Great Reads for Great Readers

 

Before the Rising, by Keryn Powell.                Young Adults.

 

 

           How many visitors to the beautiful New Zealand East Coast city of Napier have had their photos taken next to the lovely statue of Pania of the Reef, legendary sea-nymph who defied her people for love of Karitaki, a handsome human, only to have her love betrayed and tragedy ensue, but not before having a child.  In Maori legend the descendants of this union still exist, as Keryn Powell’s debut novel attests, and it is up to them to prevent their world from certain destruction.

            And that’s not so easy when you don’t even know you’re a descendant!

            Eighteen-year-old Rebecca lives with her adoptive mother Mary, a midwife at the local hospital.  She has just finished high school and is trying to decide what career options appeal the most – hopefully, something connected with the sea, for which she has a great love.  She is excited too, because her best friend Polly’s older Marine Biologist brother Martin is back in Napier trying to finish his thesis for his PhD;  he has asked her to be his assistant for a week as he studies pods of dolphins and other sea life on a chartered boat – how lucky is that?  What a great start to the holidays, and Rebecca cannot deny that Martin is even more interesting than the creatures of which he is so knowledgeable – until she realises that another ‘crew-member’ is Jessica, Perfect Jessica, she of the gorgeous looks and figure, and Rebecca’s long-time bully and tormentor. 

            It will obviously be another of those weeks.  Rebecca will just have to bite the bullet:  so much for her timid feelings of attraction – Jessica will be all over Martin – he doesn’t stand a chance!

            But the very opposite happens, and Rebecca finds that her natural swimming and diving skills in the water, especially near Pania’s reef, introduce her to a people she has never known before until they decided to reveal themselves:  her own Sea-people, relatives of whom she would never have been aware, had they not shown themselves.  And they revealed their identity because the world as we have always known it, is in mortal danger – from the Rising.  The implacable, unstoppable rising of the sea-level everywhere, resulting in terrible coastal destruction and huge loss of life, thanks to unscrupulous trickery and misinformation by WeatherTech, a huge international profit-driven firm now established in New Zealand:  only Rebecca as a direct descendant of Pania, holds the key (which she doesn’t even know she has) to averting tragedy.

            Ms Powell takes us on a wild but importantly credible ride with the Sea-people, Kaitiaki (guardians) of an environment the human race has so shamefully desecrated.  And her great affection for Napier and its still-beautiful coast and wondrous wild-life shines;  she has done her city proud.  Not every ‘t’ is crossed at the conclusion of this great story – can this mean there will be a sequel?  Hope so!  FOUR STARS.