Fierce Kingdom

Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips

What it's about:  Joan and her son, Lincoln, are at the zoo.  They could have gone to the museum or the library.  It would have been better...

Joan and Lincoln are quickly thrust into a life altering situation, and it is up to Joan to get them out.  This story takes place all in one evening, but this evening will bring out the type of person and mother that Joan didn't realize she could be.

What I liked: I liked how detailed the author was with Joan's relationship to her son.   They have a strong bond and that definitely made me more invested in the characters.

I also liked how the author would focus the majority of the time on Joan and Lincoln's story, and then give us a break and transition into a few chapters that would focus on the other people in the zoo.  It was even more interesting when you got to see more into one of the "villain's" thoughts and past.

Overall, this book didn't take place over a long period of time, but it definitely worked.  There was so much going on at some points, but at other points there was just Joan and Lincoln hiding.  Even just sitting, the author made sure you didn't get bored.  Phillips would take you into Joan's mind so you knew every thought she was having.  Every panic, every plan, every fear was yours to understand.


What I didn't much like:  Like I said earlier, this book would sometimes stall and the author would keep you going by showing you all of Joan's thoughts and also by diving into her past.  I do wish that we would have gotten a little more information on Joan and her past, but it also didn't matter much to the story and situation.

There was a point in the beginning when Joan and Lincoln were hiding that I kept hoping something exciting would happen and that the story would get moving along.  In real life I know that I would probably hide as long as possibly because I would be absolutely terrified of what would happen if I moved.  But for a story, this just makes me antsy and underwhelmed.

I noticed that Phillips had a bit of an odd writing style in the beginning of the book that I didn't notice as much later on.  There would be sentences like, "She glances over her shoulder and sees no one, but she cannot get a good look, because she does not want to slow down." (phillips 25).  I know that it is the commas and the "cannot" and "does not" phrases that bug me.  There were a lot of sentences phrased like that.  Overall it wasn't bad, it just threw me off.  By the middle of the book, those type of sentences just disappeared.  Just odd I guess.


Goodreads link: Fierce Kingdom