littoral's reviews
508 reviews

I had been looking forward to Charlotte McConaghy’s Migrations for a long time because of the universal praise and raves I had seen for it and her next book, Once There Were Wolves (to be reviewed tomorrow). Migrations could be said to fall into the category of “climate fiction”, in that it presents a future in which Earth is undergoing mass extinctions. Migrations begins with the narrator Franny on a mission to follow the last Arctic terns in the world on what may be their final migration to Antarctica. Along the way, we see the tension between freedom and captivity, survival and extinguishment in the birds echoed in Franny’s own journey.

I have to say - this mini-review is a difficult one to write, since the overwhelming feeling I had while reading it was: am I reading the same book as everyone else? In terms of character development, Franny’s defining key characteristics of changeability and flightiness and how these are tied to her past and recent traumas are revealed by the author without significant development in the actual narrative of the book. This is a character to whom things happen; to whom people are incomprehensibly drawn and captivated without explanation. The actions she takes and spurs others to take feel unearned, and it was difficult to be invested in her journey. In terms of themes and setting, the author does little to make this world on the brink come alive, this world where the forests are dying and birdsong is about to be lost to time - aside from news headlines about extinctions that are mentioned in passing. The writing, which has such an opportunity to blossom with the premise, is too self-absorbed in Franny’s thoughts to truly engage with the beauty of this dying world.

All in all, I appreciate what this book is trying to do by linking themes of personal trauma and belonging to the natural world. But the execution is shallow and emotionally manipulative, and I can’t find myself recommending Migrations as the vehicle to explore these themes.

NORMAL RULES DON'T APPLY is a delightfully strange collection of short stories taking place in an a parallel world where, as the title suggests, normal rules don't apply - the world is swept by mysterious culls, animals talk, and all other manner of strange things are underfoot. The stories are loosely connected by characters of the same name (who may or may not be the same characters).

I think the best way to read this collection is by embracing the surrealism and absurdity and going where the author takes you - the patterns of the world(s) are only gradually revealed through the stories, and efforts to impose a structure on the world are often thwarted. Favorites in this collection included VOID, an introduction to a new series of apocalyptic events that sweep the world, and SPELLBOUND, a fairy tale in a parallel universe that leads to a strange conclusion.

Thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.