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O Tempo Dos Milagres (2012)

by Karen Thompson Walker(Favorite Author)

3.64 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Civilização Editora

review 1: I always feel foolish when I begin a book that I know is going to be sad based on the synopsis and reviews, proves itself to be sad from the very first page and continues incessantly in that same vein throughout the book, yet I still hang on hoping for just a glimmer of redeeming happiness until the bitter end. That is what happened with this book. There was absolutely nothing that even hinted that this might be a tragic story with a miraculously happy ending. Yet I continued to hope. Probably the main reason I have generally avoided the whole "end of the word" genre in the past. This book was mercilessness in its doom and gloom. No matter how deeply you dug, there was no silver lining. However, that isn't to say it wasn't a well written book with an engaging young... more girl as the central character. The author did a great job of engaging the reader, keeping the interest level up with enough suggestions and hints, even if none of the hinted at or suggested positive events or actions ever happened. You knew none of them would come to fruition, but you had to hope.My original complaint with the character was that she seemed far too mature for her years. She was only 11 when catastrophe struck, but she reacted like a person 3 times her age would be expected to react. However, as I progressed through the book I realized how quickly an 11 year old would be forced to grow up in that situation, so the further I got into the story the more natural her maturity level seemed.I thought the author did a great job of presenting a plausible "end" to the world. Nothing that happened seemed totally unrealistic or didn't fit with the facts of the situation. The most disturbing concern I had with her scenario is none of the experts seemed to be able to explain what happened or why. You would like to think that in this age of science if a similar event occurred we might not be able to alter its course or stop it, but we could figure out what happened and why.The author also did a good job of bringing the catastrophic event and its consequences down to a personal level so the reader could relate. Discussions about shifts or tears in the magnetic field may not make a great deal of sense, but a simple statement like "That was the last grape I ever ate." made the crisis relatable.There is absolutely nothing uplifting about this story. But it is definitely worth reading. It makes you stop and think about the plausibility of such an event and how you would react in that situation.The narrator on the audiobook did a very good job.I highly recommend.
review 2: 3.75 stars. I hadn't heard anything about this book, but the audiobook was the right length to listen to on my trip home this weekend so I checked it out from the library. I'm glad I did. Emily Janice Card narrated it beautifully.This could have been a regular old coming-of-age story, and if that were the case, it might have been a little boring. But the whole concept of "the slowing" was brilliant, and I loved that Walker wrote it in a VERY near future. It almost made me feel as if the earth's rotation could slow tomorrow. It concept is what really kept me hooked - to watch the progression of Earth as things fell apart. I'll say this - I am NOT a science-brained person, so the proposed scenarios were easy for me to accept. If I were a fact-checking person, the soft nature of the science presented might have driven me crazy, but I'm not, so I just found the whole thing intriguing. I found myself thinking about it throughout the day - just visiting the "what-if's" in my head. The descriptions of the mundane in this book MIGHT have bothered me had I read the physical book, but in audio form they were sublime. There was NO struggle to visualize, to taste, to smell, to hear - Walker's words REALLY brilliantly succeeded in immersing the reader (or listener, in my case) in Julie's world. There were a few times I felt it could have been a bit better edited - where it felt like I'd already heard something explained or described, but this didn't happen too often. Knowing that our narrator is telling the story of her 6th grade year (which is in her past) left me hoping for a BIT more time spent in Julie's present, as opposed to just the final chapter. I would have loved even more details about how things ended up - we got some, but I wasn't QUITE satisfied. But then, that doesn't seem to be Walker's goal anyway. This is more of a snapshot of those pre-teen years, set in a world that's not very different from ours. More character/circumstance driven than driven by plot. And I feel like it was predominantly successful. less

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