Newest Teens Reviews

The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

Teens

Hayley is back in her childhood home after years on the road with her father, trying to outrun the past. She doesn't really remember living here, nor does she really want to. Not when her father can't drive under bridges for fear of snipers. Not when he's self medicating with alcohol and drugs. Not when he refuses help from the VA. Full review...

The Witch of Salt and Storm by Kendall Kulper

Teens

Avery wants just one thing: to take her place as the witch of Prince Island. The witch who controls the winds and helps the whalers on their way. The witch whose charms on which the whole island relies. But Avery's mother, who has rejected magic, came and stole her away. Avery's prison in her mother's house is a luxurious one - there are dresses and trinkets and ponies most girls would die for. But Avery doesn't care. All she wants is to get back to her grandmother and to continue her witch's apprenticeship. Full review...

Splintered Light by Cate Sampson

Teens

When she was just a child, Leah's face was horribly scarred in an attack in which her mother and another woman died. And it's all brought horribly back when the man convicted is released years later after new evidence has emerged. Charlie's father is that man. And Charlie wants more than anything to reunite with his exonerated father and help him get revenge on the people who falsely accused him. Then there's Linden, newly released from a young offenders institute, whose brother Victor has an inexplicable obsession with this years-old crime. All three teenagers are defined by a single calamity. But what really happened? Full review...

Pills and Starships by Lydia Millet

Teens

Ravaged by the effects of global warming, disease and an increasingly unsustainable population, the future in which Nat and her brother Sam live is a far cry from the world of their parents' youth. Corporations run the remains of their society, forbidding the birth of new children, using a ubiquitous supply of pharma drugs to keep the population in check, and perhaps most sinister of all, taking control of death itself. Riddled by depression Nat's parents have decided to buy a death contract to take their Final Week in a slickly engineered resort in what remains of Hawaii. As the days tick down, Nat finds herself following the lead of her more cynical and rebellious brother, and begins to genuinely question the system that she has previously accepted all her life; however, what chance do two teens possibly have against the all-seeing, all-powerful corps? Full review...

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Teens

Alina Starkov, the Sun Summoner, has fallen. In her confrontation with the Darkling, she called on forbidden powers. Not only did she nearly die, but she didn't succeed in stopping him. Now he sits on Ravka's throne, ruling the country through fear, while she wastes away underground, weakened, and far from the light that would strengthen her. Full review...

Death on Toast (Shades 2.0) by John Townsend

Teens

Freddy has the ultimate disadvantage of having rich parents. Well, actually, I guess it's not so much that they're rich as that they're far too busy doing what they want, have to do to take much if any notice of Freddy and what he's doing. He's left on his own - often overnight - to do exactly as he wants to do. And what Freddy wants to do is to watch horror DVDs. Who's to say whether it was the DVDs or his parents lack of interest which drove him to do what he did, but whichever it was, Freddy does something from which there is no return. Full review...

The Eye of the Falcon (Gods and Warriors Book 3) by Michelle Paver

Confident Readers

It's been seven long months since Hylas and Pirra were separated in the wake of the devastating eruption of Thalakrea. The eruption was followed by tsunami and the coldest winter anyone can remember. There is no spring. No sun. Full review...

Replica by Jack Heath

Teens

There is a tendency for adults to feel embarrassed about reading young adult fiction, but this book demonstrates that a focus on a younger character shouldn’t prevent a wider audience from enjoying a good story. Replica is a strange and compelling combination of action, mystery, thriller and science-fiction. Heath has even included a hint of a romance. There is something for everyone and although the book raises some challenging and thought-provoking problems, the text is easy-to-read, immersive and unpretentious. Full review...

Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan

Teens

A story about sad endings.
A story about happy beginnings.
A story to make you realise who is special.

This is the blurb on the back jacket of Apple and Rain and it sums up the book just perfectly. Full review...

Between the Lives by Jessica Shirvington

Teens

Sabine lives two lives. Literally. Each night, at midnight, she shifts from one self to another. Time resets too; Sabine may be a teenager to her families and friends but in reality, she has thirty-odd years-worth of life experience. It's a stressful existence: the shift itself is frightening and painful, and Sabine must be careful to behave appropriately in each environment. And her lives are very different. In Wellesley, Sabine is wealthy and popular with two brothers and a boyfriend other girls are jealous of. In Roxbury, she has one sister, parents whose business is struggling, and a reputation for rebelliousness. Full review...

