-ers for giving out the BEST recommendations around.
This is the story of Julia, an eleven year old, living in a San Diego suburb circa now. The story begins with the idea that the earth’s rotation is slowing, and the results of the longer days and longer nights set the background for a wonderful character study. This is not a science fiction book though, but more in the vein of say, Station Eleven, in that a futuristic idea is used as a setting for a much more intimate story. Julia is going through normal 11-12 year old situations, but by placing them against the backdrop of this possibly catastrophic event her responses feel realistic, normal and it’s just wonderful.
I don’t want to give anything away, I didn’t have a clue what it was about, and that made it even more wonderful to watch the story unfold. It reads incredibly quickly as you watch the first year of the “slowing” begin, but at the same time you feel your character’s days getting longer. The only reason it gets 4 stars instead of 5 is that the ending just felt a tad rushed. I wanted just a bit more explaining what was going on with “the sickness”.
So this one is definitely recommended. Go read. Enjoy. And watch the days get a little longer.