Gripping novel full of action and heart
A visit to the zoo becomes a fight for survival for a mother and her young son, writes David Herkt.
Fierce Kingdom is a novel shredded with a sense of panic and jeopardy. It is a heartthumping page-turner playing upon some very basic emotions. It is written with a keen feel for pace and suspense.
Joan has taken her 4-year-old son, Lincoln, to the zoo after preschool. Sometimes they go to the library. Sometimes to the museum. The zoo is another familiar place. They know the layout and the animals. There is the petting zoo and the elephants.
Today, however, the rules are different.
Fierce Kingdom is a story set over a period of three hours and 10 minutes. As the zoo nears closing time, Phillips conveys the dawning awareness of something odd happening. At first, there are unusual movements of people. Next distant popping sounds. Then there are bodies.
Joan and Lincoln find themselves in the midst of a classic American mass shooting by unknown gunmen, sometimes closer, sometimes nearer.
Phillips distils the event into the narrow-cast perceptual world of a protective mother and a curious and alert young boy. This specificity makes the unfolding story even more compelling. Joan must struggle to preserve their lives while dealing with the reactions of a child.
What do you do with a 4-year-old who wants to pee in the midst of a mass shooting? What happens when he is hungry and asking for a snack when there is a gunman close by? What happens when you can read all the signs of his oncoming loud protest when silence is required? Can you still run while carrying him?
It is a novel that unfolds in real time. Each event and sensation is logged. There is a sense of awful terror and impotence. Always Joan is bound by her need to care for two.
Others are caught in the same quandary. One mother under threat has concealed her baby in a rubbish bin. A 16-year-old black girl, Kailynn, has retreated to the cafe cool room. Mrs Powell, a retired school teacher, has joined her. Their reactions are more unpredictable. Then the gunmen move just outside. The novel expertly ratchets up the tension almost unbearably.
Fierce Kingdom is very hard to put down. Phillips is an expert observer of children and one of the pleasures of the book is the naturalness of Joan and Lincoln’s bond. Another is the subtle communication of events usually presented more sensationally. This, paradoxically, makes the fear infinitely more powerful.
Working within a small palette. Phillips marvellously delineates the heart and the edges of contemporary life. The novel is condensed and succinct. It feels real.