Night Runner by Tim Bowler

Teens

Strange men are watching Vinny's house but he doesn't know why. His mum is being disloyal to his dad but he doesn't know why. Something is up with his dad and his job but Vinny doesn't know what. But Vinny does know that he's had enough of school, where he's being bullied. Everything is going wrong. And now, the men who are watching the house are after Zinny too. Mum ends up in the hospital. Dad disappears.

What's going on? Full review...

Doing It by Melvin Burgess

Teens

First published in 2003, Doing It is the story of a group of teenagers discovering sex for the first time. It's explicit. It's unflinching. And it caused a stir at the time. With high teen pregnancy rates, is there such a thing as too much accuracy? Or are honest portrayals the best form of education? Reissued a decade later, we can have that conversation all over again through the prism of the three teenage boys this novel follows. Full review...

Runaway by Marie-Louise Jensen

Teens

After her father is brutally murdered, Charlotte escapes the city to try to find a new life, and to avoid the vicious killer who is surely tracking her down. Disguising herself as a boy, she puts her skill with horses to good use by finding employment at a grand country estate, drawing the notice of a kind man far above her station in life. But while Charlie tries to grasp happiness where she can find it, the shadow of the past looms over her. Will she ever be truly free of the terror of her father's death? Full review...

Noggin by John Corey Whaley

Teens

Listen. I was alive once and then I wasn't. Simple as that. Now I'm alive again. The in-between part is still a little fuzzy, but I can tell you that, at some point or another, my head got chopped off and shoved into a freezer in Denver, Colorado.

Erk! That's how Noggin begins and I defy you not to want to read on. Travis Coates was terminally ill. In a last ditch Hail Mary, he consented to cryogenic preservation. And now, he's back, his head grafted onto a donor body. Of all the original volunteers, Travis is one of only two patients successfully brought back to life. It's a cause for celebration, right? Full review...

Shimmer by Paula Weston

Teens

Gaby is still struggling to come to terms with the many major revelations that have been thrown at her in the past few days - not least that the brother she's believed dead for a year is actually alive. Oh, and they're both Rephaim, half-Angel children of the Fallen - angels that fell from grace after seducing human women. Full review...

Minty by Christina Banach

Teens

Fourteen-year-old twins Minty and Jess are barely ever parted, until a fateful trip to the coast ends in tragedy. Minty tries to rescue her dog but is soon fighting for her life. Full review...

Sex and Violence by Carrie Mesrobian

Teens

Seventeen-year-old Evan is a player who, when he moves to a new town, has always found it easy to find a girl to have sex with. Then he ends up in the wrong place, with the wrong girl, at the wrong time, and suffers a brutal assault. Retreating to a quiet community in Minnesota with his father, he meets many new people, including a girl who may be there for more than 'just' sex. But can he recover from the trauma he's suffered? Full review...

Head Over Heart by Colette Victor

Teens

Like many other British thirteen-year-olds, Zeyneb is struggling with her feelings as she grows up, and with juggling her friends and family. However, she has an extra dilemma - she's a Muslim girl who's attracted to a non-Muslim boy whom her family would never approve of. Additionally, she needs to decide whether to wear a headscarf or not. What should she do? Full review...

ZOM-B Clans by Darren Shan

Teens

WARNING! If you haven't read the first book in this series, STOP READING NOW! NOW! Spoilers ahoy!

Go on. Run along. Full review...

Winger by Andrew Smith

Teens

Fourteen-year-old Ryan Dean West is at boarding school. His roommate is a bully, his closest male friends are idiots, and his best friend is an older girl he's madly in love with who doesn't seem to see him in the same way. But this could be a year that changes everything for him. Full review...

Decay: 2 (Tesla) by Mark Lingane

Teens

The city has been rebuilt for war. The waves of cyborg attacks are just the beginning – what follows is more devastating. Not only that but also the flood of refugees surging in daily is as much of a problem as a resource. Actually in one or two cases the word 'problem' is a bit of an understatement. In the middle of this hell Seb and Melanie are doing their best to fight and survive, although survival doesn't look like an option once they realise they have to go into the enemy's hive and bring the battle to the cyborgs. Full review...

Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

Teens

Something weird happens after 10B get their flu shots - they develop telepathy. There are good points - they know what other people think of them, they can cheat on tests, and they have the upper hand in conversations with others. But there are some drawbacks as well - not only do they no longer have any secrets from each other, but also, knowing what other people think of them can be a two-edged sword! High school is hard enough to survive when you're normal - will being an Espie make it even more difficult? Full review...

Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Teens

Sloane and Emily are best friends. Until Sloane disappears. She and her parents have vanished. There’s been no phone call, text, or e-mail. Then, two weeks later, Emily gets a list in the mail from Sloane, giving her tasks to do. If she does them all, can she find her way back to Sloane? Full review...

Dragon Shield by Charlie Fletcher

Confident Readers

"Dragons don't exist,"whispered Jo. But even those three short words sounded more like a wish than a statement of fact.

Something dark and sinister is going on at the British Museum. An ancient power has awoken and it has stopped time. People are frozen like statues. Only Will and his sister Jo are still moving. The only humans still moving, that is. The dragons are moving. They're spitting real fire, too. And they're attacking Will and Jo. A glorious golden girl comes to their rescue, followed by an angel and a muse. And Will and Joe are plunged into a world where statues are alive and where good battles evil. Why are they still moving? Who is behind the stopping of time? And will they ever get Mum back? Full review...

The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy) by Marie Rutkoski

Teens

Kestrel has two alternative futures ahead of her. As the daughter of a general of a vast, expansionist empire, she can make a politically advantageous marriage or she can enlist in the military. Kestrel doesn't want either and her life is spent in a delicate game of manoeuvres with her father as she tries to put off the decision. Full review...

Boy In The Tower by Polly Ho-Yen

Confident Readers

Wonderful, wonderful story about a lonely boy, his agoraphobic mother and building-eating plants. That could never work, right? Wrong! It's a must read and you won't ever have read anything quite like it before. Full review...

Secrets of the Tombs: The Phoenix Code by Helen Moss

Confident Readers

Egypt – a land of mystery and beauty, where history surrounds you and death is always present. There are treasures to uncover, riddles to solve and a colourful and exotic world to explore. A perfect setting for this, the first in a new series of thrillers which combines intriguing landscapes, archaeology and adventure. Much of the architecture and scenery in this book really exists and can be visited, including some of the tombs and museums, and many readers will feel inspired to seek further information about this most exciting and dramatic of locations. Full review...

OMG! I'm in Love with a Geek! by Rae Earl

Teens

Hattie Moore is determined that this year she’ll find true love - could it be with Goose, the boy next door who she's starting to think of as more than just a geek, or will he only ever see her as a friend? If she finds another boy, will he get jealous? And now she's found her real dad, will she get to know him properly? Full review...

War Girls by Adele Geras, Melvin Burgess, Berlie Doherty, Mary Hooper, Anne Fine, Matt Whyman, Theresa Breslin, Sally Nicholls and Rowena House

Teens

This collection of short stories written by some of the leading writers for young adults today is a moving and engaging account of an aspect of the First World War not often covered in teen fiction. Each story explores how the war changed the lives of young women of that time forever as they learned to cope with loss and grief. Full review...

Searching for Sky by Jillian Cantor

Teens

River is everything to Sky. Since her mother and Helmut died, this girl and boy are the only two human beings on the Island. River is the only boy Sky has ever known. Their life is simple, calm and fulfilling. Until, one day, a boat comes and everything changes.

Taken back to civilisation, to the world her mother left behind, Sky is separated from River. Sky hates everything about California - its houses, its rules, its people who don't tell her the truth. And so she sets out to find River. But when she does, she discovers the truth and why it is keeping them apart. Can anything make it right? Full review...

Department 19: Zero Hour by Will Hill

Teens

Zero Hour is approaching. Dracula has risen, betrayal has left Department 19 and their allies from across the world not knowing who they can trust, and rightly or wrongly, every hero seems to have at least one secret to keep. Valentin is away searching for his brother and Dracula, Frankenstein is coming to terms with lycanthropy, and the secrecy which the department has always relied on is becoming a thing of the past. Full review...

High and Dry by Sarah Skilton

Teens

Charlie Dixon is having a bad week. Still struggling to get over being dumped by his girlfriend, he’s turned to alcohol, and now finds himself the lead suspect in the near-fatal drug overdose of a schoolmate. Offered an alibi by an ex-girlfriend who needs him to find her a missing flash drive, he takes the chance to investigate – but quickly finds that the truth is hard to come by and a lot of people seem to have been doing some dark dealings. Can he solve the case and win the girl back? Full review...

Flora in Love: The Diaries of Bluebell Gadsby by Natasha Farrant

Teens

After a shocking announcement from Bluebell’s family, Bluebell thinks everything could be turned upside down. She’s desperate for au pair Zoran to come back to them but Zoran has problems of his own – including new guitar protégé Zach. Then Zach meets Blue’s sister Flora and the two immediately hit it off, but Blue’s enthusiasm over filming everything leads to her putting her foot in it. Will Flora ever talk to her again, and when Zach goes missing, can the sisters and the rest of their family help find him? Full review...

Geek Girl: Picture Perfect by Holly Smale

Teens

Harriet Manners is moving to New York. Her head is full of facts about the Big Apple, but will this be enough to allow her to cope with life across the Atlantic. And why does Lion Boy seem so distant? Full review...

Rilla of Ingleside by L M Montgomery

Teens

Rilla of Ingleside is an interesting novel for many reasons. Being the only fictional book written by a Canadian woman just after the war, about the war, it is an incredibly important work. It tells of what happened to the women who stayed at home, the limited aspects of war work that they were able to do, the endless fear and dread they felt for their loved ones far away, and all of the emotional highs and lows they experienced during such a heightened time. The novel begins as Europe is on the brink of war, and Rilla is only 15 years old and, still, a rather silly young girl. I have to say, I never much cared for Rilla. In Rainbow Valley' the book that precedes this one, she's just a spoilt baby and at the start of this story it seems that nothing much has changed. However, just as the world goes through a dramatic change during this period of time, Rilla herself grows from a child to a woman. Full review...

Lobsters by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison

Teens

It’s no secret that I’m a massive fan of teen fiction and I think it does an awful lot of things really well. Amongst other things, it can transport the reader to faraway times and places. It can also let them empathise with people in situations that they’ll probably – and in many cases hopefully – never be in themselves. I think it’s fair to say, looking at the recent Carnegie longlist as just one example, that books which do either of the above things tend to be the most critically-acclaimed. Full review...

Murder Most Unladylike (Wells & Wong Mystery 1) by Robin Stevens

Confident Readers

How do you solve a murder with no body when nobody even realises that a murder has taken place?

Such is the task facing the Wells & Wong Detective Society - Deepdean School's most secret society. Society Secretary Hazel Wong found mistress Miss Bell's dead body in the gym. But by the time she returned with President Daisy Wells, Miss Bell's body had disappeared. It's the first decent case the Society has had - who really cared about Lavinia's Missing Tie? - and Daisy has at it with gusto. Hazel follows along at a slower pace but with, it must be said, a great deal more attention to detail. Of course, school life continues unhindered and Daisy and Hazel must conduct their investigation while avoiding Latin prep and lacrosse practice, and enjoying midnight feasts and buntime biscuits. Full review...

The Apple Tart of Hope by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

Teens

Meg's parents think six months away in New Zealand is a great idea. Meg isn't convinced. A big part of the reason she doesn't want to go is Oscar. Oscar Dunleavey is Meg's best friend, the boy next door who makes perfect apple tarts. Full review...

Smart by Kim Slater

Teens

Kieran sees the world in a different way from most 14-year-old boys. He’s an artist, inspired by Lowry, and a boy with a strong sense of right and wrong. So when a homeless man called Colin is killed, and the police don’t seem interested, Kieran decides to investigate himself. Can he solve the mystery? Perhaps even more importantly, can he survive his home life with horrible stepfather Tony and stepbrother Ryan bullying him? Full review...

I Predict a Riot by Catherine Bruton

Teens

Aspiring film-maker Maggie lives on Coronation Road with her mum, a politician, but without her dad, who's left them. Tokes is another teen living without a father - new to the neighbourhood, he and his mother are trying not to be found by his dad. The pair meet and become friends, but fury is brewing in their town, and a young boy called Little Pea is about to unwittingly set things in motion that will lead to terrible events. Will Maggie and Tokes survive as the streets turn to violence? Full review...

Seven Second Delay by Tom Easton

Teens

In the future, the difference between West and East are greater than ever. Europe has evolved into the (British) Isles and the (E)U, linked by a bridge, and immigrants risk everything to pass from the third world of the latter to the first world of the former. Mila has made it across, but the danger is not over, and as she falls into the hands of the Agents, she realises the real price of freedom. Full review...

Code Red Lipstick by Sarah Sky

Teens

Jessica Cole is a schoolgirl model with an ex-spy for a father. When he mysteriously vanishes and MI6 are less than helpful, she's forced to use her talents for both modelling and spying to try and mount her own rescue mission. But the bad guys here have some really evil plans, and if Jessica's not able to stop them, she could find that she's not only lost her father, but she's missed the chance to save many more people. With danger seeming to lurk around every corner, she'll need not only all her resourcefulness but also help from her allies. If she can only work out who she can trust... Full review...