Bonnie S. Calhoun: Thunder

By K. L. Bridgewater

The latest rave in books and movies is the Young Adult dystopian stories, such as The Giver, The Hunger Games, and Divergent. With these books being made into movies, tons of younger children can watch these movies without actually reading the books. Teens and adults are flocking to the movie theater to watch these movies that show a world without any hope and controlled by the government. Whether the world kills a chosen person for sport or controls the emotions of its citizens. The fear of the government controlling its citizens is becoming more mainstream.

Why not jump on the bandwagon and create an Inspirational version? That is exactly what Bonnie S. Calhoun did with her latest book, Thunder. There is even a prequel for free on the Kindle entitled, Tremors.

Her story features a world that has been ravished by volcanoes, typhoons, tornadoes, and many other natural disasters. The world is a different landscape. A group of people hid in the Mountain when the troubles began. They have their own air system, and they are not allowed to leave the mountain to associate with the savages who have been harmed by the poison leaking into the air.

On the outside, Selah Rishon Chavez is betrothed to marry someone a month after her eighteenth birth remembrance. Selah doesn’t want to marry someone she has never met or loves. Her entire life she has seen her father capture “Landers,” a group of people who crash on their beach with markings on their bodies. The scientist in the Mountain pays a huge bounty for a “Lander” with the mark still on their body.

As the story begins, Selah wants to prove to her brothers and father that she can hunt too. She waits around on the beach for a Lander to arrive. His name is Bodhi, and he protects her from some bullies who wanted to rough her up. Then her two older brothers come and steal her prize. When Selah wakes up the next morning, she has the mark of the Landers on her collarbone, believing it was a prank by her brothers, she runs to her mother, but it won’t come off. Her mother explains her origin and more shocking information about her past and future.

Here begins Selah’s quest to free Bodhi and hunt for her real father. The story weaves in and out of the woods, a library, and on machines deep inside the mountain. All leading up to a daring escape from the mountain with an army of Landers who have been captured and prison by the scientist who performed experiments on the victims.

I read The Hunger Games when a friend loaned them to me and did not like them at all, but I actually enjoyed Bonnie’s version. It had killing of people, but it was more emotional for Selah. They didn’t just move on like it was common life. Bonnie made the characters more realistic with their emotions and how they acted.  Thunder also has romance between Selah and Bodhi, but the emotions are new to her, so we watch as she experience these odd feelings for the first time.

I hope they make Bonnie’s book into a movie, so the fans of Young Adult dystopia fiction know there is a more hopeful version out there. This was the first book in the series. The second book is called Lightening, which releases in Fall 2015.

I received a complimentary copy from Revell publishers and all the opinions are mine.