Review Of The Book Elemental By Antony John
The book that I read this quarter is Elemental by Antony John. This book is about an unlikely hero rising up and saving his colony. His name is Thomas, he is 16 years old and he doesn’t have an element, or so he thinks. In the colonists of Hatteras Island minds, everybody on earth has an element whether it is earth, water, wind or fire, everyone has one except for Thomas. When the pirates capture all of the colonists except for Thomas and his buddies, he must take a leading role in recapturing their parents.
In the beginning of the book, the guardian of the water, Kyte, predicts a massive storm moving the colonists way. He sends a handful of people, including Thomas, to the hurricane shelter on Roanoke Island. When the sun sets, Guardian Lora, a nasty and moody person, dies. This leaves the group without a responsible adult to take care of them. In the morning, the group wakes up to an awful stench. They get outside to see what is wrong and they discover that their colony is on fire. They must survive on Roanoke. In the middle of the book, the group rows over to their burnt island to try and salvage what they can. The guardians have dune boxes that store all of their valuables hidden inside the dunes. They load the dune boxes onto the canoes and head back over to Roanoke. When Thomas asks his deaf brother, Griffin to find food because his element is earth. Griffin initially declines because his element is overshadowed by his ability to foresee tragedies but Thomas insists that the group needs food and sends Griffin on his way.
When Griffin leaves, Thomas and Alice go into skeleton town to see if they can find anything interesting. When they get to the main road, the two split up. Thomas goes into a white stone building labeled clinic. When he gets in, he finds a lantern that is plugged into the wall. He unplugs it because the group needs a lantern but when he touches it, the lantern is illuminated and he freaks out. This startles the woman upstairs that Thomas didn’t know was there. Her name is Tessa and she is Thomas’ grandmother. They bring her back to the group and Griffin is there with a ton of food. Tessa explains that elements are stronger on Roanoke and that the lantern illuminating for Thomas was no accident. His element is energy. Towards the end of the book, the group is in for the fight of their lives against the pirates to recapture the guardians.
As night falls, the group sails over the straight to where the pirates weighed anchor in an ‘almost’ hurricane. The pirates are out looking for the group but when they see them, they attempt to swim across. Some manage to swim across and even get onto the boat. At this point, the storm is now a hurricane and neither group can see 5 feet in front of them. The fight goes on until the group pushes the pirate captain overboard and they pull up the anchor. The group then proceeds into the sleeping quarters to see if they can find anything valuable. Thomas is now useful because he provides light to everyone. Then Dennis, a 9 year old thats element is farther along than an adults would ever be, announces that the eye of the storm is closing in. This proves crucial because the guardians were being kept right underneath them, literally. Once the eye rolls in, the group prys the floorboards up and get the guardians out. The guardians are very grateful and they take refuge in the bot until the hurricane passes over.
The book that I read was elemental by Antony John. I really liked this book because it was full of cliffhangers and very action packed. I think 3 defining moments for this book were when Thomas discovered his element, when the pirates set fire to Hatteras Island, and when the group rescued the guardians. Overall, I really enjoyed this book.
