Teens
Fade (Wake Trilogy) by Lisa McMann
Janie's story continues. Still unable to control her abilities as a dream catcher, her latest case is proving difficult. Somebody is preying on the students at Fieldridge and the violent and haunting nightmares that Janie has no choice but to watch yield few answers. Being forced to keep her relationship with Cabel secret is putting a serious strain on the pair, and when Janie learns of the terrible consequences of her powers, she wonders if Cabe is just one more of the many sacrifices she'll have to make. Full review...
Tall Story by Candy Gourlay
Andi is a young teenager in the UK. She's not very tall, but she is brilliant at basketball. And she has finally been chosen to play for her school team.
Bernardo is an extremely tall teenager in the Philippines. He lives with his aunt and uncle, and keeps on growing. He is surrounded by superstition, since his name is the same as that of a legendary giant who supposedly protected his village during a major earthquake. Oddly enough, there have not been any earthquakes for some years... ever since Bernardo had his first dramatic growth spurt. Full review...
Claire de Lune by Christine Johnson
Claire was having the perfect sixteenth birthday. Okay, so most of the people probably only turned up for her swimming pool, her hands and ears were itching like crazy and everyone had to leave early because of the werewolf sighting in the forest nearby. But all Claire cared about was Matthew Engle, talking to her and flirting with her and promising to call her later. Then her mother takes her into the woods and reveals a dark and dangerous secret – she and Claire are werewolves. Everything Claire thought she knew about werewolves is wrong, but how can she continue to see Matthew, whose father is leading the hunt for them? Full review...
Withering Tights by Louise Rennison
After killing off Georgia Nicolson in a blaze of hedonism and vampires, it's time for Louise Rennison to start a new series, with a new teenage girl's first-person narrative. This time it's one Tallulah Casey, a lanky girl worried about her knees and underdeveloped cleavage, and off to stay at a posh drama performance workshop centre in the wilds of Yorkshire. Full review...
TimeRiders: Day of the Predator by Alex Scarrow
Liam, Maddy and Sal were each about to die when an old man appeared to them and invited them to choose another fate. And out of the heartbreak of their decisions to bid farewell to their old existence and their loved ones is born a secret team of time riders, dedicated to putting right the chaos caused by those who meddle with time. It is a decision they will sometimes regret. Full review...
Annexed by Sharon Dogar
There's been a bit of a kerfuffle over Annexed - the story of Peter van Pels, who shared the Amsterdam annexe with Anne Frank during World War II, who fell in love with the teenaged diarist, and who perished in a Nazi death camp called Munthausen in 1945. Sharon Dogar has been accused of sexing it up, disrespecting the too-recently deceased, and thrusting twenty-first century sexualised mores into a time where this sort of thing just didn't go on. So, on the one hand, I was very keen to read it and see what I thought. Full review...
The Medusa Project: The Rescue by Sophie McKenzie
It's a fascinating premise: four babies are implanted with a gene relating to psychic abilities, and as they grow up it becomes clear they have each reacted differently, and developed different skills. Then write four books (plus a short story for World Book Day) about their shared adventures, with each book focussing on one boy or girl in particular. In this book, Ed is the central character: he is able to read minds, but is forced to use his gift for evil in order to save his friends. A high-octane tale about four teens struggling to stay alive when it seems every adult on the planet is out to use them for their own ends. Full review...
The Dark Divine by Bree Despain
Grace and Jude Divine have always been the poster-children for kindness and understanding. Their father is a pastor, a truly good man, and they’ve been brought up to set a good example to those around them. They seem to have everything they could want – until Daniel Kalbi returns to their lives. Three years ago, Jude’s friend Daniel left unexpectedly. Jude was found lying covered in his own blood – and no-one has ever told his younger sister Grace what happened. With the return of the boy she had a crush on for years, Grace needs to work out exactly what happened and how it’s linked to some attacks on people and animals which have just started – could this be a dangerous attraction for her? Full review...
Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl is trying to save the world. No wonder Holly Short and Foaly think he's not himself. He might stand to make another huge fortune, but he's thinking about global warming, and technological cures for it. But he's also thinking about a lot of other things - in particular, the patterns of the number five. His mind seems stuck making him tap things in multiples of five times, and use sentences with five words in. But when his demonstration in Iceland goes wrong with a four-engined fairy space probe crashing, he certainly becomes something other than himself. Full review...
