Gin Phillips

An electrifying novel about the primal and unyielding bond between a mother and her son, and the lengths she'll go to to protect him The zoo is nearly empty as Joan and her four-year-old son soak up the last few moments of playtime. They are happy, and the day has been close to perfect. But what Joan sees as she hustles her son toward the exit gate minutes before closing time sends her sprinting back into the zoo, her child in her arms. And for the next three hours--the entire scope of the novel--she keeps on running. Suddenly, mother and son are as trapped as the animals. Joan's intimate knowledge of this place that filled early motherhood with happy diversions--the hidden pathways and under-renovation exhibits, the best spots on the carousel and overstocked snack machines--is all that keeps them a step ahead of danger. A masterful thrill ride and an exploration of motherhood itself--from its tender moments of grace to its savage power--Fierce Kingdom asks where the boundary is between our animal instinct to survive and our human duty to protect one another. For whom should a mother risk her life?

Fierce Kingdom

Ley Stanton

I had really high hopes for this one, the synopsis got me hooked from the start. I could feel the tension building from the beginning of the book, I really feared for Joan and Lincoln. However, as the story progressed, I felt that Joan made some excessively poor decisions which couldn't just be chalked up to her fear overtaking her logic. I felt the best part of the book was actually when her and Lincoln were hiding, the story progressed more fluidly there as she just thought through her options and what had led them to the conversations her and her son were having. I also felt the end was a cop-out, that left me unsatisfied with the whole experience. Up until then, it was a solid 3 star thriller for me but the ending just felt lackluster. There were so many places that this could have gone and I felt the author made things more complicated in the pursuit of making a memorable thriller. However, the setting and narrative choice alone would have made it memorable and enjoyable alone.
This book was given to me by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sarahi Flores

A suspenseful way to invoke your primitive side...
Now what will you do in order to survive? This is a 3.5 star review.

If you would like to read more of my review, check out my blog: www.readergalcom.wordpress.com

Skye Sherman

This book was pretty good (and quite fast-paced) throughout, but I'm giving it 3 stars because it ended so abruptly and didn't tie up any loose strings. Books that end like that really frustrate me. Most of the fallout is left to the imagination, and I feel like many of the little sub-plots going on were just dropped. Phillips at least could've hinted at how things would pan out for each of the characters we had come to care about. And I feel very much like I was left hanging at the end when it comes to the fate of the main character herself. 

Overall, though, the story was interesting and taut, and I read the entire book in the span of hours. It was worth the read to see how an author can pen an entire book that's set over the course of just three hours.

I really enjoyed this book and the suspense and characters.
As a mother myself, I could relate to Joan.
It was like watching a drama on TV while I read it.
Easy, suspenseful, intriguing read.

Tanya Sutton

Fierce Kingdom is a fast-paced novel that drops you directly into the action right at the start of the book. While at the zoo one afternoon with her young son, Joan sees something at the exit that causes her to retreat back into the zoo (a pretty obvious something). She spends the next three hours hiding in the zoo until the action-packed ending. This was a straight forward book with no twists but was certainly tense. Unfortunately, I never got into it. Joan does things that are nonsensical at times, like throwing her phone as a distraction to the...erm...something...that she's hiding from. She had been using this phone to keep in contact with her husband and, through him, the police. Being in an animal enclosure, one would assume she could have found a rock or something less important in her bag to throw. Then, about two-thirds of the way through the novel, the novel suddenly introduces two new characters in the form of other zoo guests hiding from danger. It shifts from first to third person perspective and we are now expected to care about these other people for whom we have no backstory or history. Surprisingly, they are more interesting and are more well-written than Joan is, but we're shortly back to Joan and her narration until the ending which, while action packed, is too ambiguous to be satisfying.

(Thank you to NetGalley and Viking for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)

Elodia

I wanted to like this, it had an intriguing premise and the first 80 pages or so were good enough. 

