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Beverly B
, May 14, 2013
(view all comments by Beverly B)
As Julia, the protagonist of The Age Of Miracles says, "Sometimes the saddest stories take the fewest words." The Age of Miracles is a short, but unforgettable, novel that has a dystopian inciting event and conflict, but few dystopian elements. It is mostly a coming of age memoir. A grown up protagonist, Julia, is remembering her sixth grade year - the year that everything changed. The planet's rotation inexplicably slowed down, and as the planet slowly unraveled, so did Julia's life. Author Karen Thompson Walker's writing is sparse, beautiful and compelling. "We didn’t notice right away. We couldn’t feel it. We did not sense at first the extra time, bulging from the smooth edge of each day like a tumor blooming beneath skin." The pace of the novel is appropriately slow. Depression sneaks up on the characters, and their despair grows gradually. In spite of everything that is happening, Julia just wants a normal life -friends, fun and family. All three are disappearing slowly just like the birds and plants.
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