Bryony Pearce - Raising Hell - Book Review - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

This is the latest book by Bryony Pearce which was published just this month (June 2021) by Indie publisher UCLan Publishing based in Preston. Raising Hell is a great genre-busting plot that will have you completely engrossed as you romp through this highly entertaining all-out action YA Horror. 

What did you do last summer?  Well, Ivy and her friends did a very stupid thing and now there’s a rift letting dark matter into the world. In walks one of the more colourful characters you are likely to meet this summer, Ivy Elisabeth Mann. 

Ivy and her Matchette (MATILDA) need to save the world from a zombie apocalypse and, even more so, from OURSELVES! As every teenager appears to be raising the dead with badly gone wrong black magic. The HELLHOUNDS are coming but Ivy's gran is trapped inside a cat! This is a very imaginative idea that makes the plot so chaotic and crazy that YOU will have to read it. You'll find yourself fully immersed in this dark fantasy twisted plot that has great depth. I liked the fact that all the main protagonists were generally females. 

Another aspect I really loved was feeding off the emotions of all the different characters involved in the book. Drama, tension, angst, and bags of personality are all skilfully weaved into this story web that tackles the dark forces of nature. Even though it's not meant to be funny, it did leave me chuckling in a few places. However, it might be just my sense of humour in the face of death and facing things from the darkest reaches of HELL! 

I hope you have been able to follow this fast-paced adventure that starts in a school and ends in the cemetery. The book is what I would call teenage COOL - it's very relatable and off the wall. You'll journey between London and HELL in the blink of an eye. It's a gothic rampage set in an urban fantasy slipstream. It's time for action so pick up this book and give it a read. GO on, I can guarantee you will LOVE it. 

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Bryony Pearce - Phoenix Burning Blog Tour 2016 (Book Cover Design Process)

I am really pleased to be apart of this blog tour for Bryony Pearce’s second book in the "Phoenix" young adult novel series, which was recently published on 10th March 2016. I really enjoyed reading this book, so why not find out more by reading my review HERE. 

I swear my allegiance to the #BansheeCrew!  We are feared and fearless!  Come and join the crew and find out more about the process of book cover design. 

I was very excited when I was given the brief to design the cover of Phoenix Burning by Bryony Pearce. After really enjoying working on Phoenix Rising, I couldn't wait to start work on the sequel. 


I was asked to create a strong cover which would sit well next to the first title. Ruth, the editor, explained the main themes of the book – the importance of the sun, in particular – and explained how Toby and Ayla's relationship develops. I then went on to read the manuscript. It was a thrilling read, so I knew I also had to express this tension and suspense on the cover. 


As a starting point, I revisited the cover of Phoenix Burning. This cover design also focuses on three main elements – Toby, Ayla & the skull and crossbones. These were integrated in a clever way and the cover also fitted the YA genre. 

I then progressed to researching sun icons and experimenting with these, working out how best to show Toby and Ayla. I found that Ayla looking straight ahead was really effective, and contrasting this with the figure of Toby running also worked well. It was at this stage that I started adding more elements to the design – I chose to focus on the monks, who are a crucial and sinister element of the plot. 


My next step was to share my design with the rest of the Stripes team and with Bryony Pearce, the author. I wanted to make sure that the cover design fitted with their expectations, and that Bryony felt it was true to her story. I was also interested to find out which of the design elements caught their attention first. Some people were drawn to Toby running, others picked out Ayla's face first and others saw the monks’ faces within the sun's flames. From this, I made the decision to emphasise the sun itself, making it much clearer. This refining stage was key – once the sun was clearer, everything seemed to fall in to place. 


Once you read the book, the relevance of each of the elements becomes clear. However, without any knowledge of the story, they work together to convey the book’s energy and excitement. I hope you agree!

Bryony Pearce was born in 1976 and has two young children. She completed an English Literature degree at Corpus Christi College Cambridge in 1998 and was a winner of the SCBWI anthology 'Undiscovered Voices' in 2008.

Website: http://www.bryonypearce.co.uk
Twitter: @BryonyPearce 

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Bryony Pearce - Phoenix Burning (Phoenix Series) Book Review

Toby and Ayla have to infiltrate a sect of sun worshippers to steal the equipment their ships need. They enter a trial to be chosen as the Sun and the Moon, a position of great honour for the sect. As the trial commences, Toby and Ayla discover the true cost of failure. But there are other young couples who are equally desperate to win...Can Toby and Ayla survive days without sleep, hours sitting in the blistering sun and a deadly maze? They'll need to work together to win - their mission depends on it...

This is the second book in the anticipated Phoenix series by Bryony Pearce, which will be published by Stripes Publishing early March 2016. We set sail once again, a month later, on another perlious voyage with Toby and the Phoenix crew, as they set course cross the junk-filled high seas into the unknown. The mission is to find an island where they can settle, but life is never that easy for the Phoenix crew, as their ship has a missing crucial component. They also have to decipher a map which reads like bizarre poetry, what could possibly go wrong?

The fun and games rise again in another action adventure romp that will superglue your fantasy imagination to every page that you read. The Banshee crew are still lurking, offering to cut a deal with the feisty Alya at the centre of the mischievous plan to steal the equipment their ships need. All of this leads to a crazy encounter on land with the sun worshippers, which is so far removed from the first book, that it feels like you are reading a standalone novel, which might be good if you fancy popping head first into this book first. 

