Newest Teens Reviews

Teens

Angel's Fury by Bryony Pearce

Teens

From the very first lines of this powerful story we are dragged into a terrifying world where Cassie's nightmares are so real she continues to feel the pain of the injuries even after she has woken up. She fights sleep, dreading the bullet-ridden agony, the screams of family and playmates, and the awful, breathless hunt through the field of barley until at last the gun fires again, ending Zillah's life. Such a nightmare would shake a person for days afterwards . . . but Cassie goes through this night after night after night. Full review...

One Seriously Messed-Up Week: in the Otherwise Mundane and Uneventful Life of Jack Samsonite by Tom Clempson

Teens

Jack is an endearing lad with all the uncertainties, desires and preoccupations of his ilk. One minute he is worshipping the lovely Eleanor from afar, praising her as a pure and beautiful angel, and the next he is comparing the merits of various girls' mammary glands with his mates. He plays it cool but constantly frets about looking like an idiot; he wants to do well in his exams but skips class with barely a qualm, and he rarely allows something as unimportant as a lesson to intrude on his conversations. He is, in fact, that collection of contradictions, anxieties and bravadoes which is known as the average teenage boy. Full review...

Chronosphere: Time Out of Time by Alex Woolf

Teens

It's the 22nd Century, and finally the ideal gap year is available. Before being forced into a career prescribed him by his big society, Raffi buys his way into the Chronosphere, whereby his body will live in stasis for one minute in general time, while passing a year of sunny hedonism, with sports, shopping, girls and partying in a perfect idyll of mod-cons. But of course all is not well in paradise. His peers have a habit of vanishing without trace, and who knows? - even his newly-found friends may have something to do with it. Full review...

The Circle Cast by Alex Epstein

Teens

Anna is just a girl of eleven, when her father is involved in protecting the British Isles from the Saxon invaders. But, when the warlord Uter Pendragon decides to claim her mother Ygraine as his, with lethal consequences, things change. Her locale - from southwestern England, to sanctuary in Ireland. Her standpoint - from proud young girl absorbing some passed-down military knowledge, to a young woman of magic, bent on vengeance. And her name - from Anna, to Morgan. Full review...

Clash by Colin Mulhern

Teens

Alex Crow is the sort of kid who you stay well away from, whether you're the nerdy classroom joker or the loudmouthed bully of the class. From Kyle's point of view he appears to be a disturbed psycho, with barely restrained brutality, and he does everything possible to avoid him. However, events conspire to bring the two together, and we learn that there is a lot more to both characters than first impressions seem to imply. As tensions mount and stakes are upped, it is down to a tortured Alex to overcome his internal confusion, fight to save those close to him, and redeem himself as a person. Full review...

Tomorrow When The War Began by John Marsden

Teens

Ellie and her friends are going to Hell. On a camping trip, that is. Taking enough supplies to last a week, the Australian teens are determined to have fun in the remotest part of the bush and get to know each other a little better. Or a lot better in certain cases… The week goes well, but all too soon it’s time to leave. Except when they get back, it’s to find their worlds have been turned completely upside down. Their farms are devastated, animals dead or dying, and families nowhere to be found. How can this have happened, and is it related to the mysterious planes they saw flying overhead on Commemoration Day? The teens set out to find out what happened to their families and work out just how they can survive. Full review...

Miles From Ordinary by Carol Lynch Williams

Teens

Lacey wakes up one summer morning ready to start her new job at the library. Maybe she'll actually make her first real friend. It's also Lacey's mother's first day too, working at the local grocery store. But, Lacey's mother is ill – she hears voices, or to be more specific she hears the voice of Lacey's dead Grandfather telling her what to do. But they need the money after Lacey's mother spent all their money on tinned food ready for the end of the world that Lacey's Grandfather had told her was coming. Everything starts off well, and Lacey even manages to become friends with one of the cool kids, Aaron, on the bus to the library. But, as the day goes on Lacey's memories come flooding back and what started off as a normal day starts to spiral out of control. Full review...

