I have complicated thoughts about this reading experience. Firstly, this was not what I expected. I thought this would be a contemporary fiction story about a woman's personal relationship with the world as it crumbles around her. And while there's an element of that here, this ended up being a bit more action packed with a heavy dose of mystery. This genre identity crisis is what ultimately ended up working against it.

The story had potential. Franny Stone is following what is expected to be the final migration of the last Arctic Terns. The setting is near-future where man-made climate change is decimating the ecosystem, species are going extinct by the thousands, and humanity is largely helpless in stopping it. Franny has a complicated past. Being a child of wanderlust and whimsy, she has severe commitment issues in all aspects of her life. We join her as she tries to con her way onto a fishing vessel (a detested profession) that is looking to score one final haul of the endangered Herring. Franny meets a cast of unique characters that join her on their joint venture with the promise that the Terns will lead them to the rare schools of Herring that still remain. On this journey, Franny confronts her own dark past while growing closer to her companions of circumstance.

Sounds good enough, right? Well the execution fell flat for me in some key areas. Firstly, the characterization was all over the place. One moment Franny is aloof, broody, and stoic, but the next she is emotional, immature, and girlish. This was a common theme for the whole cast of characters. They acted within their characterization until the story called for them to completely break character and act in completely unexpected ways. This wasn't done in a way that made the characters feel complex or dynamic, but rather like consistency was an afterthought.

Secondly, the pacing was very strange. There were dual (multiple?) timelines going on, which I didn't mind. But focusing on the "present day" story line, we hit the climax at about the 2/3rds mark of the book. This also marked a clear tone shift in the story with pre-climax being a slower paced contemporary fiction feel and the post-climax almost feeling like an action thriller. We also saw more time jumps in the last third of the book, which I do think helped hold my interest, but it really couldn't salvage the mess of the Arctic Tern plot which ended up feeling both rushed and slow at the same time. It was here that characterization suffered the most, being seemingly abandoned for the sake of story progression. It culminated in a completely unsatisfying end that left me scratching my head wondering why McConaghy decided to wrap it up the way that she did.

However, I do think it is worth repeating: something that I do need to give McConaghy credit for is the realistic setting that I found extremely depressing. This isn't something I hold against it: many books can be depressing but also good. But I believe this to be the most likely climate scenario for our current world, and it just makes me sad. Bearing witness to total ecological collapse while nothing substantial can be done to stop it is both sobering and infuriating to read about as we watch that reality draw closer day after day.

I didn't hate this book by a long shot. But I was disappointed by how much I didn't enjoy it.