I found this book to be more depressing than I anticipated. Like many dystopian novels, it frames a cataclysmic event that will change the Earth forever, in this case, the slowing of the Earth’s rotation. But unlike other dystopian novels, there is no dire action in the book, no wars being fought, no cannibals to be avoided, no urban strife to survive, no evil government to rebel against. Nothing to do and nothing to divert the mind from the realization of the inexorable disintegration of the Earth as we currently know it—the death of birds, the withering of green things, the increase of radiation.

It's well written. The voice of the narrator, a young California girl, is very authentic and is the strongest aspect of the book. She is focused on what every 11 year old is concerned with—her friendships, her crush on a boy, her family life. She registers the catastrophe, but does so almost peripherally. Life goes on, everyone adjusts. It's this helplessness and acceptance I found depressing.

This would be a good crossover, discussible book for teens.

I’ve read all of the Three Pines series and enjoyed them immensely. Bury Your Dead was so good, both the plotting and the characters, I felt it would be hard to top. And while A Trick of the Light does not meet that high bar, it is still a worthy addition to Penny’s oeuvre. A Trick of the Light is all about relationships, those between friends, between spouses, between mentors and mentees; even between humans and pets. While watching Gamache solve the mystery of who killed an old friend of Clara Morrow’s in Clara’s garden, we get to revisit the Three Pines folks and Gamache's team, with Clara and Peter Morrow and Jean Guy Beauvoir center-stage. The reader is also treated to an inside look at the workings of Alcoholics Anonymous, from an author who knows it well. There are some tantalizing loose ends left dangling which I am sure Penny will sew up in the next installment, and I’ll be in line to read it.

I think this is the best of Penny's Gamache series. Her trump card all along has been Armand Gamache and his humane philosophy toward colleagues, victims, and most of all, the perpetrators of the crimes he solves. Fear, in Gamache's opinion, is the basis for murder, and once that is understood, the criminal becomes human, not evil. When Gamache solves a case, it's as much a cause for sadness as triumph because the murderer has become someone we understand and feel for.

In this book Penny has added the element of self-doubt—Gamache's realization that he is fallible and that this fallibility can have dire consequences. It's heartbreaking to see this good, kindly, competent man suffer so for being human. We know he will recover but we also know it will take time. And finally, the City of Quebec surely owes Penny a free round-trip indefinite stay in their city. This book is so full of Quebecois history, events, places to visit and eat, and she makes it all sound so lovely, I cannot doubt that readers will start planning vacations there. I know I am!

I looked forward to reading this book each night. MacKinnon fashioned characters you cared about, and a page-turning plot. I especially liked the asides about the flowers and what each represents. This would make a good discussion book, both because of the ambiguity surrounding Trecie and because the subjects of undertaking and trichotillomania are so exotic. This book reminded me of Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber. Both books are narrated by fragile protagonists haunted by their pasts; both are written with the same surreal atmosphere; and both also provide a romance interest in the form of a stalwart detective.