The End of Everything by Megan Abbott

Teens

On the surface this book is about the disappearance of a thirteen-year-old girl. Her best friend and neighbour Lizzie relates how she searches for clues, how she discovers that a local man may be involved, and how Evie and Lizzie's families struggle to cope. But look again at the title. What really unfolds here is the story of the effect a single incident has on three families, not two, how that one event came about, and why nothing will ever be the same for everyone involved. It is a book which is complex, deep and very, very intense. Full review...

Bracelet of Bones (Viking Sagas) by Kevin Crossley-Holland

Confident Readers

It's 1036 in Trondheim, Norway. Solveig lives with her father, stepmother and stepbrothers. Her mother died many years ago and neither Solveig nor her father Halfdan have ever truly recovered. Before his injury, Halfdan was a Viking mercenary and his dearest wish is to rejoin his old commander, Harald Hardrada in Miklagard (Constantinople). He promises Solveig that, should the call ever come, he will take her with him... Full review...

The School of Night: Creeping Terror by Justin Richards

Teens

When a boy and his father enter a village asking for directions, the unexpected happens. They find all the inhabitants observing a WWII blackout, and thinking it's 1943. But it's definitely 2011. Luckily the lad belongs to the School of Night, an arcane institute of ghost-hunters where merely talking to the shade of your dead sister could come across as a fail. It will still take a lot of pluck and smarts from staff and students to solve the problem of the ghost village of Templeton, and the evil barriers surrounding it. Full review...

Unleashed : A Life and Death Job by Ali Sparkes

Teens

A new series about what happens when Britain's most important and secret assets - teenagers with paranormal abilities - get a week's holiday. In book one, Lisa gets involved with kidnapping and assassination attempts. And she only wanted to go shopping at Harvey Nicks! Full review...

Hex Hall: Raising Demons by Rachel Hawkins

Teens

Raising Demons (published in the US under the title Demonglass) is the second book in a planned trilogy about a teenager who has strong magical powers. This review may contain spoilers for the first book in the series, Hex Hall; the book certainly does. Full review...

Flip by Martyn Bedford

Teens

With no warning, no hint of anything wrong or out of the ordinary in his life, Alex wakes up one morning having lost six months of his life and in a foreign house filled with strangers; the morning turns from weird and scary, to outright crazy and terrifying when Alex discovers that the body he has woken up in is not his own but that of a boy called Philip, or Flip for short. Before he has time to even contemplate the horrifying possibility that he isn't dreaming or hallucinating, and is actually stuck in the body of a boy who he has never seen before, Alex is forced to face a day in the life of Philip Garamond, literally. As he goes through every possible route of enquiry, every logical way to at least make sense of his situation, if not try to reverse it, growing panic sets in and a chaotic, thrilling, and truly frightening sequence of events are set off. Full review...

Coping With Chloe by Rosalie Warren

Teens

Anna and Chloe are twins who share everything. If anything, the terrible accident Chloe suffered has brought them closer. Apart from teacher Miss Tough and new boy Joe, though, everyone seems worried by Anna's references to her twin. They seem to think Chloe's dead – but can't they understand the two girls are just sharing a body? Then Chloe falls for Joe, who Anna likes herself, and Anna is left trying to see how this could ever work… Full review...

The Secret Kingdom by Jenny Nimmo

Confident Readers

Protected by a moon cloak, a ring, and three mysteriously powerful leopards, Timoken the magician and his camel Gabar seek a new home after the boy is forced to flee the secret kingdom. But will they ever find peace with the vicious viradees on their trail? This prequel to the Charlie Bone series contains new and old characters, including a couple of brief cameos from Charlie himself, but is well worth reading as a stand-alone or introduction to the series if you've never heard of it. Full review...

Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwirght

Teens

Ok, the biggest let down of this book was the missing chapter at the end, which will be made available after the film is released – bad move. I understand that it's meant to keep people interested in it, and not spoil the film, but honestly, it's just frustrating, Now, my book will be forever incomplete – not good. Full review...

