Migrations

by Charlotte McConaghy

Good Reads Description:

Franny Stone has always been a wanderer. By following the ocean’s tides and the birds that soar above, she can forget the losses that have haunted her life. But when the wild she so loves begins to disappear, Franny can no longer wander without a destination. She arrives in remote Greenland with one purpose: to find the world’s last flock of Arctic terns and follow them on their final migration. She convinces Ennis Malone, captain of the Saghani, to take her onboard, winning over his salty, eccentric crew with promises that the birds she is tracking will lead them to fish.

As the Saghani fights its way south, Franny’s new shipmates begin to realize that the beguiling scientist in their midst is not who she seems. Battered by night terrors, accumulating a pile of letters to her husband, and dead set on following the terns at any cost, Franny is full of dark secrets. When the story of her past begins to unspool, Ennis and his crew must ask themselves what Franny is really running toward—and running from.

Helen says: 🤓🤓🤓 1/2

I listened to this book on a recent road trip. The setting takes place in the not so distant future. Animals are dying off due to global warming. A friend described this book as sad, but I didn’t really feel sad while reading this book (maybe that was my anti-depressant working 😉). Weird would be the word I would use to describe everything about this novel. The characters were strange and hard to relate to and the premise was just totally odd (Why write an entire novel about tracking arctic terns?). I enjoyed Migrations though! It had a slow start, but really sped up and got good. I don’t feel like I am selling this one that well, but give it a try. Know that you won’t be immediately hooked. You have to invest in this book to get to the “meat” of the story, but it becomes a page turner midway through.

Holly says: 🤓🤓🤓3/4

I would call this a very interesting read – original for sure, and quite different from anything else that I have read. Set sometime in the future, animals are almost extinct, and an evolved group of people remain. By “evolved”, I mean tough physically and emotionally, and the heroine, Franny Stone, seems to have some superpowers when it comes to surviving the cold, swimming distances, and well, life in general. The characters are not very relatable to this southern girl, but they do remind me of people who have been raised in large open areas with tough terrain and frigid climates – like Alaska or northeastern Canada. The story follows the crew of the Saghani as they track the migrations of the last arctic terns – the crew in search of fish and Franny for other reasons. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. The first half of the book is a little slow, but the second half is wonderful reading. I do wish the book would have ended before the final, somewhat gratuitous, chapter, but others may not agree. McConaghy’s writing is beautiful, and I look forward to her second novel!

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