Trollhunters by Guillermo del Toro, Daniel Kraus and Sean Murray
West Coast USA in the 1960s, and the city is wracked and wrecked by a slew of missing children reports. The parents with their new anguishes, and new rules against playing out after dark, have no idea of the horrors in their vicinity – literally under their feet lies a city of trolls, guilty of snatching the children. Last to go, Jack Sturgess. Cue the modern era and Jack's younger, now grown-up brother Jim, and Jim Jr live a sheltered life in the most barricaded and secure home imaginable, and Jim Jr's life is as exciting as you'd expect. Unfortunately, however, the trolls are about to make a return to their nastiest of ways – and their intentions are a lot more surprising than Jim Jr could ever predict… Full review...
Fairest: The Lunar Chronicles: Levana's Story by Marissa Meyer
Meyer’s dedication in this prequel to The Lunar Chronicles is to her fans, The Lunartics. This book is especially for voracious readers who have devoured Cinder, Scarlet and Cress and are desperately awaiting Winter, though it works as a standalone too. According to the publisher’s note Queen Levana is a ruler who uses her glamour to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet and Cress, Levana lived a very different story- a story that has never been told… until now. Full review...
The Snake Trap: Travis Delaney Investigates by Kevin Brooks
Teen private investigator Travis Delaney is still looking for the people who killed his parents. He needs more than anything to find out why they died. And, fresh from a narrow escape from death at the hands of a criminal mastermind, Travis now suspects that there's a traitor in the camp. This third installment in the Travis Delaney series has a barnstorming opening. Travis is abducted by terrorists and held captive alongside Winston, the security officer gone bad who Travis suspects is the person guilty of his father's death.
Travis has a lot of questions. But will he get any answers? And can he get himself out of this horribly dangerous situation? Full review...
Lady: My Life as a Bitch by Melvin Burgess
Sandra is a naughty kid. Fed up with the pressure of exams, a lovely but slightly boring boyfriend and an overbearing mother, she's gone a bit wild. She's thrown over the boring boyfriend and the worthy best friend, done pretty badly at her GSCEs, and is running with some exciting but unreliable new pals. She's done a bit of shoplifting and slept with a few boys, and caused her mother a good few hair-tearing moments.
On this particular day, she's getting off with Wayne and cheesing off Michelle, and just generally being rebellious, when she runs slap bang into a homeless alcoholic man, causing him to spill his can of Special Brew. The homeless guy is furious and chases her and Sandra is furious too, because he's ruining her day and HOW DARE HE? And then, everything changes for Sandra. The homeless guy has changed her into a dog. Yep. You heard. A dog. Full review...
Timebomb by Scott K Andrews
In 2141, Yojana Patel throws herself off a skyscraper. She never hits the ground. In 1640, Dora Predennick discovers a badly burnt woman. When she reaches out to comfort her, she’s flung through time. And on a rainy day in our time, Kaz Cecka sneaks into the ruins of Sweetclover hall in search of a dry spot to sleep. Instead he finds a frightened housemaid from the time of Charles I, and an angry girl from the future. Thrown into a war that spans millennia, the three must harness powers in order to escape deadly villains, and stay one step ahead of a fanatical army… Full review...
Silver Skin by Joan Lennon
Rab lives in the distant future, in a world where space is at a premium due to population pressures and in which status is expressed by how much room you have to live in. People's lives are guided and supported by their Coms, AIs which teach, medicate, navigate and all sorts else besides. When Rab's mother buys him a silver skin - time travel technology - Rab is overjoyed. The fieldwork he'll be able to do with it will allow him to produce work that will set him up for life. He decides to investigate the 19th century discovery of the Neolithic village of Skara Brae - because his tower block of the future is built on that very site.
But something goes wrong and Rab is ejected from his status as time travelling observer right into life in Stone Age Skara Brae. Full review...
The Forbidden City (Infinity Drake, Book 2) by John McNally
Finn may be only 9mm tall and still a teenager, but he's already saved the world once. Accidentally shrunk by his mad scientist Uncle Al, he joined a crack military team and helped foil the threat of a lethal bio-weapon, the Scarlatti wasp. But there's no let-up for Finn. Before Al can restore him to normal size, a new threat emerges. Full review...
What Was Never Said by Emma Craigie
This story is narrated by Zahra, a teenage girl who spends her early years in her home country of Somalia before her family move to the UK to escape civil war. Inevitably, some traditions travel with them and in the novel Zahra recounts her efforts to protect herself and her younger sister, Samsam, against FGM, a practice that claimed the life of her older sister in Somalia several years previously. Zahra intersperses her account with flashbacks to Somalia and the civil war that drove them away, thus giving a clear picture of the trials that she and her family have faced. Full review...