The Emerald Atlas: The Books of Beginning by John Stephens

Confident Readers

Whisked away from their parents in the dead of night ten years ago, Kate, Michael and Emma have seen more than their fair share of orphanages. Nobody wants to adopt three children together - least of all when the youngest has a strong penchant for using her fists whenever she can - and so when we meet them, they're on their way to yet another. But the orphanage at Cambridge Falls is unlike any other. They're the only children in residence, the housekeeper seems to think they are members of the French royal family, and the town is in the middle of a barren wasteland and is bereft of children. Full review...

Dark Mirror by M J Putney

Teens

Born around a hundred years after the nobility decided that magic was a tool which should be used only by commoners, when Tory Mansfield discovers she can float in the air she knows she must keep it to herself. Until a terrible accident leaves her powers as the only thing that can save one of her family, and she's forced to reveal herself and face disgrace and humiliation. For an outed mage in London's high society there's only one thing that can be done – a spell in Lackland Abbey, the school which can cure youngsters of magic. Not everyone at Lackland wants to be cured, though… and Tory needs to decide whether her powers are a curse or a gift. Full review...

The Stranger by Sarah Singleton

Teens

After the the events of The Island, Otto, Jen and Charlie have gone their separate gap year ways. Otto is in Mumbai but isn't having nearly such a good time as he'd anticipated. Jen has moved on from the retreat and is travelling with Kumar, but is getting itchy feet. She's not sure she wants to take things with Kumar any further. But Charlie is ecstatic in her dream job at the tiger sanctuary. It's challenging - poaching and corruption are big problems standing in the way of the sanctuary's funding - but she loves it. Full review...

The Nature of the Beast by Janni Howker

Teens

Bill Coward is mature for a child his age – cooking for his father and grandfather (Chunder), undressing his father and putting him to bed when he comes home drunk. So when the mill his father and grandfather work at is closed down, their world is thrown into turmoil. Mike's (Bill's best friend) father has a nervous breakdown. Bill's father goes off to Scotland to work in the oil fields. Full review...

Twilight Robbery by Frances Hardinge

Teens

Mosca and her companions will be familiar to readers of 'Fly By Night', but it is in no way necessary to have read the first volume of her adventures to thoroughly enjoy this book. She is a twelve-year-old orphan, who travels the roads with her homicidal goose, and a rather shifty poet called, charmingly, Eponymous Clent. We meet them just after a particularly energetic display of destruction by the said goose: Eponymous has been thrown into jail until he can pay for the damage, and Mosca is trying to raise some cash by reading aloud an old newspaper to illiterate townsfolk. Full review...

NLP For Teens by Judy Bartkowiak

Home and Family

NLP For Teens is part of the Engaging NLP series and is a follow-on from NLP for Children. Many a parent has been tempted to leave home when their children are teenagers; difficult as it is for the parents it's a traumatic time for the teens and anything which makes it a little easier is to be applauded particularly when the changes will come from the teens rather than being imposed by the parent. Full review...

Birthmarked by Caragh M O'Brien

Teens

Sixteen-year-old Gaia lives in a post-climate change America, near one of the Great Lakes - or the unlake as its waterless hollow is now known. Gaia is a midwife-in-training, following after her mother. For this family, the cool age - that is, our age - is almost forgotten. There is no power in Wharfton, and both water and food is in short supply. But Wharfton sits outside the walled city of Enclave, and things are entirely different there - the scenes of leisure, wealth and plenty are played out on the Tvalter's big screen, which serves as entertainment for Wharfton's residents. Full review...

The Opposite of Amber by Gillian Philip

Teens

Jinn was quick and shining bright; Jinn was motor-mouthed and nurturing... Actually she catered for my every whim to the point where she anticipated it asked for it, spoke for me There was never any need for me to speak and I know I could never say anything as well as she did, so I didn't bother. I didn't resent her or anything. I was proud to be spoken for by Jinn, sparky and bold. I was spoiled voiceless.

