I had quite a hard time digesting the philosophical and scientific arguments and discussions of Sora’s personal monologues. The story starts off strong with the magical concept of the catfish rolling and causing Japan to shake. Catfish Rolling heralds a blistering new talent to the YA scene and I for one at grateful she is here. Sora is sensitive to the shifts, and her father recruits her help in exploring these liminal spaces. At the heart of the story is Sora, dealing with her life after graduating high school, with her relationship with her father growing more distant in the years since her mother was lost in the shake.

The family drama drew me in, the dystopian element had me intrigued and the sci fi/fantasy was captivating. The honour of my first 5-star of the new year goes to Clara Kumagai’s phenomenal debut, that blends magical realism and sci-fi elements into a haunting tale of grief, family, time and the earthquake that shook a nation. You have to be okay with a slower pacing and not expect a flashy, plot heavy sci-fi novel, but if you surrender yourself the currents of this story, you’re in for an absolute treat. It was when Sora and Maya started looking for Sora's dad that I got so invested, and i honestly believe the author should have started earlier with this arc.However, this concept is short-lived and the book quickly becomes absorbed in the daily life of Sora - her future, her relationship with her father, the shock of her lost mother, and her struggles as a minority. especially when she begins to see shadows and her own father seems to be slipping as if caught in his own, odd time bubble.

A father and daughter are left puzzled and intrigued by the unusual and mysterious shaking, which causes the mother to disappear. The majority of the story takes place seven years later, as the world is adjusting to the change in time flow in certain areas. The story isn’t about some epic plot to fix the time flow or save the world, but it doesn’t need to be. I was deeply intrigued by the notion of time passing at different rates and would love another book that explores this concept. The prose and pacing are consistent but the plot is difficult to describe, as it felt like science fiction but subtly becomes fantasy.Personally, it was the depiction of grief, and the intersection of grief and time, that resonated with me the most. Her overseas adventure brings great wonder, but Luki soon discovers a darker side, of racism and inequality. Ever since the earthquake that changed her life forever, she has been stuck between past and present, unable to move on. Since losing her mother to the devastation, Sora has felt aimless and alone and when her grief-stricken father goes missing, she follows him into uncharted spaces and unknown dangers. All of this is important to the story, as it all begins with a massive earthquake that not only shatters the life of our protagonist, Sora, but also time itself.

Instead, I found an incredible, emotive, YA novel that explored parental loss, identity, belonging, isolation, ecology, the fracturing of time, and a complicated parental relationship dealing with memory loss and acting as a carer. Every moment with her is a tug of war, and it’s hard to tell if it’s because she is Canadian and Japanese and the cultures are warring within her or if that’s just who she is. It’s a wonderfully written, thought provoking piece of speculative magical realism, that combines a post-apocalyptic-exploration mystery with an emotional character journey.Magic-realism blends with Japanese myth and legend in an original story about grief, memory, time and an earthquake that shook a nation.