It was told mostly in the perspective of Joan and a few times it switched perspective to other characters, which were honestly better than Joan’s. Joan started to get annoying after a while, she would continuously describe small things Lincoln would do when he was younger which in no way helped the reader understand or relate to their relationship. I feel bad to say this but I also did not like Lincoln. Considering that Lincoln is written to be more emotionally mature than his age and that he understands they’re in danger and could be killed, one would expect for him to be quiet and listen to his mom, yet he wouldn’t stop talking or complaining.
 
None of the characters were fleshed out which made me not care about any of them and I ended up finding the book boring.

Corrie White 

Also reviewed on: https://waywardtrekkie.wordpress.com/

I battled with this one, guys. Let me tell you. I had been in a reading slump for a bit and since this one was only a seven day rental from my library – and due tomorrow – I decided to give this one a go. I know that, despite my issues with this book, that I will be having a bit of a book hangover on this one.

This book tells the harrowing tale of Joan and her four year old son, Lincoln, as they are faced with something no one should ever have to go through. It is getting late at the zoo that day, and Joan and Lincoln are headed towards the exit, when a sight at the entrance of the zoo has her running in the opposite direction. Within the first couple of pages the reader is tasked with living through the realization that there is a mass shooting and, over the following three hours and 274 pages, how strong a mother’s love is for her son, and what it takes to survive.

I am not a mother, and so cannot not particularly speak to the intense maternal drive Joan faces throughout this novel. However, I am a child of a wonderful mother, and so attempted to understand this book and what it was offering, through the eyes of Lincoln. My hands were sweating, and my heart was racing throughout the entirety of this novel; and once I started I couldn’t put it down until I knew what was going to happen at the end. I will say before discussing some of the issues I had with the book that Lincoln may be my new favourite child in a novel. I was a little put off initially with how adult-like he sounded; most children I know don’t speak that way. But man did he grow on me. What a brave little boy.

I’ve seen some reviews where readers were upset that the author did not delve too deeply into the motivations behind why the shooting was occurring in the first place and tended to focus a bit too much on the somewhat tedious ramblings and streams of consciousness from Joan. While I definitely did not feel satisfied at the end as I still found no closure as to what had happened, I did appreciate the author focusing on the relationship between mother and child (since that truly is the beauty of this book), and what would no doubt be what would be going through my head trying to make a life or death decision with an oftentimes worried child who did not truly grasp the importance of staying quiet. I felt Joan’s frustration when Lincoln could not keep quiet, or ignore his hunger, and I felt her desperation and fear. It was visceral.

My biggest gripe with the book is that it felt unfinished. I had so many questions at the end of this book that I feel the author could have at least provided some answers. I would have liked to know what happened to the other people in the narration, was the treasure found within the trashcan okay?, and a least a little hint about the end instead of ending with such ambiguity I almost pitched my book across the room once I read the final line. WHAT. ACTUALLY. HAPPENED?? I always wish for fewer perfect endings in books, as they don’t reflect reality, but not for this one Gin Phillips. Throw me a bone here. I’m getting flashbacks of Titanic arguments.

Also despite the horrific scenes being depicted, I couldn’t help but feel so sad at the detailed scenes regarding some of the animals that had been slaughtered. Ugh.

Overall I gave this book 4/5 starts just for my visceral reaction to the book. I loved the writing, and the rambling, and despite feeling totally pissed at the ending, I can’t help but admit it made the book that much more poignant to me; this will be one book I never will forget.

Kerri McDonald

When I first ordered this book for BotM Club, I got it because it sounded like a good, fast-paced thriller about a mother trying to protect her son. When I finally got around to reading it, the mother, Joan, and her four year old son, Lincoln, made me think so much of myself and my four year old son that I found myself completely trapped by this book. There were so many moments where the thoughts that Joan is thinking are echos of things that have run through my mind. And Lincoln acted so much like my child is was like the author had studied him to write her character.

Of course, that level of connection also led me to have many moments during the book where I could palpably feel Joan's fear. I tore through this book because I had to know how it ended for them: would they survive their harrowing three hours locked in a zoo with "bad men"? Even beyond the fact that I was completely absorbed, the author's writing style just connected with me. I really enjoyed this book and it makes me interested to look into the author's other novels.

So, if you want a quick, thrill of a read, this book won't disappoint. And, if you happen to have your own rambunctious kid at home, it'll probably hit home even more.

Renee Blankenship

4.5 Stars!

I feel like this book deserves two reviews from me. One as a reader and one as a mother of a four year old little boy. So let's try that. 

As a reader, the suspense this book created as the story progressed kept me at the edge of my seat. I couldn't stop turning pages and I loved how real it all felt. I also appreciated the different viewpoints, which I wasn't expecting based on the synopsis. All the way up until the ending, I wasn't sure what was really going to happen to the mother Joan and her four year old little boy as they tried to hide themselves in the zoo while gunmen were on the loose. There isn't much character development going on here, although I feel the author tried to incorporate the mother's childhood into parts of the story. I was more interested honestly in what was happening in the moment. 

As a mother, my goodness. I read the first chapter and then put the book down and had to take a few breaths. I have been in the EXACT same moments with my four year old son. Recently. Like yesterday. Discussing the pros and cons of super heroes and creating battles while I'm trying to think of what we need from the grocery store and if we should leave the park/zoo/splash pad yet. The first chapter kinda knocked the wind out of me and I needed to regroup. I picked it up the next evening and once I did, I didn't put it down until I was finished. But, certainly the first half of the book, left me feeling anxious and panicky. There have been plenty of times when we've been at the zoo or park together without my husband that I've had the passing thought of "What if..." and "What would we do first..." if there was some kind of trouble. This story really hit me hard in that sense as I watched a mother I was all too familiar with actually in one of those situations. There were actual lines as well, like this one: "She wonders when he will stop wanting to hold her hand..." as they walk towards the zoo exit that I think myself often. That I'm lost in thought thinking about as we hold hands walking out of the park, not really paying attention to my surroundings. 

And this one, "In a year he will be in kindergarten and these days of superheroes will fade and be replaced by something she can't guess, and then at some point the zoo itself will be replaced and life will have gone on and this boy holding her hand will have turned into someone else entirely." YOU GUYS. This exact thought is in my head all the time. I think about it so much, as we do things like go to the zoo and the grocery store and take walks. So when Joan is thinking these thoughts about her little boy and all of sudden a madman with a gun is in the zoo killing people, I felt like I was there with her. Trying to protect my four year old, hide and stay safe but also not scare him too much. And as the time passes, as Joan starts remembering her little boy as a baby and the all the special moments they shared, as she starts to worry that maybe they won't make it out of the zoo...my heart just wanted to stop all together! 

To say the least, this was an intense read for me. But it was worth every page of anxiety and suspense and I highly recommend it! Grab it, throw it in your purse for a long car ride or plane trip or plan on staying up way to late to finish it.

An electrifying literary thriller introduces an unforgettable mother and son, whose simple trip to the zoo one afternoon is transformed into three hours of terror and survival after gunshots ring out. What would you do to protect the ones you love? After school on a late October day, Joan has taken her four-year-old son, Lincoln, to one of his favourite places on earth: the zoo. Just before closing time, as they need to go home, she hears some loud pops like firecrackers. Not thinking much of it, they head for the exit...until Joan realizes the eerie human emptiness means danger, then sees the figure of a lone gunman. Without another thought, she scoops up her son and runs back into the zoo. And for the next three hours--the entire scope of the novel--she does anything she can to keep Lincoln safe. Both pulse-pounding and emotionally satisfying, Fierce Kingdom is a thrill ride, but also an exploration of the very nature of motherhood itself, from its saving graces to its savage power. At heart it asks how you draw the line between survival and the duty to protect one another? Who would you die for?

Fierce Kingdom

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