The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker : a mini-review

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The Age of Miracles is another book that was subject to a lot of hype around its publication. From the description, it does indeed look promising; the story is told from the protagonist Julia's point of view, who is eleven years old when the Earth's rotation starts to slow, days and nights lose their meaning as each rotation slows to seventy plus hours. It is indeed a terrifying concept and one that could be real. Humans are discovering and learning as much about the planet and space but we rely so heavily on the concept of our 24 hour day and night. Initially, it seems that Thompson Walker has delved into a fascinating and scary prospect.

However promising this book seemed, it disappointed me overall. It could have been so much more,  Thompson Walker raised some interesting points about how society would react under these circumstances but then quickly brushed over them and we, the reader, just have to learn to accept them. It would have been so interesting to go into further detail about how the human race copes with an uncontrollable change. Unlike dystopian novels that are set in the future, this novel had the opportunity to dissect what happened during that change, and in The Age of Miracles, it just wasn't made the most of and felt like a lot of missed opportunities. 

Another issue that I have with this book is the voice of Julia. At times, there are wonderfully descriptive and well written prose that capture the mood and thoughts of our protagonist. However, at other points, I felt like Julia's voice was too young for the readers. Things were simplified and condescended the reader. This is a young adult book and I'm pretty sure I don't qualify as a 'young' adult anymore but readers do not need to be treated like small children. Maybe Thompson Walker wanted her protagonists voice to feel like the 11 year old's she was describing, but for me, language from the young adult genre do not have to be overtly simple.

Finally, the science. This novel is, of course, fiction and I am not a scientist nor do I particularly understand physics but there seemed to be gaping holes in the physics of the story. Please, feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but it doesn't seem logical that the slowly of the Earth's rotation would affect gravity. At the end of the book, there is a throwaway comment about centrifugal force which makes a little more sense (to me) but there seems to have been no research about the science. It's not a sci fi story, it's a coming of age tale, but it needs to be logical. The readers are not stupid. So many times I found myself wanting to google the different sciency aspects because it made so little sense to me. 

Overall, I was disappointed by this book. It felt anti climatic and at times, the story dragged along with flimsy, whimsical subplots. It's a shame because it could have been so good, the idea of the Earth slowing and the effect that could have leaves you with so many what ifs and pondering thoughts that could have been addressed. It's a catastrophe that would affect everyone, and Thompson Walker missed out on a great opportunity and a fascinating idea.