Wyrmeweald: Returner's Wealth by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
If you could imagine the frontier world of the Wild West transported to the Highlands of Scotland, you would have the setting for this first book in a new trilogy by the creators of the Edge Chronicles. Micah, a poor farmhand, longs to make his fortune so he can marry the wealthy Seraphita, so he sets off for the Wyrmeweald, where riches beyond your wildest dreams can be had – if you survive. It is a harsh and unforgiving land, full of dangerous dragon-like creatures called wyrmes, but Micah soon learns that when it comes to violence and deceit, it is humans he needs to fear most. Full review...
Wicked: Resurrection by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie
The eagerly-awaited conclusion to Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié's Wicked series is finally here. After over three years of wondering and waiting to find out how this enthralling supernatural series will end, readers can finally dive straight into the war between good and evil with Resurrection and discover the answers to the secrets that have been kept from them. Full review...
The Killer's Daughter by Vivian Oldaker
Emma has just moved to Wessex with her Dad and Jan, her Dad's girlfriend. But it's not just adjusting to a new school, a new country that Emma has to deal with. Emma's Dad was accused of murdering her famous Grandmother by pushing her off a cliff in Greece. No one wants to be her friend, and it's not long before she becomes the newest victim to bullies. Slashed swimming costumes, physical fights – being at her new school is difficult. Full review...
She's So Dead To Us by Kieran Scott
Ally Ryan had not expected to return to Orchard Hill – ever. Less than two years previously she and her family had moved out in a hurry when her father’s business dealings had caused serious financial problems in the local community. But her mother has a job in the local school and they move into a small house and try to rebuild their lives. Abby wasn’t exactly expecting a warm welcome but she was surprised when so many of her so called 'friends' cut her dead and it’s made obvious that she now lives on the wrong side of town. Full review...
Firebrand (Rebel Angels) by Gillian Philip
Seth lives in the land of the Sidhe, protected from the world of full-mortals by an ancient magical Veil. There's an uneasy but relatively settled peace, with only the occasional border fray to disturb their long lives. But things aren't easy for Seth - he's the unwanted second son of a Sidhe lord, his mother interested only in the corridors of power at the court of Kate NicNiven, and his father with eyes only for his older brother Conal. The inhabitants of his dun don't trust him, he's half-feral, and his only real tie is to Conal, who has taken him under his wing, and for whom Seth would gladly die. Full review...
The Dream Thief (Horatio Lyle) by Catherine Webb
When an orphan girl appears on Horatio Lyle's doorstep, half-dead and apparently poisoned, the genius inventor finds himself drawn into a conspiracy that reaches to the highest circles of London Society. Someone is kidnapping workhouse children and essentially turning them into zombies. Somone is stealing their dreams. With the help of his young ward, the street-urchin Tess, he sets out into the darkest parts of the city to stop them. Full review...
Prisoner of the Inquisition by Theresa Breslin
Don't read this book if you are of a delicate disposition and prone to nightmares. Within the first few pages a woman is burned at the stake, a man is unjustly accused and hanged, his young son only just escapes the same fate and a woman dies in childbirth. But this is no horror story, and none of the violence is gratuitous: this is quite simply the world of fifteenth century Spain. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella are fighting the Moors in Granada, Christopher Columbus is seeking royal funding for a voyage to prove the world is round, and the Inquisition is spreading terror and anguish throughout the land. And against this background of momentous events, we have the thrilling and beautiful account of the lives of two young people, bound together by hatred and love. Full review...
The Burning Mountain by LJ Adlington
In AD79, Gaius Justinius Aquila is drenched in grey ash, trying desperately to help the citizens of Herculaneum as Vesuvius erupts around them. In 1943, German paratrooper Peter Schafer finds himself in Naples. Peter has a secret - he's underage, having run away to sign up. Within the year, Peter will find himself defending Monte Cassino against a huge Allied bombardment. Throughout his time in Italy, Peter will have many encounters with Vittoria, an impoverished Neapolitan who steals to keep herself and a ragbag bunch of orphans alive. Full review...
Blood Feud (Drake Chronicles) by Alyxandra Harvey
Isabeau St. Croix has no care for politics and royalty, and would really rather not spend her time among the newly royal Drake family, attempting to negotiate peace between them and the Hounds, her vampire clan. The Hounds are not well thought of among vampires, who fear their dual fangs and strange rituals. But the Drakes are like no vampires Isabeau has ever met, and they aren't like royalty either. Full review...
