Official Review: The Fencible Girl by Christopher Hegan
Posted: 17 Aug 2014, 15:45
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Fencible Girl" by Christopher Hegan.]
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I wasn't really sure about what I was going to get when I started reading this. I have a habit of not reading the description because I like to be thoroughly surprised and not have any idea what's coming when I start reading the book. It's led me astray before but not this time, I liked this and was surprised when I saw it didn't have more reviews. I hope that changes soon this really was great piece of work.
The Fencible Girl is based in New Zealand, with the new colonies trying to live side-by-side with the natives. Unfortunately not long after our main characters meet, Winnie and Rawiri, Rawiri's village is all but wiped out by strange white men. His mother is kidnapped along with all the able bodied people of the village. Rawiri and Winnie take off to rescue Rawiri's mother, chasing after the strange white men who turn out to be pirates. Meanwhile her father a major general in her town is out looking for her, bringing along his crew, and leaving behind Winnies distraught family.
I love the character development in this novel. We see life-altering changes from almost all of the characters, not just the main ones but also the ones who are left behind to pick up the pieces of their broken neighbor village where people were slaughtered. Her brother was the most notable change, taking of his fear to protect a land that is not his own.
There was a stunning lack of racism in this novel. Don't get me wrong racism is bad but considering the time period there was not enough to make that part of the story believable. Some people were obviously racist or at least just very rude, but for the most part people didn't really seem to mind others. Winnies family was understandable they'd lived in Africa for a great while it's the rest of the village that stunned me, especially the older step-grandmother Elizabeth.
I think the plot line for this novel is magnificent. It's all tied very neatly in a bow at the end too, there are no leftover strings when all is said and done, and the ending I thought was very satisfying. Getting there was nice too, each line and chapter fell into the next without straying too much from the story.
At the end of the story I noticed that this was a work of fiction but with real facts in it, including the very famous rifle throughout the story, and the indigenous people in the story that were kidnapped did exist and some of them continue to exist today. Not the exact ones from the story but I still thought that it was neat that the story was written with facts in mind, for me it made the story just a little bit better.
I give this 4 out of 4 stars.
***
Buy "The Fencible Girl" on Amazon
Share This Review
The Fencible Girl is based in New Zealand, with the new colonies trying to live side-by-side with the natives. Unfortunately not long after our main characters meet, Winnie and Rawiri, Rawiri's village is all but wiped out by strange white men. His mother is kidnapped along with all the able bodied people of the village. Rawiri and Winnie take off to rescue Rawiri's mother, chasing after the strange white men who turn out to be pirates. Meanwhile her father a major general in her town is out looking for her, bringing along his crew, and leaving behind Winnies distraught family.
I love the character development in this novel. We see life-altering changes from almost all of the characters, not just the main ones but also the ones who are left behind to pick up the pieces of their broken neighbor village where people were slaughtered. Her brother was the most notable change, taking of his fear to protect a land that is not his own.
There was a stunning lack of racism in this novel. Don't get me wrong racism is bad but considering the time period there was not enough to make that part of the story believable. Some people were obviously racist or at least just very rude, but for the most part people didn't really seem to mind others. Winnies family was understandable they'd lived in Africa for a great while it's the rest of the village that stunned me, especially the older step-grandmother Elizabeth.
I think the plot line for this novel is magnificent. It's all tied very neatly in a bow at the end too, there are no leftover strings when all is said and done, and the ending I thought was very satisfying. Getting there was nice too, each line and chapter fell into the next without straying too much from the story.
At the end of the story I noticed that this was a work of fiction but with real facts in it, including the very famous rifle throughout the story, and the indigenous people in the story that were kidnapped did exist and some of them continue to exist today. Not the exact ones from the story but I still thought that it was neat that the story was written with facts in mind, for me it made the story just a little bit better.
I give this 4 out of 4 stars.
***
Buy "The Fencible Girl" on Amazon