Spoiled voiceless - isn't that a whole world of meaning contained in just two words? Full review...

Robin Hood Vs the Plague Undead (Mash Ups) by James Black

Teens

In 1194 AD, strange reports reach Robin Hood and his men in Sherwood Forest. There's an outbreak of plague in Nottingham and its victims are refusing to stay dead...

Robin Hood vs. The Plague Undead is a 'mash up' of the Robin Hood myth with contemporary zombie tales. All the usual Robin Hood characters are there - Friar Tuck, Little John, the Sheriff of Nottingham - but with loads of zombies thrown in as well. It must be very difficult to bring the two strands together and I don't think the author has quite succeeded. The problem is that both mythologies endure for different reasons and it's hard to fuse them together without compromising the strengths of both – zombies may work better in an urban setting, and having Robin Hood fighting zombies rather than the rich tends to undermine his leftwing credentials. Full review...

Evercrossed (Kissed by an Angel) by Elizabeth Chandler

Teens

Evercrossed picks up where Kissed by an Angel left off. After her boyfriend Tristan was killed in a car accident, Ivy took up with Gregory, who turned out to be a serial murderer and all-round bad guy. She was saved from him by a combination of Tristan in angel form, her psychic best friend Beth and stalwart admirer Will. Now the three of them are working at a holiday inn for the summer, alongside Beth's cousin Kelsey and her friend Dhanya. Will is now Ivy's boyfriend but it's almost a year since Tristan died and Ivy is finding herself thinking about him more and more. Full review...

I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan

Teens

A year ago, four teenagers committed a shocking crime after a party where they all had too much to drink, and overwhelmed by indecision, fear and desperation they made a pact to keep the incidents of the fateful night a secret. However, someone knows their secret and that someone is determined to make them face up to the consequences of their actions. Their binding pact has held together for a year, partly out of the friendship they shared and mostly out of guilt, but when it becomes apparent that there is someone who is looking for revenge, it suddenly becomes deadly important that they face up to the truth, for their own sakes. Full review...

Department 19 by Will Hill

Teens

Jamie Carpenter lived a normal, happy, suburban life until the night strange creatures arrived at his house and men in black combats with strange, ultra-violent weapons burst in and executed his father. Since then, Jamie and his mother have lived in a succession of miserable, dour little houses and Jamie has become less and less interested in a succession of miserable, dour little schools. He resents his mother, like all good disaffected teenagers do. Full review...

Belle's Song by K M Grant

Teens

Chaucer was a fascinating bloke. Not only did he write the famous Canterbury Tales, but he also found the time and courage to be a spy for the king at a time of civil unrest and political intrigue in Britain. So a story set during one of his journeys, one which combines his secret work and some of the more memorable characters from the tales, is an intriguing proposition, metaphorically as well as literally. Add a dreamy, motherless girl whose guilt at causing her father's accident only reinforces her tendency to self-harm and obsessive behaviour, and a cracking good plot emerges. Full review...

The Devil's Triangle by Mark Robson

Teens

A rebellious boat journey into the Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, prompted by Sam's annoyance at his father's obsession with the area's notoriety, turns out to be very ill-advised as Sam and his friend, Callum, find themselves lost and stranded on an island that is terrifyingly different from anything they have witnessed before. Meanwhile, Sam's twin sister Niamh is caught up in the search for the boys, co-ordinated by their father, Matthew, who is desperate to rescue Sam and Callum from the same mysterious phenomenon that took his wife nine years ago. As the search for the boys threatens to disintegrate under allegations that Matthew may be responsible for their disappearance, Niamh goes on the run, desperate to keep searching for her brother, but with only their rather ambiguous twin bond to guide her. Full review...

