The Book Stacks

The Ellie Chronicles – Circle of Flight
By John Marsden

Ellie Linton’s life has been anything but what anyone her age in today’s world would consider ‘normal’. Her parent’s are dead, she’s running the family farm, she lives with a younger boy named Gavin, she’s been through war playing a very direct part as a soldier…and she’s not even twenty-one years old.

While she admits being addicted to stress from her missions during the war, Ellie still appreciates her life on the farm and with Gavin. However, when a rebel group from across the border decides to kidnap Gavin, Ellie is forced back into missions, guns, and once again risking her life for what she holds dear.

Circle of Flight is the third book of The Ellie Chronicles. Despite having not read the first two books, I found this book to be a good enough read to inspire me to hunt down the first two books (and other related books) to read.

The Ellie Chronicles is written not in diary style, but in Ellie’s voice with a sprinkling of ‘loose’ language and side-tracked thoughts. However, neither the voice nor the language distracts from the story. I found myself wondering where it was going when she got to thinking about things a couple times, but it always tied right back into the story. Ellie’s voice is one that helps the story along and you as the reader to trust the narrator.

As someone who hasn’t read much of this genre and even less of war-related writing, I definitely recommend this book. There is violence, but it’s not graphic enough (in my opinion) to disturb, and there are basic themes like loyalty and love that are easy to relate to.