Zelah Green: One More Little Problem by Vanessa Curtis
We first met Zelah when her OCD got so bad she was sent off to a live-in centre for treatment. She's at home now, with the OCD still around but not totally debilitating. She's still jumping on the stairs - but not so many jumps and not so often. She's still scrubbing her face, but it isn't quite red raw. You'd call her overly fastidious rather than ill. And her therapist is pleased with her progress. But then... Full review...
The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
Thirteen-year-old Kyra has one father, three mothers, and twenty siblings - yes, twenty - with another two on the way. She lives on a polygamist compound run by Prophet Childs. His father had been Prophet before him, but since his father's death and Prophet Childs' accession, things have taken a turn for the worse. A fence has gone up around the compound. Adolescent boys are driven off, and the Prophet seems to be choosing younger and younger girls to marry older and older men. And now, it's Kyra's turn. Prophet Childs announces that she is to marry her sixty-year-old uncle. And her father is afraid to refuse him. Full review...
By Midnight by Mia James
April Dunne doesn't really consider herself to be a genius, and her family certainly aren't rich - so how did she get accepted by the ultra-prestigious Ravenwood school when her family moved from Scotland to Highgate? She can't work it out but has other problems to worry about, in any case, such as the two local murders and the way people at her school get angry when she tries to take their photograph. On the plus side, there's a seriously stunning boy she's drawn to straight away, Gabriel Swift, and she thinks he likes her, although his behaviour is weird at times. Full review...
Secret Hour (Midnighters) by Scott Westerfeld
If you do have to move into a small American town, make sure it isn't Bixby, Oklahoma. Jessica does, and finds it perhaps more trouble than it's worth. She quickly bonds with some of the more goth-seeming kids at her high school, but it's the night-time activities that intrigue her. She thinks she's in a dream when she walks through a dazzling forest of raindrops, suspended in a moment of frozen time - that moment being exactly midnight. But wouldn't you know? - her goth-seeming friends are active at midnight too - and so are some very dangerous creatures of the terrible kind... Full review...
I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
Meet John Smith. By all appearances he is the usual fifteen year old American kid, except for the fact he and his 'father' shift location every few months. John is certainly not his real name, but has to face up to reality - school bullies, hot girls and in fact any friends being unattainable with such a peripatetic lifestyle. 'Dad' stays at home, scanning the internet and all news sources, in order to protect the pair - for they are among the remaining dozen or so inhabitants of Lorien, living in hidden exile on Earth, but hunted by their enemies from yet another alien race. Can the fact they are permanently pursued grant them any peace - especially when 'John' is about to undergo some rather prominent alien-style puberty? Full review...
Dark Secrets 2 by Elizabeth Chandler
Those of you who read my review of the first Dark Secrets bind-up will know I absolutely loved that book. This is a similar proposition – two average-sized teen novels packaged together in a very good value volume. Both are set in Wisteria, Maryland. Both feature teenage girls looking for closure on past events, with dark secrets buried in their past – and both are guaranteed to capture the imagination of their target audience of teen girls, and of a fair few other readers besides. Full review...
Forbidden Game by L J Smith
While looking for a game to play for her boyfriend's birthday, Jenny Thorn comes across a strange shop she's never seen before. Going in, she talks to a handsome boy who sells her a mysterious game in a plain box. But when she and her friends open the game to play it, they're transported to a world where the boy is the Shadow Man, and the consequence of losing the game can be deadly. The group of teens are left fighting against their worst nightmares as they try to defeat the sinister Shadow Man and escape – but when some of them finally do get out, they realise that it's just the beginning of the nightmare for them. Full review...
Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
Maya is sixteen, pretty, sociable and wise beyond her years. But she's never been kissed. Lochan is seventeen, drop-dead gorgeous and most of the girls at his school have crushes on him. He's also highly intelligent, at the top of his class and heading off to a good London university and on the cusp of a bright future. But he's never kissed a girl. You'd think then, that when these two teenagers kiss for the first time, it would be the beginning of a gorgeous first love affair, wouldn't you? But you'd be wrong. Because Maya and Lochan are brother and sister... Full review...
Dead Boy Talking by Linda Strachan
They say it takes about 25 minutes to bleed to death. I want to scream and yell but there's no one here to hear me and I... I can't breath enough to yell anyway. I'm going to die here, all on my own.
Josh is lying in the snow in an alleyway in a pool of his own blood. He stabbed one of his best mates yesterday, and now it's happened to him. He knows he's dying and his thoughts turn to how this could possibly have happened. He wonders where Skye is and what she's doing. He hopes Danny is ok. And, as he goes over the events of the day before, which culminated in his stabbing Ranj, his missing brother Gary keeps intruding into the picture. Why did he go? And did his parents' obsession with Gary's disappearance play a part in what's happened? Full review...
