Book Review: Terra Electrica: The Guardians of the North by Antonia Maxwell #TheWriteReads #BlogTour

My dear bookish friends,

Are you looking for a gripping tale full of adventure, fantasy, with a theme of science and an underlying environmental warning? Look no further, you have got to read Terra Electrica by Antonia Maxwell! I read it in one sitting, because it was so gripping and I just couldn’t stop! Please keep on reading to find out more about the book, and for my detailed review below!

A huge thank you to TheWriteReads, Neem Tree Press and the author for my spot on this blog tour and my e-copy of the boom (none of which influenced my review or rating in any way).

About the Book

The last ice cap has melted, and the world is on the brink of collapse. A deadly force—Terra Electrica—has been unleashed. It feeds on electricity. It is infecting civilization.

In this chaotic, rapidly changing reality, 12-year-old Mani has lost her family and community to the Terra Electrica. Armed only with some ancestral wisdom and a powerful, ancient wooden mask she was never meant to inherit so soon, she suddenly finds herself responsible for the fate of the world.

My Review

I absolute loved this book and finished it in one sitting – that hasn’t happened to me in a while!

Mani is all by herself now – the deadly illness has taken the lives of everyone she knew, even her mother, and now she and her father are the only ones left. But they are running out of food, and so her father has to go and leaves her behind in a cave with a warning: Do not leave, and whatever you do, keep away from the evil scientists specifically!

And so, Mani waits. Day and night, all alone, with just the mask to keep her company. But not just any mask – it is a mask given to her from her mother for when she is ready. When is that? Surely now, all alone, is a good time to finally put it on? And Mani finds out that the mask is indeed special – it lets her transcend time and space and she finds herself in a different world, with a polar bear and crow by her side. They feel familiar somehow, though Mani can’t quite make out what they are trying to say to her; especially Ooshaka, the polar bear, seems wise beyond her understanding. And so, whenever she wears the mask, Mani feels less lonely. Though soon, her provisions run out and she must venture out, or starve in the cave…

What Mani comes across is scary – no humans anywhere, just mud and sand and water, but then she comes across bones – human remains – that look like they were burned. What is the meaning of all this? Was it the disease? Finally, Mani comes across a strange building and, as she comes closer, she finds a man inside. He has food, he has shelter, but, as Mani soon discovers, he also carries the disease. Her father’s word’s echo in her mind: Stay away from the evil scientists…

I really liked Mani. She has so much to figure out, and she is all by herself. She is hanging onto the thread of hope to one day seeing her father again, but having lost everybody and everything else, that hope is not much. Against her father’s warnings, she has to befriend the scientist and catches the disease too. But then, Leo and Mani discover something incredible, and soon Mani will learn that she holds more power than she ever thought possible…

The author has done a wonderful job showing the fear and confusion in Mani, but what I really liked about her character that despite everything she has been through and has yet to master, she is still curious and open-minded, hopeful and not ready to give up. Despite the gravity of her situation – and she often finds herself in danger – she doesn’t give up, and she doesn’t rely on anybody but herself to figure things out, which I found really refreshing. At the same time though, she doesn’t shy away from accepting help when it is offered to her, and even keeps her heart open to make friends, even in people that seem unlikely to be her friends at first.

The idea of the Terry Electrica – the deadly illness that has taken the lives of so many – was unique and different, even though it seemed to remind me of a TV show or something but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Just the way that the illness showed in the eyes of those who were sick seemed to remind me of something, pulling at the corners of my mind, but alas! The way it is described and the fact that Leo tried to understand how it works, the way he tried to look at it without emotion – like a true scientist – was interesting, and even though I was scared that he would, at some point, actually turn into an evil scientist, kept me on edge, and so I had to keep on reading and reading to the very end!

The only small downside, if you can even call it that, was that I would have liked to learn more about Mani’s world. She is fine living in a cave, sleeping on a thin animal skin, she eats worms from the mud without flinching, which made me expect some sort of medieval world, but then again when she comes across Leo’s science lab there is electricity and there are beds and other commodities, and by the beach they pick up plastic bottles with caps to make a makeshift boat, and then, of course, there is the Arc – the big science company between the mountains where Mani expects her father to wait for her, and where Leo is sure they can get help. On their journey, Leo and Mani come across flooded houses and find furniture and guitars and pans and pots and food in tins; there is a cottage in the woods that sounds like a ‘normal’ house from our time as well, and then they come across a group of people living in tents. I had a bit of a hard time merging in my head Mani and the way she was used to living and then the other people and places that didn’t seem too far away from her, where a more modern life seemed to have been possible. But then, of course, we know from the blurb that the last bit of ice has melted, suggesting that the book is actually taking place in the future. So, all of that was a bit hard to make into a cohesive world in my head, but it was a gripping story nonetheless. In my mind, I was imagining something like a video game when they went on their journey, and when the wolf joined them that world reminded me of Zelda! So even though I couldn’t quite understand how it all worked, I still had a good time reading it.

All in all I can say that I really enjoyed reading Terra Electrica and getting to know Mani and learning about her special powers. There is a deeper meaning behind the story which I really liked, and I can imagine this could be a great book for children to read with their parents and to ask questions as well. The story is gripping from the start, it is full of adventure, fantasy and unlikely friendships, and the topic of loss has been handled with great care. I liked that despite the bleak outlook, there was hope to be found among its pages, and so I recommend this book to middle grade fans of all ages!

4.5 stars from me for this unique middle grade!

Thank you all so much for reading!

xoxo