An exciting adventure, or rather two adventures as teenagers Georgia in England and Julius in Nigeria deal with very different situations and problems until, eventually, their paths converge. This is Robert Muchamore's usual style involving unusual but entirely believable characters, carefully drawn settings and genuine motivations and emotions. It is pacy and optimistic, with plenty of tension and unexpected incidents.
This story has some dubious moral stances which could provoke vigorous debate amongst teenage readers. This is one reason I hope Arctic Zoo achieves a large readership. Another is that it deals with those eternal coming-of-age themes of 'finding out who I am' and 'deciding what is important to me'.
The larger themes are surprisingly adult: manipulating the media, terrorism, bankruptcy, fraud and bribery, violence and threats, mental health and grief. This is certainly not 'just' a teenage or YA novel.
This story has some dubious moral stances which could provoke vigorous debate amongst teenage readers. This is one reason I hope Arctic Zoo achieves a large readership. Another is that it deals with those eternal coming-of-age themes of 'finding out who I am' and 'deciding what is important to me'.
The larger themes are surprisingly adult: manipulating the media, terrorism, bankruptcy, fraud and bribery, violence and threats, mental health and grief. This is certainly not 'just' a teenage or YA novel.