This book has the terrifying premise of following the perspectives of the multiple individuals involved in a terror attack. The intimacy the reader is provided to this horrifying event marks this a tragic and sorrowful read.

It may appear unfeeling to state that I didn't 'enjoy' a book with such an appalling premise and I don't mean to sound flippant about the events depicted, that have so many real-life parallels. This was a painful read and the story's focus initially gripped me because of this. I did find, however, that the tensity that dogged the first portion of this book waned off as the story progressed. The inconsistent pace made my initial grip with the story wane, and I found myself skimming some scenes of lower action and eager to continue onto the resolution of this tragedy. This also has some scenes that I personally found to be too brutal and triggering to read, and which I also ended up skimming, which furthered distanced me from the story.

Tense short novel of a mother and child in a horrific situation

4.5 stars.

Joan and her four year old son are enjoying an afternoon at the zoo and are just on their way to the exit at closing time when Joan hears shots and sees bodies on the ground... She must take refuge with Lincoln, keep him quiet, and try to keep them safe.

Mostly written from Joan's perspective, the story of a shooting is a timely one, with terror incidents happening with increasing frequency, and one that strikes home, certainly as a mother myself. Her love for Lincoln and the instinct to keep him safe are strong, and are taken to extremes, in one incident in particular (no spoilers).

We don't see outside of the zoo, only a few texts from Joan's worried husband, so it feels quite claustrophobic and tense. Lincoln, while being quite a precocious child, is still just a small boy, and the problem of keeping him quiet without overly panicking him is well handled. Many times I heard my own voice and thoughts in Joan's own, her mother's voice is very well created and realistic.

Saying that, a few things I found jarred. The pace slowed when Joan and Lincoln come across other survivors, Joan's throwing away of a vital communication tool (why?!), and the 'big issue' of her instinct to save them both, a brilliant moral conundrum is glossed over at the end and not properly resolved. Surely every reader will want closure on that particular question... I found the occasional foray into other points of view also didn't work too well, especially as in my copy there wasn't even a line break between them and it was rather confusing. But notwithstanding that, I would have preferred to stay with Joan and Lincoln, and as these narrators don't crop up often or go anywhere, I didn't see the need for them.

Quite a brilliant concept, with some excellent execution and scenes, a mother's thoughts and love are well conveyed. Not perfect, but it's one that will stick in my mind.

With thanks to Netgalley for the advance e-copy, sent for review purposes.

A book full of high drama, this book takes a mother to her darkest fears and leaves her there....a mother and her young son are trapped in a zoo and the only thing she's not scared of are the wild animals...this is a fear of other people, people with guns and a disturbing sense of power.
You'd do anything to protectyour child.....

Wow what a book - suspensful and utterly terrifying... especially considering recent events in the world.

Joan is visiting the zoo with her 4 year old son Lincoln. Just another typical family outing which Joan and Lincoln make a lot - however as they go to leave the zoo they hear what Joan thinks are fireworks... but then they come across bodies laying in the path and Joan know she has to run, hide and protect Lincoln at any cost.

The book is set in real time - minute by minute as Joan tries to hide and then evade the men who have taken over the zoo.

This really hits a cord with me. As a mother of 4 young children and living in a country which has experienced shootings and other terrorist attacks recently I have found myself in the position of having to consider , every time we go out, what I would do in an emergency. So Joans desperation and fear fell all too real for me.

The only reason it lost a star rating is that there is too much focus on Lincoln and his very specific traits/like/dislikes.... knowing this does add to the story BUT Phillips goes into so much depth that at times these details slow the plot too much. Also as a mother I just want to tell Joan to stop pandering to that child!

Would definitely read more from this author!

I found this book a truly heartwalming read how sad and heart breaking to hear guns going off in the middle of a happy place you vist to watch your kids smiling at the animals and have fun but instead theres nothing but horror and heart break this is an amazing story about the intense love a of a mother protecting her own to the verge of death i found the firsrt half of the book a little big slow and slightly boring thats why i gave it 4 stars but the second half i raced through it was full of action and suspence and i just couldnt put it down.

3★
Kind of Hunger Games in the zoo. Mother and four-year-old son are at the end of a tiring day after one of their regular visits to the zoo. Lincoln seems to be a bright, somewhat different little boy who’s quite clingy, but then again, Joan is pretty clingy herself. As they’re on their way out, she hears pops and cracks – fireworks? But we're aware of what we’re reading, so we know better.

She’s on her way to the exit when she spots some bodies on the ground, so she spins around and backtracks, desperately searching for a way out or a safe place to hide. She sees what she thinks are men with guns, but she doesn’t see any people. They visit the zoo often, so she knows the layout and which enclosures might be empty or not have dangerous animals.