Remix by Non Pratt
Kaz and Ruby have been best friends for a long time but their lives are about to change irrevocably. Ruby has a sassy, devil may care outer shell that hides her vulnerability but where do her loyalties really lie? Kaz, short for Karizma, thinks she knows what she wants but what does she really need? Stu longs to shake off his bad reputation and win back the love of his life while Tom is unsure of what he wants and takes the coward’s way out. Meanwhile Ruby’s brother Lee and his boyfriend Owen have some of their own decisions to make. Throw into the mix an arrogant pop star, secrets, betrayal, jealousy, misunderstandings, new faces and some bad choices and the ingredients are there for an explosive weekend. Full review...
Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley
Micah is an orphan who has been raised by his grandfather, but now Micah’s grandfather is dying. And if that wasn’t bad enough, his horrible great aunt has arrived to take care of him, cutting their limited time together further. But don’t worry all hope is not lost. When grandpa Ephraim was a child he visited the mysterious Circus Mirandus, where he was promised a miracle by the miraculous Man Who Bends Light. All Micah has to do is get a message to the Light Bender and his grandfather can have his miracle. With the help of Jenny Mendoza (the smartest girl in the class), Micah sets his sights on the circus, a task that requires unconditional love and faith. Aunt Gertrudis is wrong, Ephraim’s stories aren’t just stories ... are they? Full review...
Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella
Audrey has been stuck at home for a while now, ever since that awful business at her last school. It left her suffering from social anxiety disorder and depression. Dr Sarah is impressed with Audrey's progress towards recovery, but Audrey still can't go out of the house, speak to strangers, or even make eye contact with her family. The painfully slow path to wellness is beginning to weight heavily on her. And then her brother's friend Linus shows up and begins to entice Audrey outside of herself again. He has a lovely orange-slice smile and writes funny notes and - to Audrey's disbelief - seems to like her. But Audrey really does need to heed Dr Sarah's warning that recovery is not a smooth progression: it's a series of two steps forward and one step back. Full review...
Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider
When Lane rocks up at Latham House, he has no intention of being there long. There is no way he is going to allow a diagnosis of total-drug-resistant tuberculosis to get in the way of his inexorable progress to an Ivy League college and a stellar career. He has even brought extra textbooks and test papers with him, so that he doesn't fall behind during this period of quarantine in this medical facility for kids with this new strain of TB. But when he meets Sadie and her group of misfit friends, Lane begins to wonder if he's got his priorities straight. Perhaps there's more to life - and illness - than a progression of tests and achievements. Full review...
It’s About Love by Steven Camden
As an acclaimed hip-hop style performance poet, Steven Camden is skilful at painting evocative imagery with words. His second novel for teens enters the world of the film script, cleverly playing with cinematic intertextuality. It is a tale of past mistakes, violence, revenge, friendship and love. An emotive, powerful, thought provoking experience it rates a 4.5 because it lacks the magical ingredients of Camden’s debut, ‘Tape’. It doesn’t make the reader’s heart sing but it does put their nerves on edge. I challenge you not to shed a tear. Full review...
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Finch and Violet are both counting the days. Violet is on countdown to graduation, to getting away from the school and town that hold so many torturous memories. Finch, meanwhile has started from zero and is logging the number of days in a row he is awake. And he doesn’t mean that in terms of physically awake, but more so in terms of his emotions. Neither of them are particularly happy. At least one of them has a plan to make the pain stop in the most final way possible. It’s pretty horrific. Full review...
Off the Page by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer
Many readers can identify with the idea of falling in love with a hero from a book. After all, they are written to be appealing, with rugged good looks, charming personality, strength and wit. But what if the hero from your favourite book came to life and joined you in the real world? Can a storybook romance flourish in a High School setting? Or will our fairytale prince be keen to return to his homeland of unicorns, fairies, castles and mermaids? These are the dilemmas faced by awkward teen Delilah and her fantasy prince Oliver, who swaps places with a human boy in order to join his true love in the real world. The lovers may be together for now, but the book has other ideas, and soon begins rewriting itself to put everything back to how it was. Full review...
Made For You by Melissa Marr
Eva Tilling comes from a wealthy, influential family and reigns supreme at school - she is well thought of and has expectations to live up to - nothing ever changes for her, but that’s just how things are in obsolete Jessup: nothing unusual or unexpected ever happens… Full review...
