The Age of Miracles

This reminded me a lot of Life As We Know It. Also about a world changing /ending told from a young girls perspective. It's very well written and it kind of pulls you along.

I didn't connect with this book in the way I anticipated, partially because I read this book in the year that is 2020 (global pandemic, catastrophic climate events, civil unrest, general uncertainty about everything). If I could read this again when I could escape into Julia's world without feeling like it parallels life so much, I might connect with the story better and truly appreciate the writing. Karen has an excellent writing style, and I'd like to try reading some of her other books.

Good book but too much about the everyday life and not enough about why everything is happening.

Good one. I found myself dreaming in the book's premise- an ever slowing rotation of the earth. I like the idea of the young protagonist dealing with her own problems while the world falls apart around her.

A quiet apocalyptic novel that is haunting and sad. A beautiful coming-of-age story set during the end of the world. Families are still complicated, mean girls are still mean, and people still fall in love. It makes you appreciate what we have, and how quickly it can all change.

A beautiful book. Some sentences I read three or four times because the wording was so elegant. I really can't summarize this book any better than Amiee Bender did when she said “The Age of Miracles spins its glowing magic through incredibly lucid and honest prose, giving equal care and dignity to the small spheres and the large. It is at once a love letter to the world as we know it and an elegy.”

Quick read with some really nice writing – I knew instantly the author knew San Diego as her descriptions of our part of California rang very true, and I loved some of her metaphors. Overall it would have been nice to have more effort made at possible causes for the earth's slowing and more growth and depth but overall I would recommend it.

Imaginative premise and I think it would have succeeded as a YA novel but, for my taste, the characterization felt too thin. It's similar in mood to Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, another novel that left me feeling emotionally manipulated and intellectually unsatisfied. But despite its flaws, the story raised enough narrative questions to sustain my interest.

I picked this up because I had seen some good reviews, but didn't find this an enjoyable read. The characters were not likable in any way, and the novel itself moved from one depressing scene to another. I think the author shows promise, but did not find this to be a good read for me.

You know, I was not going to read this because I about at my limit of dystopian novels. Seriously. But, I saw this compared to Into the Forest, and as that is one of my favorite novels EVER, I had to find out why.
i do wonder if I am describing this correctly: Is a book dystopian when it takes place during the transition to a dystopian world?
The Age of Miracles is really a coming of age story about Julia, age 12, and how her family is dealing with the fact that the Earth is gaining time. “The Slowing” results in many natural disasters, but through them Julia is also dealing with changes in her relationships with her friends, her family, and how she views the world.
All of the characters are multi-layered and well presented. At one point, I remember thinking- if Wes Anderson made and end of the world movie, this would be it. There are scenes in this book that will make your heart hurt. Julia is dealing with a loneliness that is isolating. I loved Grandpa and Seth.
I highly recommend this one. It has a similar feel to Into the Forest (I will agree), and a voice that reminded me of Lovely Bones. I think this one will be a crossover for YA as well.

It sort of surprises me that this is popping on so many “best” lists for this year. I was not impressed. In terms of “end of the world” books, this was neither very frightening nor interesting. I would hate for this sort of thing to happen, of course, but I really didn't connect with anyone in the story and thus did not care about what happened to them.

Zero research done!

This reads like a lazy YA novel. Characterization is almost non-existent, and there is very little by way of plot. It has a very annoying tactic of foreshadowing events that don't seem to be significant.

I almost gave up on this book multiple times. I wish I had. What kept me going was a hope of some scientific exploration of the phenomena described in the novel. Spoiler alert: there is none. There is almost no scientific thought present in this novel.

The novel ends when it feels like the author has gotten sick of writing it, and she comes out with the explanation that the characters never found out why the precipitating event of the novel happened. It's been a long time since a book made me angry – this one did. Don't waste your time on it.

3.5 stars. Compelling story and premise. Only the main character was a full character.

The Age of Miracles is definitely much different than anything I've gotten my hands on lately. Beautiful, eerie, and prosaic, this book walks the line between being a coming of age story and a dystopian one. Julia's family is caught in a world that is slowly deteriorating. The Earth is slowing its rotation, days and nights are getting longer, humanity as we know it is in survival mode. Caught up in all this is Julia herself, a young adolescent who is just trying to navigate her own life. Imagine having all the problems you do now, but with the addition of worrying about whether tomorrow will bring famine, huge earthquakes, or worse. That's Julia's reality.

