The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Probably closer to a 3.5 overall, but since it gives me a warm comparison to Susan Beth Pfeiffer's Life As We Knew It, I'll offer extra points.
The premise is fairly simple - Earth's rotation is slowing, a little bit more each day, and no one knows why. The story primarily follows an eleven year old girl as she grows up in this new world that is weird and divided and unpredictable. Her family is falling apart, her neighborhood, and ever so slowly, her world.
The book feels really delicate, almost certainly by design. Its flaw is also its benefit in that the story has no real arc to speak of as much as a more simple narrative - similar to a Tom Perotta story in a sense. While the book is a quick, enjoyable read, you never really get immersed in it since it's more of a spectator narrative than an engrossing one. With that said, though, as you read this book in the darkness of night, you do end up stealing some glances out the window in fear that the sun might never come up again...
Worth a look if you're looking to dip your toe into the sci-fi waters but don't want to deal with the standard tropes. As a coming-of-age narrative, it's not bad but not essential either. A solid read in any regard.
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