my god. the best case of an unreliable narrator ive ever read. an incredible journey about love, loss, and navigating life when you feel you dont belong. also trauma, lots of trauma. truly masterful storytelling

This beautiful and sad odyssey of one woman's journey as she follows the last migration of the Arctic Turns in a world facing the disastrous effects of climate change and greed is a must read. Franny is a bird lover but, birds are basically extinct due to global warming and the government's lack of concern with hunting and overfishing. She is on a mission to follow the last of the Arctic Terns, a bird that migrates from pole to pole. She joins a ragtag crew on their fishing boat with promises of a catch they have long searched for. As Franny and the crew journey with the birds, the reader journeys through Frannys childhood, her married life, and what led her to hop on a boat and follow the terns. This novel is a beautifully written picture of the risks of global warming framing one of the most gut wrenching side romances i've ever read. Franny is a complicated and fearless free spirit who works to fulfill her dreams at any cost. She's strong, determined, a tad delusional, and a fantastic character. Niall, her husband, is a dreamboat. No spoilers obviously, but that man is a catch and almost every time he spoke I was practically swooning! In addition, all of the side characters are amazingly complex as well! Even Nialls mom, who has like maybe two chapters? From Ennis, the gambling captain to Lèa the French engineer, the entire crew has a complicated backstory, development, and dialogue. Its amazing that this whole book is less than 300 pages. It packs a punch! I wish I could read this again for the first time. 

I found this compelling: I narrative sit in the near future, where many species have gone extinct, and the main character is trying to follow the migration of terns from Greenland to Antarctica. She makes her way onto a fishing ship filled with diverse and complicated characters, and many conflicts and wounds emerge.

Charlotte McConaghy, how your books BREAK me.

Review to come.

Total score: 5/5 stars

When I picked this up, I was excited to dig into it. Station Eleven is one of my favorite books, so seeing all of the comparisons being made between the two earned Migrations a spot on my reading list. By the end of the book, I was confused by the comparisons and the high ratings that this book is receiving.

Franny Lynch (née Stone) is about as unreliable as a narrator as they come and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Aside from being constantly reminded about how ~wild~ she is and how she must always be ~free~, I think her story was well done. My frustration was her trauma is never fully explored. We learn early on that she suffers from night terrors specifically surrounding choking and her sleepwalking is sometimes violent, yet we never really learn the answer as to why that is for sure.

The novel bounces back and forth in time, but I enjoyed this and thought it was well and clearly done. It helped to build up the suspense and answer some questions that are raised about Fanny in the beginning.

My main frustrations were with the issues surrounding the environment. Migrations, we find out in the first few pages, takes place in dystopian present or a not-so-distant future where 80% of animal life has gone extinct due to climate change and human activity. Forests are so endangered that there are years long waiting lists for people to visit them. All megafauna (elephants, rhinos, hippos, pandas, etc.) are extinct. There are no large predators left. All birds, aside from a few species of sea birds are gone. With ecosystems degraded so dramatically, you'd expect the world to be unrecognizable. Coastal cities wiped out. Large refugee populations. Food systems disrupted. Landscapes dramatically changed. Violent storms whipping up frequently, but unpredictably. Remaining animal populations moving in to fill voids (for example, insect populations are expected to skyrocket with climate change and most pest species would fair well, if not thrive).

But, in this novel, the world itself seems fairly unaffected. Coastal cities are still thriving. Village life continues as normal. Ireland is still a lush, green, livable, landscape. Seas are still easily navigable with regular currents and predictable storm patterns. All animal life is just...gone. It's weird. It was frustrating to read.

The book was also fairly disjointed in the writing style. It felt as if the author was still developing as the novel progressed. As a result, in my opinion, the last 10-15% of the novel was far superior than the first majority. I loved the ending. It actually upped my review slightly. I just wish we got more of a conclusion for the crew members.