Julia is a bit of an outsider. She observes everything, and reports back to the reader what is happening around her. Her life is spent between dealing with everyday issues, like being the only girl at school who doesn't yet wear a bra, and the issues that come with her new world, like wondering if tomorrow there will be food to eat. What I completely loved about this book though is that it really isn't dreary. Julia's story does have a fair share of hardship and woe. However what she chooses to focus on most times are the good parts. Her boy. A sunny day. The feeling of belonging. It is a wonderful testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

I'm not going to deny that Mrs. Walker's story definitely rattled me. The catastrophe that occurs in Julia's world is one that could honestly take place. The attention to detail is wonderful, and the dystopian world that is built is entirely believable. Every problem that occurs is explained with a mixture of facts and sweeping prose. In fact, the writing is so beautiful that I was lost in it more than once. This is a story that you will definitely read from cover to cover. Don't expect to put it down. Once you fall in love with Julia and her story, you'll want to see it through to the end.

The Age of Miracles is a story of survival. It's a story of adaptation. Above all else, it's a story of a young girl who is just trying to find herself in an ever-changing world. This is a gorgeously written book, and one that is well worth your time. If you are looking for something that will have you thinking long after you've put it down, this is one to add to your reading list. Thank you to Karen Thompson Walker for showing us the strength of the human spirit through the eyes of one young girl.

Quietly horrifying and extremely effective. By showing the post-apocalyptic world through a 12 year old girl's eyes, we see how ordinary people try to continue to live their lives and avoid total chaos. In Julia's experience, the fact that the sun doesn't rise for more than 24 hours is on the same level of disaster as buying a first bra that doesn't fit. Although a feeling of dreads hovers over the novel, there is also hope that no matter what happens, human beings will endure. Reminded me of a chilling Twilight Zone episode.

Am I just getting old, or does it seem like literature these days is being written for a younger audience? Like half the new books being published for the “literary crowd” could easily be grouped into the YA section? From a marketing perspective it makes sense; titles with the most phenomenal sales in recent years have targeted younger audiences. That's where the money is. So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised after hearing that Walker received a million dollar advance for The Age of Miracles that it read like a YA novel.

Let's stop for a moment here and talk about this million dollar advance. A million is 1 followed by six zeros. It looks like this: 1,000,000. With a dollar sign in front of it it looks larger. $1,000,000. See. Now in the world of books there are several million dollar authors. You may have heard of some of them. Stephen King. J.K. Rowling. James Patterson. Danielle Steel. Then there's Karen Thompson Walker. Now it's only an advance, and compared to what Patterson or King make one mil is a small amount. But we're talking about a debut novel here. I've talked with some fairly well established authors whom I thought had a good book deal. What do they make? About $120-150,000. Of course the agent gets a large chunk of that and that's for a book that took three years to write, so in the end they're making $30,000 a year. But hey, we're not writers for money.

(A million dollars for a debut novel. Expect much. Expect little. But for that much money, you should expect something.)

Because of these seven figures I was curious, but I shouldn't have been surprised by what I found. Like I stated previously The Age of Miracles could be a YA novel. I'm not sure why it's not. It is better written than your average YA, with some expertly crafted scenes and sentences, but its still just a really good YA novel. As we're all learning, however, there are fine lines between all the genres and subdivisions we've assigned to art. So what if it's YA? I would've gone into it with a slightly different point-of-view, but in the end it didn't change much.

Another line Age of Miracles crosses is into the sci-fi genre. This book is a little sci-fi. The earth's rotation is slowing down. I'm not sure I buy the science of such a sudden slowing—wouldn't such a change be a little more catastrophic?—or the logic shown by earth's inhabitants of the novel—really, would we make such a big deal about people living “off the clock”? Then again, perhaps we would. Regardless it works, especially for a “YA novel.”

Despite its ominous message The Age of Miracles is a fun read. Julia is a fabulous young protagonist with a coming-of-age story that is believable and resonates easily. The “what-ifs” come out in this book and that alone may make this a big hit with book groups. Age of Miracles is one of the better books I've read this year, but it was nothing phenomenal. It has potential to show up on several “best of” lists at year's end, but my vote would go to other novels that really gave a literary punch. Now, Best YA Novel of 2012? That one is a strong maybe.

I found myself quickly wrapped up in this book, but boy, it's depressing! Still, the characters were interesting and the philosophy almost too frighteningly real.

So, so, so incredibly sad.

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