The Age of Miracles

The Age of Miracles

by Karen Thompson Walker

 



“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.”

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. (description from Amazon.com)

This was an interesting and slightly scary book. Not in the same way that an slasher horror film is scary (ie. people's heads being chopped off, etc!) but in a very realistic way.  What I mean is that I could actually picture the events of this book happening. Totally and completely.  Walker took a really cool post-apocalyptic concept and gave it a very real "life" through her story. 

When the earth begins to slow, there are very real and evident consequences. Julia's family can see the days lengthening and her mother, especially, freaks out about what will happen...is this the beginning of the end?  Then as the world continues to go on, they, like everyone else try to move on with their lives, but find that every day brings new little, almost unseen consequences of the slowing. 

As Julia tries to process what's happening on a larger scale, she finds herself distracted by the things in her own neighborhood.  Little slices of life that reflect what readers know is occurring around the globe.  Julia's parents' marriage starts to fall apart.  The boy she was afraid to talk to suddenly becomes a friend.  Her best friend seems to no longer be a part of her life. 

In the most realistic way, Walker reminds readers that life is not easy. Things are not just right or wrong, black or white, easy or hard.  Every day, you just have to keep trying...keep facing the challenges of the day...keep moving on. 

*Very similar in feel to Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life as We Knew It.

Full disclosure: Borrowed from my library

Dead End in Norvelt

Dead End in Norvelt

by Jack Gantos

Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack's way once his mom loans him out to help a fiesty old neighbor with a most unusual chore—typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launced on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels . . . and possibly murder. (description from Amazon.com)

This was a strange and weirdly wonderful book.  Told by Jack Gantos, this is a fictional autobiography...very weird indeed.  These two months in Jack's life, have a very, very strange tone that kept me captivated even as I was trying to piece together exactly what was going on. 

The story starts with a series of seemingly unrelated events.  As the tale spins on, though, both Jack and the reader begin to piece things together and all these strange things meld into one wild tale! I couldn't wait to see what happened next...

I also have to tell you that I listened to this as an audiobook and the author reads it himself. Jack Gantos has this slightly quirky voice that just fit this book perfectly.  It was a great audiobook! I am so glad I experienced the story that way. I highly recommend it.

Full disclosure: Audiobook received at BEA 2011. 

Ascendant
by Diana Peterfreund

Publication date: September 28, 2010
Received ARC signed by Diana Peterfreund at BEA 2010

Astrid Llewelyn is now a fully trained unicorn hunter, but she's learning that she can't solve all her problems with a bow and arrow. So when she's given the opportunity to leave the Cloisters and go to France to put her skills to use discovering the Remedy, Astrid leaps at the chance. Finally, she can have exactly what she wants - or can she? Soon Astrid begins to question everything she thought she believed: her love for Giovanni, her loyalty to the Cloisters, and - most of all - her duty as a hunter. Should Astrid be saving the world from killer unicorns, or saving the unicorns from the world?

After being blown away last year by Rampant, this was the one and only book that I was desperate, repeat desperate, to get an ARC of at BEA this year. I waited all day in long lines, with tired arms and pained feet, to stand in line with a huge grin on my face to get this book and to meet Diana Peterfreund. It was awesome!

When I sat down to read this, I had a moment's hestitation, afraid that it would not measure up to its predecessor. Rampant not only featured a great new heroine, but a fascinating new world...I mean, come on, killer unicorns? How could you not astound the YA lit world with rampaging killer unicorns??

Thankfully, my hesitation was short-lived. Ascendant not only lived up to Rampant, but I think surpassed its awesomeness. Astrid, now an acknowledged unicorn hunter, has to decide if she will continue to do her duty as a hunter, protecting humans around the globe, or if she'll go into private security to work in a quieter community and get the chance to go to school, work in a lab, and yes, be a little...well, safer.

Astrid faces challenges in both love and life in this book. She finds her moral code challenged, her ideas on family challenged, her heart divided, and well, pretty much everything in her life just falls apart. New, shockingly horrific revelations are made and Astrid must make some really tough decisions.

Astrid is achingly real in this book. She's torn between wanting to be safe and feeling as if she must do her duty as a hunter. She never gives up trying to do the right thing, ever. Astrid is what I consider a true heroine and has officially sealed her position as one of my top favorite characters of all time.

An astounding continuation in the series.