With such a title, one would think that this is a very uplifting book that shows us the true meaning of friendship and joy right? The Age of Miracles got some pretty decent recognition and even became a required reading at one point. After reading the book, I can safely say I do not enjoy it. If you want to read a very depressing book where nothing goes the way that the main character wants it to, then enjoy! Be warned that there may be some spoilers in this review, but I’ll try to keep the review vague.

Julia is the main character in the novel. She lives on the Planet Earth and leads a normal life. Everything is going well, but then things start to deteriorate. The days start to grow longer and there doesn’t seem to be anything that the Government can do to stop it. Eventually, the days grow to be longer than 48 hours. One could go to sleep and wake up to find that the Moon still hasn’t come up. The citizens separate themselves into two groups. One group decides to follow “Clock Time” and continue to live by 24 hour days, ignoring the Sun and Moon. The other group decides to adjust and just stay up for however long the Sun rises and then go to sleep for however long the Moon stays up.

Professionals call this the “Slowing” and claim that we will eventually be destroyed. Humans won’t be able to live in this new environment, since crops can’t grow anymore. Not to mention that we’ve already witnessed this event happen to Mars in the past. Julia isn’t really affected at first, but The Slowing also affects a person’s mind. Julia is no exception and everyone makes some pretty iffy decisions.

Julia’s best friend decides to stop being her friend. If this isn’t the worst thing that could happen to her, Julia gets picked on at school. Did I mention that her next door neighbor’s house keeps getting vandalized? Also, Julia’s Father has started to lie and go somewhere else instead of work….Julia’s Mother runs over someone with a car and gets the “Slowing” disease. Julia decides to get a boyfriend, but is this kid all right, or has the Slowing started to affect him? Julia also had a nice grandfather who was nice to her…..so you don’t think that he’ll live through the whole book right? That would be far too happy for Julia!

Those are just some of the things that happen to the main character. Seriously, nothing ever goes right for her. She definitely didn’t have a very enjoyable time throughout the book. The Slowing continues to grow worse and worse as the book goes on and we realize that it is only a matter of time until the extinction of the humans is complete. Knowing this, the characters decide to move on with their lives and enjoy what’s left of their lives.

By the end of the book, the body count is pretty high, but you never end up liking any of the characters. One thing that helped to make this book even worse was the high body count of animals. Many of them die throughout the book and they’re pretty tragic. I had to put down the novel for a few days after the “Thrown in the Mountain” scene. I only finished the novel because I needed to do so, plus now I can fully give it a negative review without saying that I only read most of the book.

This novel also features a lot of excessive language and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for kids….actually, I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone. If you have time to read, then read just about anything else. I dare say that even Twilight could be a more fulfilling read. At least you get fights in that series, but for the record, I haven’t read that series. (And don’t plan too) The novel crams in some last second romance during the final part of the novel, but it falls flat (Like always) and just brings your hopes for a happy ending up, just to smash them down again.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Julia is only 11 in the book. (Until near the end and the big time skip) These kids do not act like 11 year olds At All. I forgot that they were so young for most of the book. It makes you wince when they’re all drinking beer and even the main character relents. Peer Pressure completely overwhelms her for the entire book and she never defends herself. At least she didn’t go completely insane, but she came very close to cracking by the end of the book. Running into a field of radiation is definitely not recommended, but her friend thought it was a good idea. Naturally she went with it, but later blamed that on the “Slowing”. I never bought that, but I guess it’s up to interpretation.

I could go on and on and on. This book was definitely a chore to read and it wasn’t enjoyable in the slightest. I would never recommend this book and I highly recommend avoiding this book. It’s not for the faint of heart or for the people who want a nice adventure. This is only a good book if you want to read something pretty awful. (No offense to those who like the book…which there are a lot of you) The worst part is that the book had potential. The idea of the “Slowing” is a good one and should have been explored more. Had we seen things from the scientists point of view, then this would have been epic. A nice Apocalyptic, Horror/Thriller book! Ah well, that’s one big opportunity that was missed. On the bright side, I doubt any book that I read in the future will be nearly as bad!

Overall 1/10