Read Me Like A Book by Liz Kessler
Read Me Like A Book is both a coming-of-age and a coming-out story.
Ash feels as though everything is a mess. Her parents aren't getting on and Ash is terrified they're going to split up. She's struggling to keep up her relationships with her friends. She trying to decide whether or not to lose her virginity - and how exactly she even feels about the boy she might lose it with. She's falling behind in her grades at school and half of her is a rebellious teen who couldn't care less about it, while the other half is panicking that she might not get into university.
And if all that wasn't enough, Ash is struck by a bolt from the blue when she develops an almighty crush on Miss Murray, her English teacher... Full review...
Alienated by Melissa Landers
Two years ago, aliens made contact. Now, Cara Sweeney has been chosen to host Aelyx, a L'eihr exchange student. The first exchange student. Cara gets a free ride to any college she chooses out of the deal, some excellent material for her blog, and a chance to be a part of history, helping in her own way to form an alliance between the two races. Full review...
Invaded by Melissa Landers
To save the alliance between Humans and the L'eihr, and save the planet from the deadly algae blooms that threaten to destroy all life, Cara and Aeylx have to persuade the L'eihr that Humans and L'eihr can peacefully co-exist. Full review...
Itchcraft by Simon Mayo
Third book in the Itch sequence about the audacious, intrepid teen obsessed with collecting elements from the Periodic Table to the detriment of his own life. Electrifying, explosive, punchy and action packed tour de force sizzling with surprising shocks. Full review...
This is not a Love Story by Keren David
This is a perfect holiday read – but that doesn't mean you need to be on holiday to read it. This Is Not A Love Story will waft you away from your bed or your fireside or your tube train seat and relocate you to Amsterdam. Full review...
The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
Fans of Frances Hardinge will be familiar with the eerie, unreal atmosphere of her books. Mysteries lurk in the shadows, perplexing and sometimes menacing her characters, and the strange and the banal jostle each other for space on the page. A world both familiar and outlandish is offered to us, where once again a fallible but endearing heroine battles forces which threaten to overwhelm her at every turn. Full review...
Lottery Boy by Michael Byrne
Twelve year old Bully and his mongrel dog, Jack, have been living rough for almost six months – ever since Bully's mum died. The future holds no hope until, quite by accident, he finds the lottery ticket he purchased for his mum hidden inside the last birthday card she gave him. He checks the numbers and discovers he's won the jackpot. But there's only days left before the ticket expires and Bully's not old enough to claim the money. To make matters worse, word of his winning ticket has got out and every unsavoury character on the streets is now after him. Full review...
Panther by David Owen
Things have gone woefully wrong for Derrick. He's binge eating and his weight has spiralled. He's fallen out with his best friend. The girl he likes doesn't like him. He's in trouble at school. And if it weren't for his sister Charlotte, none of this shiznit would be happening. If Charlotte wasn't depressed, if she hadn't tried to... well, you know... everything would be fine, just like it used to be. Full review...
The It Girl by Katy Birchall
Anna is an awkward 14-year-old who is trying to fit in with people at her new school – and convince them that she wasn’t actually trying to set her popular classmate’s hair on fire, it just happened. Her dad is a well-known journalist who’s just written a book, and they get on well - until he falls for a famous actress. With the paparazzi buzzing over the news of the engagement, Anna becomes a new target for them – but can this shy, nerdy girl cope with the sudden attention? Full review...
The Novice by Taran Matharu
The Novice, Taran Matharu’s Wattpad sensation has already received a staggering five million reads. This book doesn’t just survive the hype; it deserves it. Full review...
Exposure (Virals 4) by Kathy Reichs and Brendan Reichs
In the fourth book of this electrifying sci-fi crime thriller series the resourceful teen Virals pit their wits against a cunning villain when two of their classmates go missing. An exciting adventure with a shocking twist. Full review...
Liberty's Fire by Lydia Syson
Paris in the uneasy and violent months between March and May 1871 is an inspired setting for this tense, dramatic novel. Liberty's Fire is Lydia Syson's third work of fiction and certainly ensures that she will not be stereotyped into any single historical period. Full review...
Persist by Melvin Burgess
When we first meet Marianne she's confused. People keep coming and looking at her, but they don't seem to see her. She wonders if she's something shiny, such as a mirror. Her family are desperate: Marianne has been in a coma for so long that even her mother is beginning to doubt that she can surface from wherever she is. The doctors are sure that there's no hope for the girl and they're talking about switching off the machines which are keeping her alive, allowing her to fade away painlessly... It all comes to a head on Marianne's fifteenth birthday. Full review...
