Review: The Phoenix Files: Arrival by Chris Morphew

Luke is having a rough year. When his parents split up, his mum drags him to Phoenix, a brand-new town in the middle of nowhere.

But Phoenix is no ordinary town. There are no cars, no phones and no internet. Luke thinks this is as weird as it gets.

Then he discovers that someone is plotting to wipe out the human race. Phoenix is suddenly the safest and most dangerous place on earth.

And the clock is already ticking.

There are 100 days until the end of the world.


I didn't think I was going to like this book, as others had compared it to the 'Tomorrow' series by John Marsden which I didn't enjoy.  But Arrival turned out to be a pretty good book.

The basic storyline, stopping the end of the world, is a very popular one which sometimes annoys me a lot.  But this book was different - the strange town of Phoenix and the mysterious things the main characters find to hint at what's going on made Arrival more interesting and original than other 'saving the world' books.  These parts of the book also kept me reading, as I wanted to find out what each clue meant.

I found it easy to read and wasn't confusing at all.  Everything was well described and explained.  The only thing I didn't see being mentioned was how old the main characters were - it didn't really matter, but some of the things Luke said seemed quite young to me.  I imagined him to be about 12-13.

There was less action in this book than I thought there was going to be, but it didn't stop Arrival being a good read.  Sometimes the writing style seemed a bit like it was for younger readers, but it wasn't childish at all.  Although I enjoyed this book and have no real bad things to say about it, I didn't really feel gripped by it.

Overall I liked Arrival, and despite the kind of overused basic storyline is was made more original and interesting.  I just didn't feel particularly gripped or pulled in by it.

Rating: 3.5/5