Firelight by Sophie Jordan

Teens

Jacinda was singled out as special by her Pride when she manifested with the ability to breath fire. A fire-breather hasn't been born to the Draki for generations, and there are those in the Pride who would use her for their own ends. Craving freedom, Jacinda takes a risk that nearly costs her life. Now Jacinda's mother has dragged her and twin sister Tamra from their mountain home, sneaking away in the middle of the night, leaving everything they knew behind. Full review...

Jenna & Jonah's Fauxmance by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin

Teens

Meet Jenna and Jonah, Charlie and Fielding – they're the stars of the hit TV show 'Jenna and Jonah's How To Be A Rock Star'. On-screen they're next-door neighbours in a will they, won't they plot. Off-screen they're every bit the perfect couple they are on TV, romantic dinners, flowers – the lot. The problem is they hate each other. You heard me right, they loathe each other. Full review...

The Demon Collector by Jon Mayhew

Teens

Edgy Taylor – a 19th century dog muck collector for a cruel master, Talon – wouldn't claim to have had the best of lives. His only enjoyment of his 13 years or so so far has been setting and solving riddles, while he's spent most of his time avoiding the cruelty of his employer. But when Professor Envry Janus rescues him from Talon, revealing the tanner to be a demon called Thammuz and turning him to stone, Edgy may have cause to look back on his old life with nostalgia. Because inside the Royal Society of Daemonologie, there are people who think Edgy can help them in their quest to find the heart of the legendary demon Moloch, who turned against Satan. There are people who think he's a nuisance. And there are people who want him dead. Can Edgy figure out who's who? He'll have to, because a mistake could cost him his life. Full review...

The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney

Teens

Donna has always been an outcast. The arms she hides underneath long gloves are covered in iron tattoos that give her enhanced strength – strength she has tried to hide. But, despite her best efforts, Donna was involved in an incident at school, an incident that means she's now homeschooled and a social pariah. Full review...

The Kissing Game by Aidan Chambers

Teens

You don't see that many short story collections in YA circles. But when they do appear, you often wonder why there aren't more of them. And this is absolutely the case with The Kissing Game. Ranging from short pieces of flash fiction to "proper" short stories, each one will incite, surprise and stimulate. Full review...

Brainjack by Brian Falkner

Teens

Sam comes to the attention of the CDD (Homeland Security's Cyber Defence Division) when he crashes the entire American internet network because he wants a top spec laptop and one of those super-cool new neural headsets, but doesn't have the money to buy them. Thinking he's been given a hacker network initiation test, Sam then successfully penetrates the White House's security system. It's all the CDD needs to know, and Sam finds himself sprung from federal custody and recruited. Full review...

Private: The Book of Spells by Kate Brian

Teens

Following in her older sister's footsteps after May's return from the exclusive Billings School for Girls to marry the handsome George Thackery III, Eliza Williams is expecting that everyone at the school will remember her sister with affection. But Theresa Billings – as powerful as her name suggests – clearly wasn't a great friend of May's, and Eliza must navigate the rivalries and friendships of school as she tries to settle in. Then the girls find a spell book, and bond over frivolous magic as they help each other and embarrass people they dislike. What could possibly go wrong? Full review...

Entangled by Cat Clarke

Teens

The story starts on day three of Grace's imprisonment by a kidnapper. She's been given pen and paper to explain her recent actions, including falling in love with her boyfriend Nat, the ups and downs of her friendship with Sal, her self-harming, and her attempted suicide. As we learn more and more about Grace's life, the one thing we're never quite sure of is where the mysterious Ethan, her kidnapper, fits into things… Full review...

Furnace: Execution by Alexander Gordon Smith

Teens

And so to the end. Alex and his closest friends have escaped the Furnace Penitentiary, that mile-deep hell-hole cum nightmare scientific experiment writ large. He's arisen to find the country in tatters, as the nasty creatures born there are in charge and decimating the population. There is only one thing to do - kill the man responsible. And Alex, eight feet tall, with an obsidian blade for an arm and muscles upon his muscles, will still face his hardest battle yet. Full review...