A Fantastic Fast Paced Listen

This book was an intense page turner that grabbed my attention and kept me listening non-stop. The struggles of this diverse set of characters were compellingly conveyed to the listener through Phillips' ability to capture their internal chatter and thoughts. The book spans only about three hours of real time but with the use of flashbacks and memories we learn a great deal about these people. Heart pounding, horrifying and insightful are words that come to mind when I reflect on the story.

More than this, the book tackles many difficult topics by looking at the individual will to survive, motherhood, personal strength and how far our responsibility goes in regard to helping strangers in peril. This is my first book by this author and I am impressed with Phillips' skill at stepping beyond the simple thriller aspect and deftly taking us into the minds of the characters.

Campbell's narration was excellent. She was able to capture the terror and turmoil subtly with her voicing of each character. The reading never became too extreme or over the top which could easily have happened with a less experienced narrator. Campbell is becoming one of my favorite readers.

Be aware that this book delves into gun violence and sociopathic behavior and you most probably will find yourself repelled by much of what happens in the story. At the same time Phillips' will have you thinking and asking yourself repeatedly--what would I do in this situation. Compelling, thought provoking and really scary. This is excellent story telling but in my opinion not for the faint of heart listener as the violence is very intense.

28 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

View from the Hunted

5* reviews and a *fantastic* sold me; I love a fantastic listen. The story is told by the mother; an idyllic day at the zoo for mother and son, shots are fired, and the day is turned into a nightmare. As the mother realizes the pops she's heard were actually gunshots she instinctively scrambles to protect her life and her little boy's, her mind frantically racing through different scenarios. Philips does an impressive job of keeping the shock and the responses authentic to the psychology while balancing it with the increasing intensity of the situation. This is the strength of her novel, telling the story from inside the head of one of the hunted. So, with the mother and little boy crouched behind a bush with bullets firing, why did I set the book down? I'll try to explain my complacency....

The mother's narration started to feel myopic and while that may have been part of the author's strategy, I found the mother and son getting on my nerves in spite of the situation. I found her intimidatingly perfect and nurturing, a Wonder Mom; the little boy went from being precocious to obnoxious. I should have been wondering who is shooting, at whom, and why, and where are the police, but I was fixated on the mother's patience with her little 4 yr. old in the situation. She gives him his action figures, fishes for animal crackers in her purse and worries about his playing too loudly and I was pumped up with the fight or flight response, wanting her to ditch the *Inside voice only please,* and instead give him an urgent *SHHHH! We could be shot here!!* That's what the mind does with stories we know are fiction... the psychology is there but detached. The ending is already there a few chapters ahead and these are just fictional characters from a writer's head. So, I stopped reading what I thought was just another every-day-situation-turned-disastrous story. I was about to return the book but more reviews were in and decided to give it another try -- that was August 30th.

During their fight for survival, the author brilliantly gives us the mother's self-examinations of what she sees and her reactions. She mentally chastises a woman that leaves a baby in a garbage can under a speaker blaring Halloween rock and roll music...then contemplates under what conditions such a sacrifice would have been made, what it would mean to her and her son's survival if she picked up the baby as they were fleeing the approaching shooters, where is the infant's mother. These thoughts and decisions will both haunt her and encourage her as she flees just steps ahead of the gunmen and eventually as she adjusts to her own ethics in a world where this kind of terror will forever be a reality to her.

A day later, Oct. 1st, Gin Phillips's novel didn't feel so much like fiction. Today I finished the book, read from a different perspective than what I started with, and in a different world. As I read I kept wondering *How do you gather your thoughts in such a situation; how do you make sense of such insanity?* I can't imagine.
My heart is with the victims and heroes from Las Vegas, 10/01/17.

21 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Suspenseful but myopic.

I understand why so many reviewers loved this book. It is well written and equally well narrated. My issue was the singular focus on a mother and her son. Seven long hours of focusing on her memories and love for her son. We learn little about the killers, nothing of the police and very little about the other victims being hunted. So I grew weary, despite the fact I kept listening to the end.