Lincoln begins to complain that he’s hungry, and she has to keep reminding him to be quiet – needing to scare him without terrifying him. By this time, she's overheard men laughing about blasting people and animals to smithereens.

”‘Shhhh,’ she says. ‘You have to be quiet.’ ‘O‑kay‑y,’ he says, in many syllables, more moan than word. She scans the darkness. He is too loud too loud too loud. She is running her hand over his head, pulling him closer to her, shushing and stroking, and none of it is working. She does not know how to buy more time. He cannot make noise.”

As they sit in hiding, she keeps reminiscing about his babyhood and how much she adores him. This mother and child are a single unit:

” With a lover you might have a perfect comfort with each other’s body, a sense that his body belongs to you and yours to him, and you might have total unselfconscious freedom to put a hand on his thigh, to put your mouth on his in the way you know he likes best, for him to curl around you in bed, pelvis to pelvis – but the two of you are still, ultimately, two different bodies, and the pleasure comes from the difference. With Lincoln, the line between their two selves is blurred. She bathes him and wipes off every bodily fluid, and he sticks his fingers in her mouth or catches his balance with a hand on the top of her head. He catalogues her freckles and moles as carefully as he keeps track of his own scrapes and bruises. He does not quite know that he is a being apart from her. Not yet. For now, her arm is as accessible as his arm – her limbs are equally his limbs. They are interchangeable.”

This reminds me of the mother and son in Room, except those two were completely isolated, which made their relationship understandable. In this story, I understand that she’s frightened she might lose her precious little boy, but there was too much of this for me. It felt like daydreaming rather than fear.

The point of view sometimes changed unexpectedly from Joan to a killer or to another potential victim, which I also didn’t care for. Different sections are introduced with the time of day, but the changed point of view didn’t coincide with this. Perhaps the finished version is better.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted, so quotes may have changed in the final copy. I expect there will be some thriller fans who will enjoy this more than I did.

This is an amazingly tense and impacting story. It's set over just a three hour timeline with very few characters, in fact, most of the book is mother and four year old son, Joan and Lincoln.

Very briefly so as not to give too much of the plot away, Joan and her son Lincoln are packing up to leave the zoo close to closing time. Lincoln doesn't want the zoo trip to finish and Joan is having a tussle getting him to put a spurt on before the zoo gates are locked for the night. As they get close to the gates, it becomes clear to Joan that the cracking noises she's been hearing are gun shots and around the exit path are bodies laid dead. Thinking quickly, Joan back tracks with Lincoln to try to hide from the gunman/men. I will say no more of the story, you really need to read this for yourself.

Every moment with Joan and Lincoln is tense and gripping. Imagine trying to keep a four year old quiet and occupied for goodness knows how long the siege will last. Joan doesn't want to frighten Lincoln with the reality of what's happening, that could lead to noise and tears, but she needs to instill in him the seriousness of their situation to make him obey her instructions.

The chapters are set into time frames starting at 4.55pm when Joan is coaxing Lincoln to get ready to leave the zoo which closes at 5.30pm, through to the nail-biting concluding climax at 8.05pm. There are some lovely moments of tender conversation between mother and son and also times of great frustration with such a young child needing the toilet, food and non-stop chatter.

This really is one of the most intensely riveting books I've ever read. I found it difficult to put down for a meal and at bedtime, and my thoughts stayed with the siege at the zoo for days afterwards. It's certainly a book to be recommended and an author to watch out for.

Wow what a brilliant, tense compelling thriller! .
Fierce Kingdom is a fast paced, heart-stopping novel, the story takes place over a few short hours and there is so much packed into it, you are barely given a chance to breathe.
The style of writing was great it flowed brilliantly and had me hooked from the start, I devoured the book in a day. The author has written this story so well that I could imagine it making a great film.

Definitely one to whizz through in a couple of sittings; tense, emotional, gripping - a brilliant read.
This is the first book I've read by Gin Phillips and I look forward to reading more.

Thank you!

Oh my goodness I don't know what to say about this book it blew me away! The plot is terrifyingly realistic and the mother son relationship touchingly depicted. As the turn of events went from bad to worse it became harder to read but I literally could not tear myself away. I devoured the whole book in one sitting and it was not until the end that I realised I had my teeth clenched the whole way through. Amazing writing that keeps you on the edge of your seat literally from the first page to the end.

Serving as metaphor for parenthood, Fierce Kingdom is also a tense thriller where a mother and child become trapped in a zoo whilst several shooters are at large.

I found it a hugely frustrating read because so much was left unresolved: did the baby survive? Did its mother? What happened to the teacher? What was the aftermath of the gun attack?

It also drifted in parts too. I was rather less transfixed by the mother's examination of her role as parent and her own past than I should have been. I found her insights suffocating which could have added to the tension created by the entrapment of mother and child, but it tugged at it in an annoying manner.

Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips

There is nothing more fierce than a mother protecting her child.

The zoo is one of Lincoln’s favourite places. The four-year-old boy and his mother Joan go all the time, to play in the sandpit with his little superhero figures and watch the animals. But this one particular day, just minutes from the zoo’s closing time, they hear the sound of a gun firing. Making their way towards the zoo’s exit, Joan sees shapes on the ground. They are the bodies of the shot. She picks Lincoln up and she runs for their lives.

Fierce Kingdom takes place over a period of just three hours. During those hours, Joan’s focus is entirely on saving her son. As they cling to each other, nothing else matters. We spend much of the novel following Joan’s thoughts as she works through each problem – how to keep Lincoln quiet, how to feed him, how not to be seen, how to escape the gunmen, how to survive. Joan is consumed by her fears and this brings up all manner of thoughts about her past, her preoccupations with death and loss, her love for her husband and child, her transition from independent woman to fiercely protective mother and wife.

We don’t just spend time with Joan, there are brief chapters that we spend with others, such as the teenage girl who works in the zoo restaurant, a school teacher and, chillingly, one of the gunmen, Robby, whose confused thoughts chart his progression from schoolboy to murderer.

This is a thoroughly exciting novel and extremely fast to read as Joan and Lincoln literally race around the zoo. The tension is maintained throughout and the fear feels very real.

I did have a couple of minor issues. Firstly, I was expecting a lot more to do with the zoo animals and they actually feature very little. The novel is set in the US and the schoolteacher reflects on the high number of her students who have committed murder, rape and armed robbery (a few are on Death Row). This distanced me from the events of the novel as it made me feel that this is being presented as an unsurprising event. If it had been in a European zoo, I may have shared more of the tension because it would have seemed extraordinary. Lastly, Joan makes a couple of decisions that puzzled me (why did she throw away a phone that she only needed to turn off?). But all of this is quibbling as Fierce Kingdom is undoubtedly a very entertaining and fast action thriller with an original figure at its heart – a woman who will do absolutely anything to save the life of her child.

This is the story of Joan and her son Lincoln who are visiting the zoo as they do most days. It is time for the Zoo to close and whilst making their way to the exit they hear shooting. This is the story of how a mother will do anything to keep her child safe. It is compulsive reading and draws you into the action. Joan is able to keep abreast with what is happening with her mobile and keep in touch with her husband. She joins with others but that is her downfall. It is a thought provoking book and makes you think about how you would react in a similar situation.

Joan takes her son Lincoln to the zoo regularly. The trip starts just like any other but when they start to make their way to the exit they find themselves in danger. Gunmen are in the zoo and are shooting people and animals at random. Joan has to keep herself and her son safe and try and leave the zoo without being seen. She knows that she will not be able to use the exit so she needs to find the best place to keep them both safe until the situation is brought under control.
Much of the storyline is focused on the relationship between Joan and Lincoln. There is the danger they are in but the way she attempts to keep him calm, relaxed and communicating is a strong point in the novel. I loved his little stories and the way they interacted. But there are also small parts of the novel that focus on one of the gunman, a zoo worker and a retired teacher who was also visiting the zoo at the time. Two of these people have had a connection in the past, the teacher and the gunman. This, along with the teacher’s memories of former pupils was one of the parts of the novel that lingered in my thoughts. Another, very chilling moment concerned what was found in a trash can. The decision that Joan had to make, ignoring any emotions, just to stay safe.
The period of time covered is only a short one but the author demonstrates very well how even a short time can feel like an eternity when survival is at stake. I have seen some comments about the ending on other reviews but I liked it. I thought it was real, life continues without onlookers and I didn’t necessarily need to know what happened to each of the individuals concerned.
With thanks to the publisher for the copy received.
You can purchase Fierce Kingdom from the 15th June at Amazon or Waterstones

Very intriguing premise (a mother and her four year old son are caught in a shooting at a zoo) but unfortuntely the execution failed to convince me.

Have you ever read a book that's brought out emotions in you that you weren't even aware of? Because that is what happened to me when reading this book. I had no idea that I had innate maternal feelings, I've never felt broody or motherly at any point in my life, but something about the writing in this book pulled all the right strings, and I suddenly had "motherly emotions". Phillip's writing is superb and if you're lucky enough to have a day off to read this, you will certainly get through it within a few hours.

This book is definitely a thriller, but because of the topics in it, all the "would I have done that?" questions running through your head, you can get completely lost in the moment of this story, only remembering Joan & Lincoln are hiding from gunmen when it's mentioned in Joan's narrative.

The characterisation in this is so good it's hard to explain how good it is. Phillips is a mother herself so she is clearly writing from her own heart here. Joan is exactly the way I imagine being a mother feels, Lincoln is a little bundle of joy throughout the darkness of the book, and Robby is a tragic and sociopathic killer.

