Review by Stacey O’Carroll
Author: Inga Simpson
Publisher: Hachette
RRP: $32.99
Release Date: Out now
“We haven’t always lived on amber alert, ready to run.”
What do you get when you cross astronomy with a dystopian thriller and the Central West and North West Slopes of NSW? The Thinning is a unique and engrossing literary thriller by Australian author Inga Simpson.
“We’ve done this drill a dozen times. In case someone came looking or one of us was spotted. I hoped it would never happen, and didn’t even consider that it would be me.”
In Simpson’s sixth fiction novel, The Thinning, Finley (Fin) has spent her entire childhood centred around an observatory and telescope. Through her head astronomer dad and her mother Dianella, an astrophotographer, she has been immersed in astronomy, learning about planets, stars and telescopes. Now, as a young adult, the community she once knew has vastly changed. Her family lives off-grid in an attempt to protect what they know, always ready to run. Along with Fin’s family, the environment is also under threat, diversity is dwindling, and a new disaster is imminent. Separated from her family and trying to race to a fast-approaching solar eclipse, Fin meets an Incomplete. These new and evolved humans are not to be trusted, but to save the environment and humankind, the two strangers must work together in a race against time.
“When I look up, a strange face is peering down from the track above. The sort of face I haven’t seen before.”
From the moment the reader opens The Thinning, intrigue will brush over them. Before the story rises off the page, Simpson has inserted a diagram showing the degrees from the horizon at which stages the sun rotates from night to day. Astronomical, Amateur Twilight, Nautical, Civil and Golden Hour—all become chapters and a countdown to the narrative climax. These astrological timekeepers become important markers for Finley and Terry’s journey to restore the natural world. The diagram has no context, much like a map placed at the beginning of a fantasy novel. However, the diagram positions the reader as an unknowing observer and sparks the initial tension of what is to come.
“The close encounter with another being sets a charge moving over my skin.”
The Thinning begins at Siding Spring Observatory, Gamilaraay Country/Coonabarabran, NSW. Yes, this is a real observatory. Each location in the story is grounded in real places. The familiarity of these locations brings the poignancy of Simpson’s timely tale to the forefront for the reader. Although The Thinning is fiction, there is a real possibility of such events happening.
“Memories are like photographs, touched up and reprocessed every time we pull them out.”
One of the most intriguing aspects of The Thinning is the way Simpson uses descriptions that convey a time period that is indefinable. Similar to other dystopian novels, there are aspects that could be from the 1950s, 1990s, the present or the future. Simpson’s purposeful nods to different eras mean the novel is timeless and will be relatable to a broad audience. Thus, The Thinning’s key ecological message will reach a larger audience.
“We’re slipping into Nautical twilight. It’s the light sailors used to navigate, when the first stars appear but the land is still visible.”
Simpson’s descriptions are beautiful, poetic and evocative. The reader can easily imagine themselves on the anticipatory journey alongside Fin. From the sound of leaves crunching on the ground to the site of the stars, no detail is left out. The Thinning is so deeply researched and sparkling with intricate details that the reader learns a lot from Simpson’s knowledge of the environment and astronomy.
“We follow the sparkling burn of a meteor shower, debris falling to Earth, like a ll the species disappearing, all the words dropping out of the English language.”
Inga Simpson’s The Thinning is an immersive, dystopian, environmental thriller, and a call to rise up from complacency. Fans of Robbie Arnott’s novels will love The Thinning, with its familiar yet unusual landscape.