Review: "Fierce Kingdom," by Gin Phillips

Fierce Kingdom is a fierce emotional journey! Gin Phillips kept me on the edge of my seat in this one, and even tugged on my heartstrings. This books takes on an all too familiar (and unfortunately, all too common) issue. Joan and her 4-year-old son are playing in the zoo. With only a few minutes until closing, they gather their things and hustle toward the exit. But they are stopped in their tracks when they see something horrible - people are lying on the ground dead at the exit, and Joan soon pieces together the terrifying truth: someone has entered the zoo and opened fire... What ensues is a 3 hour thrilling ride of running and hiding, tucking away in the pathways and exhibits, and hoping for help to arrive before they're the next victims. The best part of this book is the suspense. I was at times holding my breath. This would be horrifying enough if you were on your own, but imagine having to take a 4-year-old by the hand and survive. Imagine trying to keep a young boy quiet as the hours pass and he becomes tired, hungry, thirsty, and completely unaware of the true danger he's in. You don't have to be a mother, or parent, to fully enjoy this book. I'm not a parent, but I felt like I was the one holding that little boy's hand for those three long hours. Yet, long as those hours may have seemed for the characters in the book, this book was anything but a long read. I wolfed this down in just a few sittings, turning the pages nearly before I'd even finished the last word on the previous page. Phillips really played to the reader's senses. It felt like I had been dropped right in the middle of the action, right onto one of those eerie, dark zoo pathways. I could hear the dead silence, then the breeze of wind, then the over-loud music coming from the speakers. I could hear the rustling of leaves and the trickling water. I cringed when Lincoln spoke too loudly and held my breath when danger came too close to them. Then there were the touching, poignant moments, particularly in the final pages of this book, which had me crying. The ending actually wasn't as I'd expected, and that's as far as I'll go so as not to spoil it for anyone. I enjoyed the psychological aspect of this book. I liked peering into Joan's mind as the hours passed. It was realistic the way she lost track of her thoughts at times, and then became hypersensitive at other moments. Great psychological suspense by Phillips. If there is one thing I felt could have been improved, it was our snippets of information into the shooters. We are given short chapters here and there where we shift over into their point of view, but I felt as though it was incomplete. I feel like there was an opportunity for the reader to understand (maybe even care a bit) about the shooters, to get a glimpse into their psychology. It was touched on, briefly, but not enough for me to care about them. Perhaps that was the intention by Phillips, but the book could have been polished to perfection if only we got to see a little more about those troubled shooters. Everything considered, a heckuva summer read!