Set in the not too distant future when climate change has wiped out most of the wildlife on earth. In Greenland, Franny Stone joined one of the last fishing boats in an attempt to follow the last Arctic terns on their migration to the Antarctic - a move that she promises will lead the boat to fish. It was hard to understand why she would do this, an action that could harm the migrating birds and deplete ocean wildlife even more. That was just one of the problems I had with this book. So much was omitted about what else was happening besides the empty oceans and sky.

Fragments of Franny’s troubled past are woven into the story along the way. At first I associated her dismal nomadic life with the terns’ migration, but eventually it began to appear more like McConaghy had two stories in mind and scrambled them together without much attention to continuity. I’ve heard so many good reports about this book and was surprised to find that it was not to my liking. The unexpected ending did not make up for a disappointing read. ( )

The novel had an interesting premise: A young woman must convince a sailing vessel to sail all the way south to Antartica, following the probable last migration of the Arctic Tern. The problem I had is that the protagonist was unlikeable, untrustworthy and never was up front with just about everyone in her life. The author unpacks little background secrets along the way and eventually at the end of the novel comes the shocking denouement. I wanted to see the end of the story simply to discover if their trip was successful. The author paints a grim picture of a future world being stripped of species one after another and this she did very well. ( )

It was... fine? The characters aren't super believable; I was often being told _why_ a character was doing something but it still didn't seem entirely consistent with they'd be introduced as. The plot moves by surprises; there's no sense of "of _course_ this is happening, this makes perfect sense for this character". Deals with a whole bunch of very heavy themes but feel like they're superficial in their treatment, e.g. prison, self-harm, sexual assault. I felt the same way about the theme of "we've treated the world terribly and everything is dying"; like I was being bashed over the head with it a bunch throughout the book but it wasn't really integrated into the plot. It felt like a weak premise.

The last work of fiction I read was [b:A Little Life|22822858|A Little Life|Hanya Yanagihara|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1446469353l/22822858._SY75_.jpg|42375710] which has similar levels of dark characters with dark pasts, but they're all extremely believable; you can see how the actions they're taking make perfect sense given all the other actions they've taken in the book? It was harder not rolling my eyes at a few moments of this book because it felt comparatively slapped together. I didn't want to cry for the characters in _The Last Migration_ like I did in _A Little Life_.

Having said that, I enjoyed it, it has nice moments, there's a good sense of adventure. ( )

There's hardly anything more depressing than the premise of following the last seasonal migration of Arctic terns, knowing that they may be the only birds left alive in the wild. Many other large animals have already died out. The world we are about to witness is the future version of our own that we do not wish to see, but do little to avoid.

Franny Stone is on a mission to follow these birds on what may be their ultimate journey. However, it becomes evident at the beginning of the novel that Franny Smith is not just another scientist doing her job. The terns are fascinating birds, doing the longest migration of any species. But Franny herself is driven by motion as well. This is personal.

In a small Greenland town, she meets a crew of a fishing ship who she talks into assisting her and so the journey begins. I loved the characters as they are very life-like, with Ahab-like captain Ennis with an air of mystery around him.
As the ship travels south to follow the birds, in hope of one last "good catch" before fishing is outlawed, we jump back in time to learn what made Franny do this.

I picked this up expecting a cli-fi novel which would be heartbreaking (because most of them are) and maybe a little bit hopeful.
What I found was an incredibly well-written, character-driven story.

The environmental story is still very important and present, but not as a backdrop. It is a mirror of an inner landscape as much as it is the outside reality. It works so well because it is so simple.
We are lead on a journey, through space and time, but also through the heart of human nature.

This is also why I have to dismiss the negative comments I heard about this novel being unrealistic. This is not THAT type of cli-fi built primarily and solely around scientific speculation. This book goes deeper into how we mentally and emotionally deal with the consequences of the world void of meaning.

Can we exist when the world we knew and the world that could've been are no more? What's left when everyone we care about is gone?

5 stars.

( )

Breathtaking. A new favorite! ( )