Thursday, June 6, 2019

Review of THE SUNLIGHT PILGRIMS by Jenni Fagan.

The Sunlight Pilgrims
by Jenni Fagan
Hardcover, 310 pages
Published July 19th, 2016 by Hogarth

It's November of 2020, and the world is freezing over. Each day colder than the last. There's snow in Israel, the Thames is overflowing, and an iceberg separated from the Fjords in Norway is expected to drift just off the coast of Scotland. As ice water melts into the Atlantic, frenzied London residents evacuate by the thousands for warmer temperatures down south. But not Dylan. Grieving and ready to build life anew, he heads north to bury his mother's and grandmother's ashes on the Scottish islands where they once lived. 

Hundreds of miles away, twelve-year-old Estella and her survivalist mother, Constance, scrape by in the snowy, mountainous Highlands, preparing for a record-breaking winter. Living out of a caravan, they spend their days digging through landfills, searching for anything with restorative and trading value. When Dylan arrives in their caravan park in the middle of the night, life changes course for Estella and Constance. Though the weather worsens, his presence brings a new light to daily life, and when the ultimate disaster finally strikes, they'll all be ready.

AMAZON / B&N / BAM!

For some reason, I thought this book would be more apocalyptic than it was. It turned out to just be really cold, nothing more. The storyline is nothing spectacular and at times I felt like throwing in the towel when it came to finishing the book. So, why didn't I? Fagan’s ability to describe every small detail was a delight to my imagination. Especially, when it involved the snowy and icy conditions.

The setting is a small caravan park on an island in Scottland. It is told from the viewpoint of 12-year-old Stella along with an older man named Dylan. Dylan was displaced from the only home he has known in London. For reasons that will not be mentioned Dylan ends up living in this remote caravan park in Clachan Fells. Through his eyes, the reader is transported and experiences what it is like to live there, which is quite mundane. Stella’s personal story is thought-provoking and just from this reader's point of view thought the author could have focused more on this controversial topic, giving the reader something deeper to sink their teeth into.

To sum up the review, I found this to be your basic fictional story, telling about the lives of others. It will not make the hair on the back of your neck stand-up like in a thriller or trying to guess who killed the mailman in a mystery. Instead, you get a peek into the lives of ordinary people just trying to survive in this cruel world. I am right down the middle with this story. I liked 50% of the book the other 50% is just meh.       







Jenni Fagan was born in Livingston, Scotland, and lives in London. She graduated from Greenwich University with the highest possible mark for a student of Creative Writing and won a scholarship to the Royal Holloway MFA. A published poet, she has won awards from Arts Council England, Dewar Arts, and Scottish Screen among others. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize twice and shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize. Jenni works as a writer in residence in hospitals and prisons.

No comments:

Post a Comment