The plot has a very brutal and dark side as the trial commences. Toby and Ayla cannot fail, as there are deadly consequences, but all the young couples are equally desperate to win ..... what will happen then? This part of the story is so captivating to read; the cruelty and the challenges that lie ahead are very creative and enjoyable to read. You will be sucked into the adventure with a keenness of an olympic swimmer where only the best couple will survive. They need to survive days without sleep, sit in the blistering sun without water and endure days without food. Never mind the daily gruelling tasks which are a battle of the mind and strength.

It was nice to dip my toes back into a good Young Adult read, as most of the books that I've recently been reading and enjoying have been middle grade stories. This filled a nice gap between the ages with a clear creative plot, quick easy dialogue and just the right amount of world building and description to get your imagination working. Once you get past the first few chapters, this is a great book to escape into. It has an exotic location and dystopian/junkpunk setting which is full of action; a high sea pirate adventure with an eco twist.  

The cryptic puzzles to solve are very cool, so much so that they might even just get your brain going. Check some of them out at the back of the book. The ending will have you hooked with the surprise twists and turns which will lead you nicely into the third book. This is a great series that I'm really enjoying reading; it is something slightly different from other mainstream books that are being published at the moment. 

Bryony Pearce - Phoenix Rising Blog Tour 2015 (Good and Evil in Phoenix Rising)

I am really pleased to be apart of the blog tour for Bryony Pearce’s new YA novel, Phoenix Rising, which was published on 1st June 2015, published by Stripes Publishing.  This will be followed by the exciting sequel Phoenix Burning in 2016 which I can not wait to read! 

But first who will you pledge your allegiance to?

Are you #PhoenixCrew or #BansheeCrew?

I swear my allegiance to the #BansheeCrew!  We are feared and fearless!  We are merciless and amoral!  We believe in the ideals of strict hierarchy.  We are mercenary and we will not show weakness!  We will survive at all costs!

Today I have an awesome guest post by Bryony Pearce which is about Good and Evil in Phoenix Rising. 

One the themes I always explore in my writing is the capacity of man for evil. My books are always populated with monsters, but not the dripping, green, sharp-clawed kind; they contain people who have committed great evil and characters with the potential to commit even greater evil.

I investigate the ways that good people could be turned to bad and try to make the reader understand the decisions they make.

I like to think that my main characters sit firmly in the grey areas. Toby has a good moral grounding and an innate sense of right and wrong, but he is also a pirate, who robs the port-master and is always willing to fight.

When I was researching my first book, I came across the Milgram experiment which was conducted in Yale after the war. This experiment has always fascinated me. One of the questions the scientists wanted to answer was whether or not ordinary Americans would have done the same as ordinary Germans were known to have done, during the war, or if the German personality was somehow intrinsically, more evil.

During the Milgram experiment students had to give an actor (who they thought was another student) electric shocks. Almost two thirds kept going until they thought the other ‘student’ was unconscious or dead. They were not coerced or forced in any way; in fact the only prompting was from the researchers who, dressed in white lab coats, would periodically say “the research requires that you continue” when the students faltered.

The answer, it seemed, was that given the same situation, Americans would have done just the same as the Germans.

The experiment has proved of enduring appeal. Last year a game show was held in France. There, 80% of people (who thought they were contestants) continued to shock the other ‘contestant’ way beyond the point of humane behaviour – to the point that the victim stopped screaming and fell silent.

It is both fascinating and terrifying to me, the idea that 80% of us, people who might lend you a tenner, or smile indulgently at your baby as they pass you in the street, would blindly follow authority to the extent of hurting or even killing another human being.

Another experiment followed the Yale one - it was done with Chimpanzees. One was starved if he did not shock the other. The chimpanzee preferred to starve himself rather than injure a fellow.

Are chimpanzees really more empathetic than people? What is it about man that enables him to treat his fellows with ‘inhumanity’?
In the Phoenix Rising books I have characters who are set up as ‘baddies’ who the reader should come to understand and even love. I have characters set up as ‘goodies’ but who have made mistakes and have dark pasts. No one character in my book is the real ‘baddie’ every action can be seen from multiple points of view.

I write according to the adage, ‘everyone is the hero of their own story’. Even the bad guys.

Phoenix Rising has been described as a swashbuckling adventure, and it is. I also hope that is makes the reader think, how would we behave if put in the same situations, a post apocalyptic world, where resources are at a premium and piracy is the only way to survive.

To find out more about Bryony or her work, please visit her website: www.bryonypearce.co.uk or follow her on Twitter @BryonyPearce.

Don’t forget to follow the rest of the brilliant blog tour! 

Also check out my book review: This story was like a breath of salty fresh air rolling on the briny sea. I have been waiting for a book like this all year and finally it landed. This is a swashbuckling adventure with both swagger and attitude. It was so easy to get immersed in this junk-fuelled, dystopian vision. Based around a near future setting, the story takes a look at environmental issues in a candid way. In a world full of political collapse, where fossil fuels have run out and democracy is a distant memory, the main characters set out on a quest to find renewable energy sources. More Here...