Kisses for Lula by Samantha Mackintosh
Girls do worry, about all sorts of things. And one of the things they enjoy worrying about most is whether or not they are passing the milestones on life's journey at the same time as everyone else. The fact that they combine this with loud demands to be treated to be an individual is a major reason for stress-related hair-loss and gibbering in parents. Lula is no exception here. Her sixteenth birthday is approaching fast, and unless she gets kissed before then (by pretty well anyone: she's desperate) she is convinced she will be jinxed for life. Full review...
iBoy by Kevin Brooks
Tom Harvey is wandering along after school on his way to meet up with his friend Lucy when he hears his name called from up high in one of the tower blocks on his estate. He doesn't have time to look up before everything goes up. Waking up in hospital days later, Tom discovers he has fragments of a shattered iPhone embedded in his brain. And still worse, his friend Lucy has been gang-raped in a brutal attack that Tom had been so closed to walking in on. Full review...
Passing Strange (Generation Dead) by Daniel Waters
Karen DeSonne, the sexiest zombie amongst the many differently biotic teenagers in Oakvale, gets a turn at centre stage in the latest in Daniel Waters's Generation Dead series.
Karen has always worn a disguise. When she was alive, her various camouflages hid the crippling depression that engulfed her so often and eventually led to her suicide. Now she's dead, make up, hair dye and blue contact lenses enable her to "pass" as a living girl. She talks fluently and her movements are fluid, unlike most of her differently biotic peers, whose pauses, stutters and jerky movements mark them out for all to see. Full review...
Losing It by Keith Gray
Doing it for the first time... you know, Losing It. It.
Sex. They talk about it a lot, teenagers. And eventually, they do it. But when is the right time? Where is the right place? Who is the right person? Is everyone else doing it already? Will they be cheap if they do it too? Or will they be left behind on the peripheries of all that's important in life? And there's so much eagerness in teenagers - not just for sex, but for everything. They sure do hate to wait. But sometimes, it's better to wait. The trick for the poor things, I suppose, is knowing when exactly to stop waiting. And when you've never done it, how on earth can you possibly know that?!
Stepping into the breach come eight of my favourite writers in today's teen market, each with a story about virginity. Full review...
Million Dollar Mates by Cathy Hopkins
It's nine months since Jess Hall's mother died and she's still finding it difficult to come to terms with what's happened. She and her brother Charlie have been living with Gran but all that's about to change. Jess' Dad has got the job of general manager at Number 1, Porchester Park. These apartments are not just up-market they're where the A-listers live and after some initial reluctance about leaving Gran Jess is excited. There's an Olympic-size pool where she can swim and both she and Charlie will be able to have their own rooms in the house that goes with the job. Everyone at school envies here and it looks as though she's living the dream. Full review...
Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Nick Gautier, scholarship kid teased for his poverty and his mother's job as a stripper, finds life hard enough even before three of his friends try to kill him when he stops them from mugging an elderly couple. But when the man who rescues him turns out to mix in seriously weird circles, things get really bizarre. If anything, really bizarre is a massive understatement. Nick goes on to meet demons, zombies, shape changers, and a host of other mysterious beings, many of whom he already knew in human form as his schoolmates. He ends up on the frontline of a battle against zombies who are running riot in his home of New Orleans. Full review...
The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan
A few weeks after the events of The Demon's Lexicon and Mae is finally ungrounded. Determined to get on with 'normal' life and forget the magic she's lost since brothers Nick and Alan Ryves left, Mae is only interested in hitting the town and meeting up with Seb. Nice, normal Seb. Then Mae learns her brother Jamie has been secretly meeting up with Gerald, the new leader of the Obsidian Circle. Afraid that Jamie is getting involved in dangerous things, Mae does the only thing she can and calls Alan. Full review...
Nobody's Horse by Jane Smiley
Abby lives on her family's farm in California. They specialise in taking horses and ponies which are not at their peak and bringing them on so that they can be sold at a profit. Abby's father is determined that she won't get attached to any of the horses, because that only increases the pain when they inevitably go, but two are going to make an impact on her that she could not have expected. The first is a foal whose dam dies when he's a matter of weeks old and he takes Abby's heart. The second has the opposite effect because every time that Abby rides him he's determined to buck her off. She's frightened of him and it's a tribute to Abby that the worst she calls him is Grumpy George. Full review...