“Bomb Island” a Heart-Pounding Read Rich with Symbolism https://ift.tt/Qexi4Wt
A brash young man comes to terms with his own violent nature in Stephen Hundley’s debut novel. Set in modern-day Georgia, Bomb Island tells the story of Fish, the youngest member of a somewhat infamous commune that lives on a small island just off the coast of the fictional town of Royals.
At fifteen, Fish expects to spend his summer working The Atomic Pleasure Cruise, a glass-bottom boat on which his family – Whistle, his “sage-mother,” Reef, the “young man” and Nutzo, “the old man” – gives tours of the dead atomic bomb at the bottom of the channel between Bomb Island and the mainland.
However, through a series of strange, life-altering events, beginning with a scrap with the elusive white tiger of Bomb Island, Sugar, Fish begins to grow uneasy about the trajectory of his future on the island. Told through multiple perspectives and in three parts, Bomb Island is tense as a tightrope, tenderhearted in its found family dynamics and perfectly reckless in its pacing, making for a heart-pounding read that ended almost entirely too quickly for my liking.
The most gripping thing about Bomb Island is its main cast. The characters are vividly portrayed and motivated not only by survival but their deep love for each other and their desire to continue living together as a family.
Transplants from Atlanta, Reef, Nutzo and Fish are the remaining residents from a group led by Whistle, who came to the island to start over. In the first chapter, however, it is painfully clear that Bomb Island isn’t as safe as it may have been in the past. Fish, having observed Sugar hunting the wild horses on the beach one morning, finds himself the new object of Sugar’s attention for a startling, treacherous moment. When he manages to escape with only a cut and has doubts about whether or not Sugar belongs on the island with them, Whistle gently insists that running from Sugar isn’t the solution.
While Sugar seems to be the catalyst of the drama between commune members, life on Bomb Island is also threatened by other factors: Nutzo’s mysterious disappearance, Reef’s desire to temporarily relocate back to Atlanta with his new girlfriend for safety, Fish’s growing restlessness with Whistle’s peaceful, pacifist ways and the continued harassment of their business by the snooping charter fisherman, Derbier. There’s danger at every turn on Bomb Island that has nothing to do with Sugar, and Hundley is masterful at stringing together the fraught relationships between characters, only to let them implode as the book’s series of events twists deliciously out of control.
In addition to the plot elements and character choices, Bomb Island is filled with what feels like many meaningful symbols and visuals – Sugar the tiger playfully hiding in the sand; the unexploded bomb at the bottom of the water, which may or may not actually be armed; amateur poke tattoos made with ballpoint pens; wild horses treading cautiously in groups on their own beach; a triangular beer tower in front of a dilapidated home; and the long, gray hair cascading down Whistle’s back. The characters themselves are wary of symbolism as well, with Reef and Fish noting injured birds that appear just before something bad happens on the island. Whether or not these things really mean anything is subjective, but, in any case, I found them to be compelling visuals for life on Bomb Island and in Royals, which both seem like places where the lawless and the unconventional meet in the middle.
With stunning images, evocative character portrayals and a snaking, edge-of-the-seat story, Bomb Island felt like a mix between Lord of the Flies and Swiss Family Robinson – intoxicating coming-of-age told between loved ones over a crackling fire on the beach.
FICTION Bomb Island By Stephen Hundley
Hub City Press
Published May 7, 2024
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