By Kiran Ray, a Grade 8 student at Sir John Franklin High School
Have you ever wondered what the world would look like if aliens were invading the ecosystem with their animals, plants and machines? This book is a science fiction adventure book written by Kenneth Oppel. It is 404 pages and is the third book of the best-selling Bloom trilogy. Oppel wrote this story in 2020-2021 and it was published in 2021 by HarperCollins.
Thrive takes place north of the USA and on Vancouver Island in the present time. There are three main characters: Seth, Anaya and Petra. These 14-year-old kids are alien hybrids. Seth is a flyer, he has razor-sharp feathers and super fragile bones. Anaya is a runner, she has a lot of body hair, huge robust fingers and toenails. She can also run super fast because she shares 50 per cent of her DNA with aliens. Petra is a swimmer. She has some cool skin patterns in black and gold, and she has a tail of a scorpion so that when she stings someone with it, the tail pumps venom into the victim. Petra is a super-fast swimmer and she can stay under the surface for about 25 minutes without air.
In this book, the aliens are invading multiple spots on planet Earth, and the military and the hybrid kids are working together to stop the criptogens from eliminating the human race. A ship carrying three cryptogens crash lands, and the heroes, Anaya, Petra and Seth, come face to face with them for the first time. “Lucky for the humans, there are cryptogen rebels who are helping stop the alien invasion.” (from the back cover)
This story can be scary, sad, thrilling and can seem realistic at some points. This book’s point of view is different from most books, in that in each chapter, the point of view changes from Seth’s to Anaya’s to Petra’s point of view.
It seems like Kenneth Oppel’s purpose of this book is to entertain and he did a very good job. My favourite part of the book is when Petra and one of the rebel swimmers have to go retrieve a part of an old rebel ship so that their ship can fly. The crash site is situated in a big swamp so they get flown in by a military helicopter. When Petra and the swimmer get in the mucky water they get attacked by a big squid/wolverine-type animal that belongs on the cryptogen planet. After some struggles, they finally get the part they need and they get out of there and go back to their base, but something happens on the way back. The Wall Street Journal called the book, “so exciting that the pages might well have been printed with adrenaline.”
I think that this book is an awesome story about alien invitations; it is super interesting and very creative. I think that Kenneth Oppel did a great job describing the aliens so that the reader has a good picture of what they look like. This book is perfect for tweens and teens that are interested in sci-fi stories. The main characters are teenagers so I can relate to what the kids in the book think, feel and love. In one particular place, this book can be boring but in the end that part is very important to the story and how everything plays out.
Kenneth Oppel wrote his first novel at age 14 and hasn’t stopped writing since. He has written over 25 books and has won multiple awards such as the Governor General’s Award for children’s literature. The Bloom series has sold over 1 million copies. Oppel’s most popular genres are realistic fiction and sci-fi.
Overall I think that this book is a great ending to the Bloom series. I thought it was so entertaining and interesting that it was hard to put down. I recommend this book to any teenagers that like sci-fi adventure stories. They should read this book because it gives you a way to look at the world and see how lucky we really are. In conclusion, I give this book a 5-star rating.