A Life

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Judul: The Age of Miracles
Penulis: Karen Thompson Walker
Penerbit: Random House
Halaman: 291 halaman
Terbitan: 2012

On an ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia awakes to discover that something has happened to the rotation of the earth. The days and nights are growing longer and longer; gravity is affected; the birds, the tides, human behavior, and cosmic rhythms are thrown into disarray. In a world that seems filled with danger and loss, Julia also must face surprising developments in herself, and in her personal world-divisions widening between her parents, strange behavior by her friends, the pain an vulnerability of first love, a growing sense of isolation, and a surprising, rebellious new strength. With crystalline prose and the indelible magic of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker gives us a breathtaking portrait of people finding ways to go on in an ever-evolving world.

Review

The Age of Miracles follows the story of Julia, a 12 y.o girl from California whose world is slowing down. Literally, as the earth's rotation is slowing. Expanding the hours of day and night, slowly extending to 72 hours per day and growing.

If you're looking for some kind of hard sci-fi thing with a lot of science and hypothesis on why the earth is slowing down or how exactly (in science kind of explanation) the slowing rotation affects the earth, then you're looking at the wrong book.

Instead of the hard-science, the book focuses on how the change affects social relationship. Both in a smaller scale, like how it affects her parents' relationship and Julia's friendship, to a bigger scale, like how the community is divided into 2 groups: the "real-timer" and the "clock-timer".

I'm really glad that finally I could read a kind of fantasy-dystopia YA with teenage girl who doesn't fall in love with dangerous boy, having a love triangle while the world is in a rampage, a bad government, or in a form of trilogy. It's refreshing, you know.

I like the gloomy atmosphere of the story. I like how Julia narrates the story as if she is remembering the old days, the early time of earth's slowing. The way Julia narrates made me thought she was going to die or the end will finally come. I was a little bit disappointed (yes, disappointed) to find out that the ending was like that.

Overall, I like the story and the feel of the story. I also like the relationship between Julia and Seth. It was very bitter sweet and true. I do believe that even if the world is coming to an end, with your love one beside you, you can still laugh and feel strong.

This book is for the following reading challenges:
- 2013 New Authors Reading Challenge
- 2013 Books in English Reading Challenge


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