Gin Phillips

I loved this book.

I loved the tenderness between the characters themselves and the tenderness with which the author wrote about them.

I loved the five distinct voices of the members of the Moore family, whose alternating narrations unwind the story frontwards, backwards, and inwards.

I loved the "wisp of suspense," as one reviewer put it; but I also loved that the mystery was embedded in the character development, not the other way around.

I loved the reality of it. Even the best of folks show more trying to make the best of decisions sometimes just get it all wrong.

I loved that Phillips didn't need eccentric quirks or minor evil streaks to bring her characters to life. She just wrote about ordinary people trying to do right by each other.

For a first time novelist to tackle poverty, racism, prejudice, and family life in 1930s Alabama is ballsy, not least because the inimitable Harper Lee already did it with spectacular near-perfection. But Gin Phillips understands that in mining and in writing and in getting to know ourselves and others, nothing is ever finished. show less

In a way I was not surprised to read that Gin Phillips didn’t set out to write a thriller when she created FIERCE KINGDOM. Because she hasn’t. Written one that is. In my view anyway FIERCE KINGDOM is a story about the bond between a mother and her son. They are in peril, which I guess is where the thriller tag comes into play, but the focus of the book isn’t really the danger or anything else much that is external to the relationship between Joan and her 4 year old son Lincoln. As a show more depiction of motherhood, especially motherhood at a time of difficulty, the book is excellent. Superb really. But as a thriller it is…patchy.

The pair are visiting their local zoo one weekday afternoon and are making their way to the exit around closing time when every parent’s worst nightmare starts to unfold. Joan sees people on the ground and is that someone with a rifle? She picks up her son and runs back into the zoo. As it is one of their favourite places to visit Joan knows the zoo well and soon finds a good, safe hiding place. They stay here for a long portion of the story. This makes sense from a survival point of view but is not conducive to the thrilling element of the book. What we do discover in this section is how deep Joan and Lincoln’s relationship is and the extent of Joan’s mothering instinct. Will she, for example, risk her son’s safety to aid other people trying to survive? Should she? Even when she elects to move out of the relative safety of their hiding place there is a strong sense that the only reason is Lincoln’s protection rather than the author’s need to move the plot along.

I found Joan a very believable character. Even when she makes some questionable decisions (one in particular gets criticised in many of the less glowing reviews of the book) I thought she was being consistent with her own previous character. And who among us really knows how they would behave when lugging 40 pounds of much-loved toddler through a darkening landscape populated by gun-toting nutters? I’m sure we would all make some daft moves. I must admit I thought Lincoln a little less credible. He seemed a little too clever with his almost genius-level vocabulary but he is a sweetie and the reader does rather desperately want him to use his inside voice and survive.

But the thriller elements of the book did not work all that well, at times feeling very much forced into the narrative. For example there are a couple of passages where action is seen from a gunman’s viewpoint. They’re not particularly long or insightful and I don’t know what purpose they served other than ticking a box on the list of things modern thrillers ought to have. Also in the last third (or so) of the story Joan links up with two other zoo patrons trying to hide from the shooters: retired teacher Margaret Powell and teenage zoo employee Kailynn. This does help add some more traditional thriller-style elements to the story but it is a bit too late really and the narrative shift is abrupt and jarring. I felt that the book should either be a traditional thriller all the way through, in which case these other characters should have been introduced earlier and fleshed out a little more, or the entire book should have stayed with Joan and Lincoln.

As is often the case these days I suspect this book’s misplaced marketing is largely to blame for my disappointment with aspects of it. Words like ‘electrifying’ and ‘suspense-filled’ do not apply to what I read. But if you are looking for a book that celebrates motherhood in a fresh way then you might want to give FIERCE KINGDOM a go. If audiobooks are your thing then Cassandra Campbell’s narration is a genuine treat. show less

Set in 1930's coal mining town (I didn't know Alabama had coal!), this is written from the point of view of each of the 5 members of a family. When I first began, I was disappointed that Tess was given so much self-awareness--too much for a 9 yr old. It was only as I progressed thru the book that I realized this is all being told as remembrances from some future time, and then it became intriguing to pick up the hints about how their lives turned out. The story itself mainly covers part of show more one year. As the family deals with their reactions to a baby having been thrown into their well, they also deal with the depression, interracial relationships, and the beginning of workers' unions. You get as much insight into each character from hearing what the others think about them as you get from their own thoughts and tellings of the story.
Now that I've finished, I find myself wondering how ever did Albert get to own enough land to have a sharecropper. We hear how he was determined not to be in a position where he could be thrown out of a company house but not what it took to get his own. Or maybe the hard work and bullheadedness he shows throughout the book is explanation enough.
I think it gave a good sense of the times. There was Albert, having one of the few cars in town, who gives a ride to anyone he passes on his way to work, and having to stand firm when a white co-worker challenges him for giving a black worker a ride. Everyone lives pretty much in the same town--going to the train station to meet Granny who was visiting her son in another town is a big deal. Some conversation involves people's different opinions of presidential candidates. show less

Joan is spending an afternoon at the zoo with her four-year-old son Lincoln when, just before closing time, she hears a burst of what she only belatedly realizes is gunfire. Then things quickly get nightmarish for her as she finds herself running and hiding, desperately trying to protect herself and her kid.

This isn't a particularly complex or intricate thriller, but it's a nicely effective one. I will admit, I wasn't sure for a while just how well it was going to work for me, as it seems show more quite deliberately designed to play on the fears, instincts, and emotions of parents, which I most definitely am not. And despite Phillips' use of a lot of really wonderful little details that make this woman's relationship with her son and her experience of being his mom feel very real, my own initial feelings were less a distressed "OMG, child in danger! He must be protected!" and more of an annoyed, "Aaargh, this is the problem with little kids: they have no sense of perspective, and even in an actual life-or-death situation, you can't get them to shut up! What a liability!" But Phillips does such a good job of getting into Joan's head, and of building the tension as the story goes along, that even hard-heartedly non-maternal me got sucked into things, so much so that I ended up delaying some important errands just so I could finish the last fifty pages.

Rating: 4.5/5. Because, hey, any book that makes me that unwilling to put it down surely deserves that much. show less