The Age Of Miracles
by Karen Thompson Walker
- Percentage of approved critics who have given this book a positive review.
Critic Rating
62%
Critic Reviews: 40
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- User rating from iDreamBooks & iTunes
Reader Rating
78%
Reader Ratings: 1000
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Synopsis
With a voice as distinctive and original as that of The Lovely Bones, and for the fans of the speculative fiction of Margaret Atwood, Karen Thompson Walker's The Age of Miracles is a luminous, haunting, and unforgettable debut novel about coming of age set against the backdrop of an utterly altered world."It still amazes me how little we really knew.... Maybe everything that happened to me and my family had nothing at all to do with the slowing. It's... more
About Karen Thompson Walker
- All Critics: 40
- Positive: 27
- Negative: 13
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The Guardian | 13 Jul 2012
It will mostly be sold at substantial discounts in supermarkets and online. It will find a kind of success, but in almost every other way it is a sorry and pallid failure.
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The New York Times | 18 Jun 2012
There are moments when the spell the author has so assiduously created wobbles, and moments when a made-for-Hollywood slickness seeps into the story.
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The Washington Post | 22 Jun 2012
Random House may somehow earn back its advance. Thousands of people are duped into reading perfectly ordinary books just to see what all the fuss is about.
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AV Club | 23 Jul 2012
The Age Of Miracles is beautifully written, conveying Julia’s personal struggles and her growing understanding of life as an adult via simple, precise prose in a formal structure.
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The Boston Globe | 15 Jul 2012
If these promising metaphysical reflections were allowed to proceed, Walker might have created something that could strike a chord beyond its novelty. Instead, she raises questions ...only to fall back on apocalyptic rubbernecking.
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The Book Smugglers | 4 Jul 2012
...it lacks emotional resonance and characters with heart. Thus, The Age of Miracles is a good novel, but not a particularly miraculous one.
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Newsday | 28 Jun 2012
"The Age of Miracles" isn't perfect -- it closes with some unnecessary flourishes and a longer peek into the future than feels necessary.
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Denver Post | 17 Jun 2012
Looked at as a social commentary, though, it is incoherent and half-hearted.
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National Post | 6 Jul 2012
The Age of Miracles is dazzling and powerful. It’s a fundamentally human, utterly realistic novel not of a disaster, but of lives lived in the face of disaster.
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Huffington Post | 2 Jul 2012
Next time, hopefully, she'll rein in the desire to spell out what should be implied and let the vivid voice of her characters ring out unmuffled.
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The Globe and Mail | 29 Jun 2012
Touching and harrowing, but above all magical, The Age of Miracles is an impressive debut.
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Time Out Chicago | 2 Aug 2012
...life prevails, and the stunning Miracles subtly conveys that adapting, extending kindnesses and enduring rites of passage together will always be the things that matter most.
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Art Animal | 16 Aug 2012
...Walker is trying to show us that we derive meaning in our lives in different ways... Unfortunately, because of its lack of emotional resonance with the characters, The Age of Miracles fell short in showing this meaning.
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Independent.ie | 5 Aug 2012
...aside from being a great storyteller Thompson Walker is a genius at crafting words into beautiful sentences.
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Full Stop | 30 Jul 2012
Written as a flashback, The Age of Miracles loses some of the exhilaration that comes from never knowing when the end might arrive...
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The Washington Times | 27 Jul 2012
...really shines as the coming-of-age tale of Julia, an awkward child enduring her middle school years and her slowly deteriorating home life.
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The Guardian | 8 Jun 2012
...is a delicate and emotionally sophisticated coming-of-age tale – shame about the clunky sci-fi contrivances
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Entertainment Weekly | 3 Jul 2012
...one that's lovely because of its simple writing and quiet moments. You might not love it immediately. But it will grow on you.
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The Telegraph | 21 Jun 2012
The Age of Miracles is a gentle reminder of what adolescents learn and adults try to forget – that the world is alarmingly mysterious...
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Willamette Week | 18 Jul 2012
...The Age of Miracles manages to weave an endearing story about both the value and irrelevance of time.
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Isabel Costello | 21 Jun 2012
It has a highly original hook and an extremely powerful opening that grabbed me instantly.
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The Star | 7 Jul 2012
Elegant, elegiac and powerfully resistant to the gravity of being put down, The Age of Miracles is one of the year’s strongest debuts.
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Sans Serif | 28 Jul 2012
The Age of Miracles is a very sweet, engaging story, one which stayed on my mind as I went about my day.
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San Francisco Chronicle | 2 Jul 2012
The Age of Miracles reminds us that we never know when everything will change, when a single event will split our understanding of personal history and all history into a Before and an After.
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Express | 24 Jun 2012
Walker melds a disorientating take on global catastrophe with the story of a lonely young girl watching her life spiral out of control...
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Tulsa World | 12 Aug 2012
...is a poignant hybrid, a sci-fi/coming-of-age novel that celebrates human resilience even as it breaks your heart.
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Huntington News | 25 Jun 2012
I loved this book from the first page. Walker perfectly captures the feelings of her young protagonist and her friends and, with the experience that comes with being an adult...
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Austin Chronicle | 15 Jun 2012
But make no mistake: This book cuts bone-deep with a creeping kind of terror. There are horrors here common to end-times fiction...
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Novelicious | 17 May 2012
...a book that is hauntingly realistic in its catastrophe because it happens so gradually.
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Literary Treats | 1 Aug 2012
...takes a terrifying science fiction idea and turns it into a touching coming of age story.
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Tottenville Review | 25 Oct 2012
The Age of Miracles gives us a smart, lonely girl narrator, an outsider, who somehow, amid the horror of it all, manages not only to survive, but to thrive.
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Bookosaur | 26 Jun 2012
...I was fascinated by the idea that in this world, it’s next to impossible to predict the fall-out of The Slowing.
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Poetry to Prose | 26 Jun 2012
...but Julia’s uncertainty as she grows up is universal and it’s what truly makes The Age of Miracles a haunting and gripping novel.
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Dallas News | 6 Jul 2012
There are no thrills and chills in this novel. Once I got beyond the halfway point, and Julia was debating whether to quit the soccer team — “I’d lost interest in the sport.
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Reeder Reads | 25 Jun 2012
...you’re going to want to read this book, because it’s unlike anything you’ve read before.
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Chamber Four | 16 Jul 2012
But for all The Age of Miracles brings in terms of originality, style, and even a little bit of heart, it fails to find congruity between its various parts, and ultimately it’s fairly boring.
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Murphreesboro Pulse | 3 Oct 2012
After putting this book down, the light of day and the dark of night never quite look the same.
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NPR | 2 Jul 2012
The Age of Miracles is a pensive page-turner that meditates on loss and the fragility of both our planetary and personal ecosystems.
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The New York Times | 18 Jun 2012
“The Age of Miracles” is not without its flaws. There are moments when the spell the author has so assiduously created wobbles, and moments when a made-for-Hollywood slickness seeps into the story.
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The Star | 7 Jul 2012
Elegant, elegiac and powerfully resistant to the gravity of being put down, The Age of Miracles is one of the year’s strongest debuts. Enjoy it, but unless you’re the type to bring Jaws to the beach, don’t read it during a heat wave.
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