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The Rock And A Bleeding Sky
The world is in chaos. War approaches Australian shores. Oceans are rising, volcanoes erupting, violent storms intensifying. Fatalities from starvation; malnutrition and disease increase daily. But for most people, life continues as normal, the changes are not yet interfering with their daily lives and so they convince themselves that there is nothing to worry about. Nothing they have to do.
As the days, months and years passed it became a time of death. Those that survived walked around the broken streets, riddled with radiation sickness and increasing cancers, with no homes, no schools, no families, and only makeshift hospitals.
With nowhere to go, people panicked, many simply gave up. Coastal land masses were collapsing into the oceans, thousands of houses disappearing daily while the world’s temperature continued to rise.
Riveted, Kyle and Imogen listen to what happened to their world. They are told of the storms that came and the damage they left, spreading fires around the world. Forests vanished, while erupting volcanoes changed the world’s landscape, eradicating animal and plant life, and worst of all, it depleted the protective ozone layer, making the sky appear to be bleeding.
The Rock and a Bleeding Sky is not just a book of doom, but also of hope. At first Kyle and Imogen are crushed to learn what happened to Earth during their generation, but as they spend time in the future, wondering if they will ever return home to their families and friends, their hope and determination strengthens. They collect evidence to prove that what is ahead for Earth is catastrophic and must be acted on immediately. They realise the enormous pressure put upon them, but they don’t buckle from it. They accept that this is what their destiny is as Earth’s future is put into their hands.
The Rock and a Bleeding Sky explores the themes of acceptance, of taking responsibility even as others can’t, and developing the will to change. It’s a story that explores friendship, loyalty, trust, the pointlessness of shame, and the complex nature of life, death, love and hope.
As the days, months and years passed it became a time of death. Those that survived walked around the broken streets, riddled with radiation sickness and increasing cancers, with no homes, no schools, no families, and only makeshift hospitals.
With nowhere to go, people panicked, many simply gave up. Coastal land masses were collapsing into the oceans, thousands of houses disappearing daily while the world’s temperature continued to rise.
Riveted, Kyle and Imogen listen to what happened to their world. They are told of the storms that came and the damage they left, spreading fires around the world. Forests vanished, while erupting volcanoes changed the world’s landscape, eradicating animal and plant life, and worst of all, it depleted the protective ozone layer, making the sky appear to be bleeding.
The Rock and a Bleeding Sky is not just a book of doom, but also of hope. At first Kyle and Imogen are crushed to learn what happened to Earth during their generation, but as they spend time in the future, wondering if they will ever return home to their families and friends, their hope and determination strengthens. They collect evidence to prove that what is ahead for Earth is catastrophic and must be acted on immediately. They realise the enormous pressure put upon them, but they don’t buckle from it. They accept that this is what their destiny is as Earth’s future is put into their hands.
The Rock and a Bleeding Sky explores the themes of acceptance, of taking responsibility even as others can’t, and developing the will to change. It’s a story that explores friendship, loyalty, trust, the pointlessness of shame, and the complex nature of life, death, love and hope.
439 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 12, 2023
4 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Marianne Curley
26 books1,238 followersI loved reading from a young age and scoured my school libraries during my younger years, but I never thought I would become a writer. It was not until my mid-thirties, while teaching office studies and computers to adults at the Coffs Harbour Education Campus that I began to think seriously about writing. I took several courses and experimented with different styles and genres. With two teenage daughters at the time I fell into writing young adult paranormal and knew I'd found something I loved.
My first four novels, Old Magic, The Named, The Dark and The Key, were published by Bloomsbury Publishing in Australia, the UK, and the USA, with translations into more than a dozen foreign languages.
In 2004, just as The Key was being prepared for printing, I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bone marrow cancer called Myelofibrosis. With only a short time to live, I was given a stem-cell bone marrow transplant using my sister’s stem cells, which saved my life. I have now been cancer free for more than twenty years and have written a total of ten books. The Avena Series - Hidden, Broken and Fearless were published in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
In March 2018, I was finally able to publish the long-awaited fourth book to the Guardians of Time Series, called The Shadow. To unite the series, I brought out a new edition of the entire series with matching fantasy covers tying the four books together.
Website: http://mariannecurley7.com
Email: marianne.curley7@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marianne.cur...
Facebook Author: https://www.facebook.com/MarianneCurl...
Insta: @marianne_curley
My first four novels, Old Magic, The Named, The Dark and The Key, were published by Bloomsbury Publishing in Australia, the UK, and the USA, with translations into more than a dozen foreign languages.
In 2004, just as The Key was being prepared for printing, I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bone marrow cancer called Myelofibrosis. With only a short time to live, I was given a stem-cell bone marrow transplant using my sister’s stem cells, which saved my life. I have now been cancer free for more than twenty years and have written a total of ten books. The Avena Series - Hidden, Broken and Fearless were published in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
In March 2018, I was finally able to publish the long-awaited fourth book to the Guardians of Time Series, called The Shadow. To unite the series, I brought out a new edition of the entire series with matching fantasy covers tying the four books together.
Website: http://mariannecurley7.com
Email: marianne.curley7@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marianne.cur...
Facebook Author: https://www.facebook.com/MarianneCurl...
Insta: @marianne_curley
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 21, 2024
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!
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!
June 21, 2025
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.
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.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews