Farah has lived a privileged life, with everything at her fingertips and never wanting for anything – except freedom. Entering a military training wānanga is an opportunity for Farah to escape her demanding and controlling māmā. Relishing the look and feel of the trainee uniform and discarding the embellishments her mother made her wear (against wānanga rules), Farah finally felt free enough to be herself, and not her mother’s puppet.

Settling in at the wānanga isn’t quite as smooth as hoped, as she has blithely already offended others. But she is ready to work hard as an intuitive trainee – working on her mind skills to see seconds into the future.

Soon after arriving, Farah is paired with a combative trainee. Combatant’s build their fighting skills, and together with their intuitive partner, they work together to fight other pairs of trainees. Training is long and hard, but satisfying.

Farah meets other trainees and makes close bonds, all the while learning about herself, her biases and the spiritual side of the wānanga. Her intuitive skills are increasing, even if her history classes are boring and her creative weaponry marks are sorely lacking. When her mother is suddenly applying pressure from afar, Farah wonders if she will ever escape her influence.

But soon, all that she has learnt or been worrying about is inconsequential. Her skills suddenly have a mind of their own, and the world around her begins to fall apart. Can she mend the bridges she has all but torched, believe in her intuition and become much more than anyone ever expected of her – especially herself?

Set in a military style boarding school, thousands of years in the future, Migration has a definite grounding in te ao Māori. The school is named a wānanga, their bags kete, and karakia are sung in special moments. There are many more references within the story that make kiwi readers feel at home, all whilst visiting this dystopian world with strange creatures and temples, paramount.

It begins with a prologue of a portal being used to help a large group of people escape their captors, and this all becomes relevant as we get to know Farah, her people’s customs and gods, and how she fits into it all. With only escape from her domineering mother in mind in the beginning, Farah goes through life changing events, losing and finding faith in herself and her abilities, and that the one she deemed an enemy is actually the opposite. Not quite an enemies to lovers trope, but an interesting bond to watch develop.

Farah has faced much more than she could ever have imagined in her short time at the wānanga, when an explosion rocks underfoot. An action-packed and increasingly tense conclusion had me turning pages even faster.

Migration is masterfully written, and gripping, with excellent world-building. The settings are easily imagined without tons of description, and main character Farah’s personal and supernatural development, fascinating. Will there be more from Farah’s world? 

Author – Steph Matuku

Age – 12+

Find more books by Steph Matuku here

(2024, Huia Publishers, Dystopian, Future, Action, Friendship, Spiritualism, Temples, Colonisation, Three Thousands Years Later, Invasion, Courage, Fighting, Grief, Escape)