I can't tell you that this book is perfect, because it's not. The writing, for me, pretty much was perfect, but the plot lacked a little, especially at the end when I was left wanting more. More explanation, or a more rounded conclusion.

Overall, this was a seriously emotive and beautiful novel. It will bring out some seriously strong emotions in you and it will thrill you. This gets a very strong 4/4.5 stars from me.

Fierce Kingdom is a frighteningly realistic story of a mother who finds herself caught up in a terrifying situation trying to protect her four year old son and stay alive.

Joan and 4 year old Lincoln often visit the zoo after school, however on this fateful day, just as they are leaving to go home she hears gunshots and screaming. What happens next is truly tense and the pace doesn’t let up throughout the story.

Lincoln is a wonderfully inquisitive and typically chatty 4 year old and following Joan’s attempt to keep him alive and safe and secure is heartbreaking. This book takes a long look at events that unfortunately are part of our crazy world and certainly made me need to hold my children close and tell them I love them.

I enjoyed reading this book and was completely engrossed in it . I found it gripping and full of tension. However, it was just a bit too intense for me and unpleasant in part, especially in relation to the shooters. There seems to be no redeeming qualities or areas of regret.

I probably couldn’t have chosen a better week to read Fierce Kingdom. After the recent events in Manchester, I had the difficult task of trying to explain to my granddaughter that sometimes the world can be an evil place. I told her that as adults we will always be there to protect her but that she also needed to be aware that to do this we may have to ask her to follow our instructions without hesitation, or asking why, if we ever need to keep her safe. I hated the fact that by saying this I have somehow taken away some of her childhood innocence but after reading this, I’m so glad that I did.

This has to be one of the most breathtaking and terrifying books I have ever read. It’s hits the ground running from the first few pages and doesn’t let up until the very end. Talk about a parents worse nightmare! And coming on the heels of recent atrocities, there are plenty of thought provoking happenings here that will have you questioning exactly how you would react if ever placed in a similar situation.

If Fierce Kingdom had been a film (and I would be VERY surprised if it isn’t snapped up by a production company very quickly!) then I would have been watching it from behind a cushion! My heart was in my mouth for pretty much the whole way through. The tension built to such an extent that at one point I realised I had been holding my breath and acting out in alongside Joan as she’s desperately trying to keep her child safe. And although mainly told from Joan’s POV at times we do also gets to see inside the head of the gunman stalking them which made for uncomfortable reading with its very relevant insights into what makes someone turn against their fellow citizens.

This book demands to be read in one intense sitting, it makes more sense to read it in the “real time” that it’s told in. So do make sure you have nothing else planned to do with your three hours as once you’re immersed in this tense and emotional adrenaline fuelled rush, you’re not going to able to tear yourself away! That is unless you have a small child and then you are probably going to want to hug them so tight they are going to do that “I love you but this is going on for far too long and I need to wriggle out of this embarrassing mum hug and go and play” thing they do.

Gin Phillips writes like a dream, able to conjure up images in your head quickly both of scenarios and her characters. And using her narrative like a protective weapon against the evil her characters are facing, she explores both the best and the worst of human nature and our “fight or flight” survival instincts. I’m still thinking about this novel days after finishing it -I want to go back to it and not have to leave Flora and Lincoln but to stay with their characters and follow them after that final page. That’s the sign of a BRILLIANT book for me and Fierce Kingdom has shot it’s way into my top books of 2017 so far and I’ve read A LOT of good books this year! I am highly recommending it to everyone I know!

Fierce Kingdom is a very special book that works on many levels ,a thriller ,the maternal bond between mother and child and even friendships built through fear .This book is a fast read ,so compelling and full of tension and very scary at times .I found myself holding my breath at times ,danger was everywhere !I loved the Zoo setting as well of the fear for the gunmen there was also the fear of the dangerous animals that might have been let loose .I did feel that the ending left me hanging ,I had no idea what had happened to everyone I would have liked to know that .This is a book I will remember .

Joan and her 4 year old son Lincoln spend the day in a secluded spot in the zoo. When rushing to the exit near closing time they sense something is wrong. The next thing Joan hears pops that she thinks is balloons and fireworks but it turns out to be 3 gunmen, shooting not only animals but people too. As, Joan knows her away around the zoo, She takes Lincoln into the depths of the zoo to hide from the gunmen,

This is a tense, original thriller and I liked the concept of it, But it didnt live upto too my expectations. The story was centered around Lincoln and his habits and the story I thought just went off track. It wasn't necessary for the story. Because of this i got a bit bored. I also wanted more of an interaction between the gunmen and also the animals. I also didn't get why the gunmen did what they did in the first place?

Good idea but just didnt hit it off.