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The Age of Miracles
The Age of Miracles
Author: Karen Thompson Walker
Maybe everything that happened to me and to 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.” — Spellbinding, haunting, The Age of Miracles is a beautiful novel of catastrophe and survival, growth and change, the story of Julia and her family as t...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9780812982947
ISBN-10: 0812982940
Publication Date: 1/15/2013
Pages: 304
Rating:
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
 50

3.7 stars, based on 50 ratings
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

23dollars avatar reviewed The Age of Miracles on + 432 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
THE AGE OF MIRACLES just wasn't for me. The premise of the earth slowing its rotation for no reason scientists can tell was very interesting, but the execution was not.

The adult narrator takes you back to when "the slowing" first began, when she was 11, and I found the narrative very flat and disengaging, it didn't hold my interest at all.

The pace was very slow with a lot of little day-to-day details and descriptions bogging down the pace of the plot. And when something interesting did happen, you were half asleep and too uninterested to notice. I read the first 50 pages, then skimmed to see how it ended.

The writing style wasn't my cup of book, but this may be a great read for teenagers.
reviewed The Age of Miracles on + 116 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
This is a coming of age story authentically narrated by Julia, a middle school student living with her parents in California. The usual adolescent angst is there: first love, shifting friendship, first bra. The unusual part is that the story is set against the uncertainty of a world that is literally slowing down. There's more promise than greatness in the novel, but still a worthwhile read.
reviewed The Age of Miracles on + 134 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
This book frustrated me by having such an interesting premise and failing to follow through in execution. The pace of the story, mirroring the length of days, was at times painfully slow and the plot never seemed to go anywhere. The writing style and idea were unique enough that I would try another book by the author in the future, but this one just didn't do it for me.
couchsloth avatar reviewed The Age of Miracles on
Helpful Score: 4
I am thoroughly disappointed with this book. It's from the perspective of a tweenager in middle school during the end of the world. It sounds like a good idea- a coming of age story around an international crisis- but its execution is majorly flawed. The main character speaks in unintended prose and every paragraph ends with an overdramatic and unnecessary overgeneralization about life. For example: "My mother waited in car at the curb until the bus arrived, convinced that danger, like potatoes, breeds in the dark." Potatoes. What. And another melodramatic observation: "Grown under similar conditions, we had become very different, two specimens of girlhood, now diverging." At the end of every paragraph you will find the 12 year old philosopher making another angsty claim about nothing at all. The book is supposed to be creepy, but I found myself laughing at the botched construction of the sentences. "And how miraculous it would soon seem that I was once a happier girl, less lonely and less shy. But I guess every bygone era takes on a shade of myth. With a little persuasion, any familiar thing can turn abnormal in the mind." There's too much foreshadowing, too. 99% of the sentences are either philosophical musings provoked by nothing or foreshadowing for events that either don't happen or are too small to require foreshadowing. The only reason I made it through the book was the hope that it would get better, which it didn't. By the time I was halfway through, I figured that I might as well finish it seeing as how I had come so far. Nothing happens in the book. I wanted to give a fair warning to anyone considering reading this book. Don't.
ReadswhenIcan avatar reviewed The Age of Miracles on + 66 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
This was a very interesting book, to say the least. It starts off right away, no holds bar and gets right down to it....the earth's rotation is slowing down. Birds start dying, then plants, animals, etc.

This story is told out the eyes of a girl named Julia, who is looking back on the beginning of the slowing and how her life has to change and evolve over the course of about a year or so. We see how she and her friends and parents deal with the slowing and her relationship with a boy named Seth. Julia and Seth share a sweet little romance, but in the end, parishes, unfortunately.

Julia mainly focuses on how the slowing effects her life and the people around her, not so much the world as a whole, which I get. She's a teenager and teenagers are typically self-centered and don't focus on much of anything other than their own lives. But, I was left wanting to know more of what happened to other parts of the world due to the slowing and was left wondering what would I do if this actually happened. I even wanted to know more about Circadia and how these "Real Timers" coped with the slowing. I had a lot of questions, and they never seemed to be answered.

I thought the ending was a really lame. We jump from Julia being young tweenager, 11-12 years old, to all of a sudden she's 23. Whaaaatttt???? There is just way too much time in between there that is left unsaid and then the story is done. Just done... Like that......Left hanging there. I read the last chapter and looked around dumbfounded. What the heck!?! Not good, in my opinion.

The rest of the book was great, but the ending was horrid. So disappointing. I feel this story had so much potential to be a fantastic story, but I was just left feeling flat. 3.5 out of 5 stars for me because of the poor ending. I am glad I read it though.
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reviewed The Age of Miracles on + 46 more book reviews
Why was this book heavily recommended to me? I liked the intriguing premise, but oh my goodness, it doesn't go anywhere! F for conclusion! I thought the very title hinted at a happy ending, a miracle, but no.....
reviewed The Age of Miracles on + 37 more book reviews
I was putting off reading this book after I read the reviews on here but I'm SOOOO glad I read it. It was a short easy read, about a day and a half. It made me think a lot about the unprecedented situation we're in now with Covid 19. I though the story was very well told and thought out. I loved Julia, the main character and how she was so true to herself. It definitely pulled at my heart strings. I thought it was phenomenal, especially since it was Walkers first book.
c-squared avatar reviewed The Age of Miracles on + 181 more book reviews
This is science fiction lite, which is completely fine with me. Although the story is obviously shaped by the fact that the earth's rotation is slowing for unknown reasons, and all the many repercussions of that change, underneath it all, this is a coming-of-age story.

The story begins when Julia is eleven, on the day people realize the earth's rotation is slowing, that a full day is now closer to 25 hours. The main action takes place within that first year as the days continue to lengthen, but with heavy, heavy foreshadowing: everything from how long it would be until she saw her friend again to the last time she ate pineapple or grapes. To be honest, it got on my nerves. But that was the main detraction from the novel, so I can't complain too much.

Overall, it was a sweet, sad story about growing up and finding your place in the world. I like Julia -- her awkwardness, her inability to fake it just to fit in. Apparently, this isn't intended for younger readers (I found it shelved in new adult fiction at the library), but I think a lot of middle schoolers could really relate to Julia. (There's one f-bomb that I remember -- said by another 11-year-old and seriously deserved in my opinion -- but otherwise the language and content is very tame.)
smith-jones avatar reviewed The Age of Miracles on + 47 more book reviews
What a depressing read, I wanted so badly to like it but the story didn't develop well. I waited and waited for something else to happen after all Earth is dying. I am left depressed and looking for a better way to end the book. The elements were there, good Sci Fi, very likeable characters so I don't know why it disappointed me so badly. I removed it from my wish list.


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