Flight of the Fantail - Steph Matuku
This is a new book in the English department, another by an up-and-coming new Maori author, and whoo boy it ramps up quickly! At the end of the first chapter a bus full of highschool students crashes in the New Zealand bush. Most die. A few chapters later one student needs his leg operated on by another student. A few chapters later another student turns murderous. Somewhere in the midst of all this the survivors begin getting nose-bleeds and seeing visions. Eventually a spaceship and a sinister corporation are introduced. It's so much and it all just keeps escalating!
The book is a page-turner, helped by the amount of plot and the very short chapters (the shortest chapter is made up of a single line of text), and I can imagine students really enjoying it for its realistic New Zealand teens (well, before they turn murderous), its fast pace, and even its occasional romantic subplots (which do at times get a bit more raunchy than my liking).
Did I enjoy it? I keep asking myself that.
...I got through it very quickly, and I keep talking about it to people. I have even had a few students ask for a book to read and I have recommended it as a page-turner....
...But its very weird. And quite 'a lot.'
It might be one you need to read for yourself in order to decide. I think I'm still processing it.
Completed 16 May 2023.
Comments
Post a Comment