The scene is set in a Californian community on a sunny Saturday, everybody going about their business until the news breaks. It follows eleven-year-old Julia's story and the effect that the 'slowing', as it is called, has on her friends and family.
It reminds me of words from The Second Coming by WB Yeats:
'Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,'Time as we know it no longer has any meaning; students are told to ignore the bells that sound at the end of a lesson. The day is already over twenty-five hours long, and this is just the beginning.
Some families flee inland to be with their loved ones, leaving amongst others, Julia's family and Seth, a boy she's always had her eye on, to face their strange fate.
Julia always talks about things like 'later we realized', so you know she survived, but to what cost?
She is an increasingly isolated young girl trying to make sense of an increasingly complex world where literally night is day and day is night.
I thought it was a very interesting read, aimed at anyone from young adults to adults who are curious about an alternative future.
What do you think would happen if the world slowed down on its axis?