Bomber by Paul Dowswell
Harry Friedman is only 17. But WWII is raging all across Europe and Harry felt the call to serve his country and the Allied cause. And that's how he became a gunner on the Macey May, an American Flying Fortress stationed in East Anglia, far away from Harry's New York home. Full review...
The Private Blog of Joe Cowley: Return of the Geek by Ben Davis
Joe Cowley has got it bad. Whatever it is, he's got it bad. The hots for his girlfriend, Natalie? Bad. Living arrangements with his ex-school-bullying-nemesis-turned-step-brother? Very bad. Some greasy swazz trying to take his girlfriend from him, at the same time as sucking up to her father who is also his business mentor? Pretty awful. An attitude that means a devil-may-care voice in his head leads him to support his oddball friends through a dance music competition just to get one over on the swazz? You can guess, what with that being the main thrust of the plot here, that that too is B A D bad. Full review...
Othergirl by Nicole Burstein
Imagine a world where superheroes are real and very much awesome. Imagine a teenage girl who discovers she has amazing powers, that she can fly and toss fire. And then imagine that you aren’t this girl, but rather her very normal best friend. The one who patches up her friend's costume and covers for her at school, who worries and frets about her GCSEs while simultaneously planning how to get her friend noticed by the worldwide network of heroes, the Vigils. This isn't the story of Erica the superhero, but rather the story of Louise, loyal friend and sidekick. Full review...
Haunt: Dead Wrong by Curtis Jobling
Will and Dougie have been friends for ages. They each understand how the other thinks (well, most of the time) and they stick together through thick and thin. Literally, in fact: Will's dead but somehow he's not only unable to move on to whatever comes next, he actually can't stray more than a few feet away from his best friend. The possibilities for embarrassment are endless. Full review...
The Accident by Kate Hendrick
The Accident alternates between three characters telling their story before, just after and much later than the day of the accident which connects them. Before the car crash, Eliat is a teenage mum knowing she needs to be an adult whilst never feeling more like a kid. Just after the car crash, Will is struggling to hold his dysfunctional family together when his oldest sister moves back home. Later, Sarah is struggling to move on with her life with the injuries and grief the accident has left her with. It’s a story about, whether we realise it or not, how we’re all connected by split-second decisions and we can’t control the impact they have. Full review...
I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson
Twins Noah and Jude used to be inseparable until tragedy tore them apart. Now Noah's changed utterly from the boy he used to be, and Jude is reduced to spying on him through his friend as she struggles with her own issues at the exclusive art school Noah was always supposed to go to, but Jude ended up at instead. Full review...
Gerry Anderson's Gemini Force One, Black Horizon by M G Harris
Life is changing very fast for Ben Carrington. He is at the opening of a huge skyscraper hotel his late father founded in Abu Dhabi when disaster strikes – the chap is hardly cold in his grave when Ben's mum and the lad have to prove how adept they are at her old job, of mountain rescue. She feels like setting up a new rescue agency with her nous and the family fortunes, but someone who can just amble into the opening/memorial ceremony is Jason Truby, a monumentally rich Internet magnate, who actually has a modern-day Thunderbirds entity already, the top secret Gemini Force. Truby starts to get close to the family of two, but the school-aged Ben isn't going to be allowed to learn just what dramatic escapades the agency has to cover – is he? Full review...
Secrets, Schemes and Sewing Machines by Katy Cannon
Grace is looking forward to being the star in the upcoming school production of Much Ado About Nothing, but after missing the audition, she's relegated to understudy and making costumes in sewing club. Being a costume mistress definitely wasn't the plan, but it may leave her in a position to step into the lead role if needed - and there's a compensation in the form of new boy Connor, who's stage managing and after initially appearing to dislike Grace starts to warm to her. Will Grace get the part and the boy? Full review...
The Grindle Witch by Benjamin J Myers
Deep in the woods something evil is stirring...
You can say that again. Jack Jolly's father is a pathologist and neither he nor the armed police with him have ever seen anything like Tom Moore's body. Whoever or whatever killed the old man has carried out the most savage attack anyone has ever seen. And Jack, who has just moved to the remote village of Grindle from the city, had thought it a boring and dull place with unfriendly people, where nothing ever happens. How wrong could he have been? Full review...