Reviews for The Rock and a Bleeding Sky
What a fabulous new novel from Marianne Curley!
It contains all the key features I’ve come to love from Marianne Curley’s young adult novels (think: time travel, romance, engaging and likeable characters) set in an ultra-relevant, post-apocalyptic future. She has a created a world from our nightmares, one where we fail to make the changes we need to keep the lives we enjoy.
The themes are fresh and exciting, and she flips the traditional, male-dominated patriarchal system on its head. That’s not to say everything runs smooth when women are in charge, and a driving message is one of everything in moderation.
If you are looking for a fresh take on YA post-apocalyptic drama that doesn’t involve zombies, this is the book for you!
Amanda Canham – January 21
I enjoyed this book very much. The story starts with Imogen and Kyle living in a small town in the Blue Mountains of Australia. Imogen shows Kyle, the new boy, around the town she grew up in, and they explore the nearby wilderness that she clearly loves. They’ve known each other for four months and are just starting to fall into a relationship.
It’s while Imogen and Kyle are out in the middle of the Blue Mountains national park that everything starts to go wrong, and when they finally stumble back out, they find themselves in a strange new future, where society has had to adapt to the catastrophic consequences of climate change and countries constantly at war with each other.
But the futuristic world is not without its own problems. Imogen and Kyle find they have to fix the issues of this new city they’ve travelled to before they can return to fix the problems of their own world.
The pace in The Rock and a Bleeding Sky is relentless with twists you don’t see coming. Romance develops that threatens to split up Imogen and Kyle the longer they must stay in the new city.
What a fantastic new novel from Marianne Curley, who wrote Old Magic and The Guardians of Time Series. It’s just as good as any of those books, but it’s also different. It’s another winner, so if you liked those books, you’ll love this.
Maddison Baker – June 2025
Marianne curley 