Play Book Tag discussion

Inexplicably one day the Earth begins to slow to the point where eventually as single day is equivalent to 72 hours. Eleven year old, Julia, forced to deal with not only the universal issues of a pre-teen girl in southern California like coming to terms with body image, beginning to notice boys, and a strained marriage between her parents, but the physical and psychological effects of the Earth's deceleration spin.

I rounded up my stars from a 3.5 star. This is a debut novel so I'm hoping some of the issues I had with the book will resolve with future work because I did find the book promising.

The thing I enjoyed most was contemplating all of the impacts of such an event occurring. It reminded me of Room where the reader explores all the ways living in a confined space impacts visual perception. Of course, this event has farther reaching consequences. It was interesting to ponder the obvious like physics, gravitational pull, food supply, health etc. But, there are some not so obvious ones as well. Are there impacts on brain chemistry? And, if so, how does that influence decisions? I also really like Julia. I found her voice authentic, reactions believable, and there was a real sweetness to her first budding relationship.

There are two areas of critique for me. While the writing is solid and the story unfolds at a very nice pace, this book felt like a YA book to me. There's nothing wrong with YA but I went into this thinking the characters would be complex and the dynamics a bit deeper. But, more importantly for me anyway, was I didn't by that civilization would be this subdued under these circumstances. You can just look around at how panic sets into communities or societies when a hurricane is approaching. If there's an announcement that the Earth is inexplicably slowing? Or when whole species or foods become instinct?

It was an enjoyable read.

I read this a while ago, and also liked contemplating the events. It seemed a novel way to present the" end of the world."

I read it a few years ago and remember feeling as though the premise was good but that the execution was a bit off. I gave it three but didn't write anything so I can't remember why!

It was a 4 star book for me. I also read it several years ago but remember liking the narrator and finding her coming-of-age experience under the unique circumstance intriguing. It raised some good questions about humanity.