Home > Categories > Books > Kids - Middle > Across the Risen Sea review
'It's one of them days when everything is off. A hot sweaty night in Rusty Bus means we kids is all grouchy-tired. Me and my best friend, Jaguar, is trying to cool down by taking turns at dipping in the sea pool. Him standing on the sea wall made from car frames and rocks on lookout for crocs, me swimming, then we'll swap places. We's always doing things as a team, him and me. We's gonna be the best fisher people and the best salvagers on the whole of the inland sea one day.'
Neoma and Jag and their small community are 'living gentle lives' on high ground surrounded by the risen sea that has caused widespread devastation. When strangers from the Valley of the Sun arrive unannounced, the friends find themselves drawn into a web of secrecy and lies that endangers the way of life of their entire community. Soon daring, loyal Neoma must set off on a solo mission across the risen sea, determined to rescue her best friend and find the truth that will save her village.
Product reviews...
I hadn't read anything by Bren MacDibble before, but know that her previous two books have been very well received and sell well. The book takes place in the future, where climate change led to the waters rising and storms which destroyed civilization as it is known and what the world is like now. The timing this book gave, didn't quite sit right for me when I first started to read this book, telling us that there are a few adults who still remember the world as it was and it initially didn't sit right that the language would have 'dumbed down' but this did improve and felt like it fitted better as the book went on.
The people living on this quiet island have become adept at fishing for their food, living off the land, limited technology (some small solar panels) and using what is left behind for all sorts of things ie. a bus becomes the sleeping area for the children, a car is used for walls etc. The story moved along well enough, I didn't find myself on the edge of my seat, wanting to know what would happen next, but I enjoyed it enough to want to finish it. I wouldn't say that this an amazing work of fiction, the book is a mash-up of things that I have read before. That doesn't make it a bad book though, I can see this easily being enjoyed by children around ten years old.
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