REVIEW: The Thinning by Inga Simpson

Fin grew up by an observatory, learning about telescopes and planets, inspired by the passions of her parents, then leaders in their fields of astrophotography and astronomy. Those days are long over. Now Fin, her mother, Dianella, and a band of outliers live deep off the grid, always on amber alert and always ready to run.

In the outside world, things are not good: extinctions and a loss of diversity threaten what's left of the environment. With a new disaster looming, Fin finds herself thrust into an unlikely partnership with a stranger who has appeared in their camp - one of a new breed of evolved humans, the Incompletes, who are widely distrusted. But the pair will need to work together during a dangerous journey if they are to play their part in an audacious plan to help restore the natural world - and humankind.

"But like the old digital cameras, telescopes are based on mirrors. Maybe those who look closely at the origin of the stars, into the past, are not in the best position to see the future. If stars are questions, the answers tell us about ourselves."

Review: 

A deeply disquiet, clever thriller told with a delicate, tender hand. No scare tactics, no monsters, no explosive reveals, just the endless sky and our own thoughts. Drawing on the very real threat of extinction, this book is rooted in nature, in its majesty, its power and beauty with such vivid intensity that it really does invoke a sense of awe and wonder even at the darkest moments.

The Incompletes, these new humans, play with the lines of humanity and what it means to be human, what connects and divides us. And there’s our narrator Fin — at times I felt they lacked a presence, but it felt more like they were an idea, a reflection, open to interpretation and it worked. They were subtle, quiet, observant, occasionally spiky; and so human.

The story weaves in and out of the present day, to the times before - life, family, trying to figure out what you’re doing with your life - and the times now, when everything has changed. It could blur the lines at time and take me a moment to orient but settled in the more we read, moving quickly but purposefully, taking in the scene.

The slow pace left me slightly unattached to the story at times but it was undeniably haunting and beautiful on every page. 

⭐⭐⭐

• I was gifted a reviewers copy of this title. The Thinning is available from Little, Brown Book Group from June 26th
• Content including terminal illness and death.