Burning Kingdoms: The Internment Chronicles, Book 2
By Andrea Beach,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Second, stronger installment focuses on characters.
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What's the Story?
Morgan Stockhour, her remaining family, and a few fellow rebels have escaped their floating home world of Internment and crash-landed on the Earth they weren't even sure really existed. They've been taken in by Jack Piper, who's the top advisor to the king, and his five children. The vastness of life on the ground is unsettling to the group whose whole world is a small island-city, and the people on the ground enjoy levels of personal freedom those on Internment could only imagine. But this new kingdom is not without its own horrors, and it's proving too much for Morgan's best friend, Pen. Morgan becomes convinced that to save Pen they'll have to get back to Internment somehow. But the only way to make returning even remotely possible would be Morgan betraying a secret that Pen discovered about the two kingdoms. What will Morgan do to save the ones she loves?
Is It Any Good?
Lauren DeStefano's eloquent prose perfectly captures the on-the-brink feeling of power and possibility, of being "young and bright and waiting to see what we are capable of." Without pandering to teens, she creates a believable, relatable narrator; questions about where we feel at home, how to love each other, how to protect each other, even how to be mad at each other, and where to place our faith are explored with a fine, deft touch and a lyrical ear for language.
The new world in which the group finds itself is as vividly realized as Internment was in Perfect Ruin and provides a lot of food for thought, especially in contrast to Internment. The story never veers offtrack but builds tension steadily to an ending that, now that we're so invested in the characters, will have us continuing to think long after finishing and eagerly anticipating the next installment.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why so many dystopian and fantasy books are part of a series. Does it keep you coming back for more? Which other series have you read? Are there any series you didn't finish?
Why do you think the author chose the quote from Carl Sagan at the beginning? Do you know who Carl Sagan was?
Did you read Perfect Ruin? Which book did you like better, or did you like them the same? What do you think will happen to the characters next?
Book Details
- Author: Lauren DeStefano
- Genre: Contemporary Fiction
- Topics: Brothers and Sisters, Friendship
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
- Publication date: March 10, 2015
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 12 - 18
- Number of pages: 320
- Available on: Nook, Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: July 12, 2017
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