Migrations

I don't usually read books associated with climate change because I am already so anxious about it. But, this one hooked me with the birds and the sailing. I did like the ending because it seemed realistic to me. I wish I had understood the reasons for some of her behavior - the choking, etc. I don't buy that it's some inherited quality. And I also thought that it was longer than it needed to be.. A better editor might have solved that problem.

Really liked this odd book. Deep, challenging to understand at times, mysterious in a curious way. Loved the writing. Futuristic yet set in tangible reality and difficult life emotions we all face at times.

Beautifully written, well-researched, uncomfortably foreshadowing in its predictions of the environmental havoc humans have and will wreak on the world, birds in particular. The story is told through the first-person perspective of the narrator, Franny, who finds her way aboard a fishing vessel to follow a small flock of terns on possibly their final migration to the Antarctic. I love a good sea story, and this book certainly is that, and much more.

I am sitting here stunned (and with my nose still running and my cheeks tight with dried tears).

I am not going to be able to do justice to this book or to my thoughts about it.

When I started reading, I was delighted that much of it was taking place on a boat with a crew. As a young girl, one of my favorite books was [b:The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle|310146|The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle|Avi|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348243806l/310146._SY75_.jpg|997358], and I read it over and over, swallowing up every detail about life at sea. This gave me very distant vibes of that experience, and I expected to stay in that space.

This book, however, morphs into something...else. This is layers and layers and layers of discovery about Franny. Everything about it is almost dreamlike. I was wrapped up in the gorgeous writing and a tale of the heartbreaking turn of the world (almost all the animals are gone due to the misuse of our planet and resources and creatures) and the heartbreaking grief and loneliness of wandering souls.

This book truly broke my heart in almost every way possible. I was blindsided by it.

I recognize that not everyone will love this one. It may seem a bit slow. It may seem like not enough is happening. It may feel like it's not realistic (again, it felt more dreamlike to me in its execution, which was part of its charm for me). But for me, this book felt almost personal in a way I cannot pinpoint.

So incredibly lovely and beautiful.

I can't move to pull on my clothes except that somehow I do, and I can't stand on two feet except that somehow I do, and I can't walk, there's no way I can walk, except I do. I take step after step after step after step.

5 Stars

Lovely book. So well written and thought provoking