“'It is never what you worry over that comes to pass in the end. The real catastrophes are always different - unimagined, unprepared for, unknown…' One morning, Julia and her parents wake up in their suburban home in California to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth is noticeably slowing. The enormity of this is almost beyond comprehension. And yet, even if the world is, in fact, coming to an end, as some assert, day-to-day life must go on. Julia, facing the loneliness and despair of an awkward adolescence, witnesses the impact of this phenomenon on the world, on the community, on her family and on herself.”
I first heard of this book when the lovely Giovanna Fletcher (@mrsgifletcher) mentioned it – at least I think it was her who mentioned it. I honestly have no idea why it took me so long to get my grubby mitts on it but let me tell you, I’m glad I did and it was worth the wait.
The writing style draws you in instantly, to the point where I genuinely forgot I wasn’t living in the book world. It tells the story of Julia’s struggle to grow up and come of age in a world where nothing is certain anymore. Days start getting longer, first by minutes, then hours, then days. It sounds fun at first – more sun (for those who like sun), more of an excuse to go to bed later (for those like me who are tired but keep putting it off). It’s all fun until people start getting hurt and things start going terribly wrong.
As well as looking at how Julia deals with the massive worldly change occurring, it also looks at the development of her first relationship, I suppose, or definite crush at the least. Something that, as teens, we all go through so it’s easy to relate to her feelings and thoughts. The fact that it coincides with something we (I hope) will never go through is, perhaps, what draws you into the story.
The characters are great – from the annoying children at the bus stop to the adults, they’re all written in incredibly well. For me, the worst part of a book is if I feel that some of the characters are there simply as filler which, I’ll be honest, there was one or two in this book but the rest of them made up for that. I loved watching the children in the book develop into young adults, something that happened a little faster thank to the whole ‘days getting longer’ thing, sadly.
The way the characters interact with people, particularly Julia and Seth (if I remember correctly, sorry, I’m writing this without the book at hand and finished this a little while ago!), is great. Their initial awkwardness that turns into becoming inseparable is so true to life, at least for me, that it’s a joy to read – it’s always nice reading things you can relate to, right?
The storyline is easy to follow and the structure definitely helps with this. You’re not left wondering what’s happening and when, it was a joy to read and, like I say, definitely worth the wait. The ending leaves it open for a follow up but, at the same time, it rounds off the story quite nicely which is a great way for the book to end.
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