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Title: The Elementalists
Series: The Tipping Point Prophecy (Book One)
Author: C. Sharp
Genre: Young Adult
Pub date: 10/28/2014
Cover copy:
Rising sea levels, droughts, earthquakes, tornadoes. Far below the earth’s crust,
imprisoned in ancient slumber, the elemental powers of the land grow restless…
Meanwhile, in small town Virginia, Chloe McClellan’s first day of sophomore year was
an epic fail. After she becomes the target of the fiery queen of the It-Girls in gym, she
gains instant notoriety when she’s struck by lightning. That’s when things start to get
weird.There are disconcerting gaps in her memory, and freaky weather seems to follow her
everywhere. She comes to believe that either she’s going insane, or her accident has
awoken a terrifying creature from mythology, triggering the final countdown to the
extinction of humankind.
Chloe finds unlikely help from a trio of male classmates: the grounded captain of the
football team, the flighty stoner with a secret, and the enigmatic transfer student who
longs for the sea. All the while, she struggles with the growing realization that dragons
exist, and she, and her friends, may be the only ones who can stop them.
In the first book in the epic new Tipping Point Prophecy series, global dragon mythology
is reimagined against a backdrop of ecological disaster, high school angst, and the power
of the human spirit when working in accord with the elements.
The Elementalists, C. Sharp
Chapter 1
Bees and the Birds
Chloe lay in the grass on the side of a gentle hill, unmoving, as a honeybee hummed through the air only a few inches from her face. It landed on the yellow crown of a buttercup, and the thin stem bowed toward the grass with its weight. Its legs were already dusted yellow with pollen as its head busied about the stamen, the tiny flower bobbing with every movement it made. Her eyes tracked as it rose again into the air with the blurry triangles of its wings returned.
It hovered in place a moment, as if deciding which direction to go, and then came closer, landing on her elbow. She watched from the corner of her eye with her chin perched on her steepled knuckles. Her heart lurched as the tickle of its legs navigated the hairs of her arm, stepping closer to her cheek in a zigzag pattern. But she kept her cool, remaining stone still, knowing that there was nothing to fear if she didn’t give it reason to sting.
Chloe’s favorite teacher last year, Mrs. Greenwald, had told them that a disturbingly large percentage of the honeybee population had been dying off over the last few years and that the death of the bees had a domino effect that could disrupt the balance of nature. With no bees, there was no pollination of the flowers, and that meant far less of the fruits and vegetables that humans and animals rely on to survive. And of course, no more honey. Chloe loved honey.
Some of her classmates, like Kendra Roberts, the Queen Bee herself, had made a joke out of it, saying, “Whatever, less bugs is less bugs, right? My dad runs like a massive bioengineering company that totally knows how to pollinate flowers without bees. And I use Splenda anyway.” Her drones had all giggled in compliance before returning their fleeting attentions to the latest texting exchange. But Chloe couldn’t stop thinking about what Mrs. Greenwald had said then, noting that “some scientists and theorists speculate that the death of the bees is an early sign of the decline of Mother Earth itself,” the beginning of the end.
A breeze kicked up and the bee let go of its hold, carried away toward the pond at the bottom of the hill. Chloe watched it until she lost the receding speck among the dance of dandelion parachutes that pinwheeled through the air to land gently on the sheen of the water. Just then, a small fish jumped, no doubt investigating the slight disturbance on the pond’s surface, hoping to find a tasty gnat rather than the wayward seed tuft. From high up she heard the cry of a hawk, and her eyes found its red-tailed form circling beneath the gathering clouds as it watched the flop of the fish far below… All of life’s little movements, flowing in their natural cycles of cause and effect.
She loved this place—alone with her thoughts, at peace in a way she could not find at home or among her peers. Here it didn’t matter that her mom was overworked and unlucky in love, or that Chloe had worn the same pair of running shoes every day for months and they smelled like something had died in them
Another fish jumped, and her gaze returned to the concentric circles that rippled out from that spot. Then another? Soon sunfish and perch were taking to the air with frantic tail-flapping leaps all across the pond before splashing down to the unremarkable looking water.
Chloe sat up to get a better look, amazed that so many fish could even live in this pond, let alone all decide to try to escape it at once. Over the summer, she’d spent most of her free time on this hillside, hiding from her mom and Brent and the struggle to be cool. She came here to read and watch the animals. To listen to the wind in the leaves and fantasize about all the places she would escape to when she was older. But she had never seen the fish act this way.
