Book Title : Fierce Kingdom
Book Author : Gin Phillips
My Rating : ⭐️⭐️/5
Publication Date : June 15th 2017
Do you know that feeling when you pick up a less than 300 pages book, and say “Hey! That’s a breeze, I’ll finish this quick!” and then it feels like you are forever reading it!
Yes! That’s the case with this one.
A fast read. It’s a thriller. It should get you all gripped up, all tensed and on the edge of your seat. Sadly, this book was none of those.
It talks about Joan who after a normal visit to a zoo, finds herself locked up in there with her son while there were some shootings going on. She sees dead bodies all around and glimpses a man with a gun. This is when she realizes that she needs to hide till she finds a way to make it out of there alive along with her son.
I was very interested in this book when I read the synopsis, and immediately asked for a copy to read and review. It started out real well. The situation was very well described. It’s not every day you get locked up in somewhere with your son while some psycho is out there with a gun shooing off just about everyone.
I was actually very impressed with the writing, the descriptions, the plot and the psychological side of the story. I think it would have made the perfect thriller but it lacked that intense whodunit and why vibe.
I found myself yawning a couple of times, forcing myself to pick it up and if it wasn’t for the three hour bus ride, I don’t think I would have bothered finish reading it or maybe I would have skimmed right through it to reach the end.
And ah Yes, The end! I wasn’t at all a fan of how it was all wrapped up – which wasn’t really. The story already had many loop holes, so I didn’t appreciate the ambiguous ending where we need to draw our own conclusions. I usually love endings like that but it just didn’t work with this one. This one needed a confirmed conclusion from the author herself.
Overall, I wouldn’t be rushing to recommend this one and I’d ask Thrillers fan, or anyone really, to read it at their own risk.
Thanks to @penguinUkbooks for this book, which was given in an exchange for an honest review.
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