Phoenix burning by Bryony Pearce
Little Tiger Press, 2016. ISBN 9781847156709
(Age: Young adult) Highly recommended. Themes: Revenge; Junk-Punk;
Dystopian; Religious cults; Survival; Challenge; Trust and betrayal.
The first book in this series, Phoenix Rising, introduced
the reader to the world of post-cataclysmic environmental disaster,
where the ocean is a seething mass of caustic junk, roiling in the
corrosive waters that take life rather than support it. In Phoenix
Burning, the second book of the series, we join the junk pirates as
they variously fight one another and work together to solve a
mystery and to recover the missing component to enable their
salvaged energy system to become functional. In the process Toby and
Ayla must work through their sabotage and distrust of each other to
complete the task that they cannot achieve alone. This takes them
into the enclave of the sun-worshippers - a cult that engages in
bizarre rituals as part of their religious fervour. They must work
together to steal what they need, while being involved in complex
challenges, where loss means they become silent monk-like devotees
and winning means they become blind but 'holy'. (This is a little
like a Hunger Games fight to avoid death and where winners bear the
burden of their win.) Toby and Ayla's relationship is always going
to be challenged because of their family history, but Pearce has
cleverly woven a tale where we are able to detect a growing but
fraught dependence on one another and a hint of closeness, but with
trust in jeopardy.
The winner of this text is the very different setting, where
normality has been so badly damaged by environmental disaster. The
ocean is a chemical wasteland, detrimental to life. The problem this
has created for the world and the survivors has created a fantasy
environment that is unlike any other. Sailing on a pirate ship where
everything is cobbled together using junk salvaged from the sea or
the spoiled shores allows for some impressive imagination leaps.
Pearce writes in a compelling and exciting way and from the prologue
we realise that there is danger to follow.
This is a book that can be highly recommended to YA readers (male
and female), particularly those who have enjoyed Hunger Games
and other dystopian literature.
Carolyn Hull