Maybe they could sense her anguish, offering their joined protest over her need to report to school again tomorrow. The tenth grade—the first day at Charlottesville High School.
A blustery wind whipped through the trees, and her unkempt, brown hair lashed her cheek. Being in the accelerated program had always seemed like a blessing throughout her three years at Buford Middle school. But now, as the other girls in her class laid out their competitively slutty outfits for the big day while gossiping over the phone about which boys they hoped to find in homeroom, Chloe was left wondering if her bookish ways and latest Walmart fashion wouldn’t prove a horrible curse. She was not ready to face the morning.
She tracked the red-tailed hawk as it sailed into the clearing above the pond and fluttered to a graceful, wing-tucked perch on a branch overhanging the water. Still the fish were jumping, but the raptor only watched with jerky ticks of its head rather than going for the easy meal. Something about the scene didn’t seem right. Then the mad squawking of a murder of crows raced overhead, and twenty or so of the black birds landed in the surrounding trees opposite the hawk.
Their chatter continued as they also seemed to watch the riled water. Smaller birds joined the odd vigil as well: sparrows and robins, chickadees and blue jays, more and more flapping to join the ring around the pond every second.
Chloe stood, blue eyes squinting in the wind as she put her hair in a ponytail with callused hands. Her nails were bitten short with nervous attention. The rain started a few moments later, tapping the leaves above her with a building rhythm. She looked up at the dark clouds above the branches as heavy drops spattered across her forehead.
“Where did you come from?” she asked the storm, as a jagged claw of lightning flashed across the sky. She counted, “One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three—” and the thunder roll followed. She wanted to continue her observation of the strange avian gathering, but a soaking sheet of rain descended, blocking her view.
Chloe ran, sprinting toward home, as lightning fell again with a deafening crack. Her feet carried her deftly through the woods without need of a path to guide her. She let out a merry yelp as the cold wet clung to her shoulders, but she didn’t stop the liberating run until she’d reached her back door a mile away.
She did not see the muddy fountain of bubbles that rose in the center of the pond, nor did she glimpse
the silvery form that stirred beneath the surface and then was gone.
As quickly as it started, the fish stopped leaping, the birds scattered, and the storm moved on. In
moments, the water settled again into a glassy sheen.
Chris Sharp grew up in the suburban wonderland of Alexandria, VA, where he cut his nerd teeth playing role-playing games and making gore movies with his friends.
He studied English Literature and Anthropology at Brown University, and Mayan Archaeology at the Harvard Field School in Honduras. He then spent sixteen years in Brooklyn, NY, where he worked in film and commercial production by day, and was yet another wannabe novelist by night.
His first book was a 900 page epic fantasy novel that waits in the depths of a dark box. The Elementalists is his second novel, and he really hopes you like it. His third novel is a pulp fantasy/crime fiction hybrid and is coming soon one way or another...
Some of the films he made with his childhood friends have gained international distribution and won numerous awards at festivals around the world. Chris now lives in Concord, MA, with his wife, daughter and an insufferable cat named Goblin.
My review for The Elementalist
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Chloe has never been popular more like invisible, but after the holidays going back to school she knows it will be like all the rest just work hard and get good grades, but her first day turns out to be a mega fail the most popular girl hates her. She is know known for being struck by lightning during the holidays that's bad on its own, but other weird things are happening to with worldwide disasters like earthquakes and tornadoes happening all the time and on top of that the bad weather seems to follow her about like an oman along with some creature that she keeps seeing that, can't be real and the memory lose either the world is coming to an end or she is going crazy either way trouble is coming!
When I started this book I was not really sure what to expect if I'm honest, but within second of starting I knew that this book was going to blow me away and it did.
The storyline is phenomenal it was unlike any book I had read I loved that you saw the family drama with Chloe and her mum and getting a clear view of school life, but it was the prophecy and world disasters that got me the most. The author took so many things that I thought there was no way you could mix together, but the author did and made the book spectacular. The book made me think about things in real life about the way people flatten forests and put toxins in the water about how we are now and the book really made me think and I really loved that.
The Author added great detail to everything and I felt like I was seeing everything through Chloe's eyes and feeling everything she was. Chloe is a wonderful character she was likeable and down to earth. I loved the fact she was not popular or stuck up and struggled with the normal day to day things and was not the best at social interaction. She was kind and determined and I liked that about her.
The book was so easy to follow and it flows like water there was no patches that dragged or got boring the whole book had me glued and I found nothing that bugged me and for me it was perfect
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