The author obviously intended to tell the story from the perspective of one main character. A young mother with her young son is at the zoo when gunshots erupt. We experience everything she does, including the fear and frustration of not knowing who is shooting, why they are shooting, whether there are other survivors in hiding, and wondering what the police are doing. I see the author ‘s purpose, but it left me feeling let down.

12 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Non-sensical

This was a book someone else selected for our bookclub to read. It was thought that a story about a mom and her son would hit home (it does). In Canada this book is also a "Heather's Pick" at Chapters/Indigo and those books are usually inherently reliable.

This book was just non-sense.

The narration was fine, particularly given there wasn't much to work with. The voice the narrator used for Joan was really grating in that it was overly syrupy and the one used for the most non-sensical things that happened in the book.

So the story is that of a mom/son at the zoo after school when a Columbine-esque group of young men shoot and terrorize the patrons and go "hunting". Joan, the mom, realizes this issue and begins taking steps to protect her son. But Joan is constantly in her own head with irrelevant memories, thought patterns, and musings that lend nothing to the story.

I disagreed with 99% of the decisions Joan made for how to keep her son safe. I acknowledge that there is no perfect response to such horror, but I was appalled by the choices she made in the circumstances.

There was only suspense in this novel, because the 3 hour stint in hiding at the zoo was elaborated upon by flashbacks and odd thought patterns. I did wonder how it would all play out as there were no early give-aways as to how things might resolve (which is why I gave 2 stars overall). The ending was fine, but nothing to write home about. This book just wasn't for me.

#Abuse #Violent #Zoo #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

6 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Good but needed faster pacing or stronger message

A woman tries to survive during an active-shooter situation at a zoo, and her actions are completely skewed by trying to protect her noisy, impatient four-year-old son. It was interesting to see a story of macho male violence almost entirely from the view of women watching it unfold. It could’ve had a heavy-handed message but it very subtly gets the viewpoint across about the essential role women play behind the scenes of society at large. Frankly, I wanted a stronger message or else faster plotting. A subtle message and slow plotting were a bit of a chore. Bechdel test: Pass. Grade: B

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Annoying kid, clueless mom and not thrilling

I was expecting a tense thriller. Sadly, Ms. Phillips is a poor writer whose annoying writing habits (She said, she thought, he said, he did, he liked, she knew) are made worse by the excessive quantity of baby talk from what has to be one of the more annoying children to appear in an adult novel in years.

And, she head hops. Badly. Archer Mayor and Michael Connelly do a good job of showing points of view without leaving you wondering who is talking/thinking at the moment. Phillips hasn't mastered that yet.

More frustrating is the incredibly incompetent mother who is the focus of the story. If you have a cell phone do you think you might want to keep it to reach out to the cops? Maybe to convey the info you've learned and get advice on escape? Apparently not in Gin Phillips's land.

Maybe it reads better than it sounds as an audiobook, but she managed to suck every ounce of suspense from the first third of the book with the toddler talk. The narrator did such a good job with the whiny kid that I would not have been disappointed if he had been eaten by the lions.

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

fierce kingdom is fiercely suspenseful

If you could sum up Fierce Kingdom in three words, what would they be?

suspenseful; soul-searching; heartfelt.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the way that the author showed how good of a mother the main character of this story is, she's patient, loving, protective, and fierce. :-)

Have you listened to any of Cassandra Campbell’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

If I have I do not remember, but her performance was very good.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes, definitely.

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

excellent story

this book kept me mesmerised and wanting to read more. The author does an excellent job of reaching out and pulling and describing the truest of emotions.

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Mostly Bored

The narrator was very good and the story was good but very slow. I guess that’s what happens when you try to drag a 3-hour story out into an entire book.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Boring boring boring

This book was awful, it’s just her thinking of past memories with her son and awful narration of a child’s voice, it was all I could do to keep listening. It was worse than when older kids talk in baby voices...nails on a chalkboard in my opinion.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile