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  • Writer's pictureIan K Ferguson

Book Review of The Tree of Rebels by Chantelle Atkins

The Tree of Rebels is quite simply compelling story telling. In some respects it is simple in so much that it would engage the full-blown attention of its teenage audience (for which it aims accurately) on the other, after I felt the need to read it for a second time, it contains many interwoven complex themes which will engage a more mature reader (like me).

The main character is a soon to be fourteen year old girl, Lissie Turner, who lives in Province 5 at the start of the next century with her parents and Great Grandmother (the oldest survivor of the Old World), who is the guiding hand on much of what is to follow. Province 5 is part of a re-born society, the New World, after wars have destroyed the Old World (the one we know now). The New World, although rustic in terms of how it functions, coerces its citizens to embrace peace, harmony and happiness. The questions are how is this achieved, is it ethical and who does it benefit?

The people of Province 5 are in essence kept in ignorance behind a fence from which it is forbidden to venture beyond. But they are kept happy by having all they need provided for them, food to eat, wood to burn for warmth and clothes to wear, by those who ruled. People never questioned whether there was more to see and experience of the world beyond the fence. Until Lissie happens to spot a dog (which were supposed to have been wiped out because of the risks and dangers they presented), escapes under the fence to follow it and stumbles upon a lone apple tree which is also not supposed to exist. The rebel tree. The only things allowed to grow were under the Domes which had been built to produce all the food anybody needed. These two discoveries, the discovery of things she had been told no longer existed, changes the way Lissie thinks about everything. Her thinking is further provoked by the utterances of her ailing Grandma along with an old, old diary she had kept as the Old World fell apart including the reasons why.

So Atkins now has a compelling story but it is by the skill of the story teller’s art she stitches in the other complexities which keep the pages turning. Let me run through some of these without going into any details, you will just have to read it for yourselves.

There is teenage bonding (with her best friend Ned), teenage jealousies and teenage angst. There are hints at the issues of global warming, genetic engineering and internet lies (although the internet doesn’t exist in the New World). Fights concerning the power and corruption of authority abound – the Government vs the People, children vs parents. There is oppression and rebellion and questions with no answers (or at least answers people are allowed to hear). There is more but different readers will find there own themes as they read and that is why this book is so compelling.

In many respects the Tree of Rebels is an Orwellian warning about what is happening to our world now but then skips off in an almost Disneyesque manner (I thought of the Lion King). In other ways it brought to mind a Harry Potter like clash of good against evil with the added unbreakable camaraderie forged between Lissie and Ned.

I believed and cared about all the characters (even the ones you’re not supposed to like) and the dialogue, particularly the naïve interchanges between the teenagers, is of the kind real teenagers (in my experience) engage in especially when they are in conflict.

With a breathtakingly exciting climax stacked with twists I never saw coming (the first time I read it) the author makes you think. Think about choices we all have to make. If I could give this brave work six stars I would. Oh yes, one more thing, there are enough tears shed through these pages to fill several Olympic sized swimming pool, have a box of Kleenex handy when you pick it up.

Ian K Ferguson

14th August 2018

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