Difference between revisions of "Newest Teens Reviews"

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search
 
Line 1: Line 1:
 
[[Category:Teens|*]]
 
[[Category:Teens|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Teens]]
+
[[Category:New Reviews|Teens]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
==Teens==
+
{{Frontpage
__NOTOC__
+
|author=Leanne Egan
{{newreview
+
|title=Lover Birds
|author=Robin Bennett
+
|rating=4.5
|title=Angel of Mons
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Ben Bartops is surprised and horrified about what he sees in the trenches of Belgium in August 1914So is Sam Lyle, but at least he has the experience of being a career soldier – Ben is a schoolkid from the 21st Century, and shouldn't by rights be in the warzone at all. But ''something'' is putting, or taking, or sending, him to the front, and somehow the two lives will intertwine, in very dramatic ways…
+
|summary=When new girl, Isabel, moves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around herA misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, and that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn't it? Because Lou is straight, isn't she?  Even though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and she's never had a good kiss with any of them?  So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956868444</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=000862657X
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Ashley Hickson-Lovence
|author=Jeremy de Quidt
+
|title=Wild East
|title=The Feathered Man
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Klaus is a street kid who has been taken in by Kusselman, the tooth-puller. Kusselman is a hard taskmaster, fond of using a belt to discipline and control his young apprentice, and he isn't fussy where he finds teeth to sell to the rich of the town. So there's nothing unusual in a trip to Frau Drecht's miserable boarding house, home to those with no money and no other place to go. When her residents die off, as they tend to do with depressing regularity, Frau Drecht sells their teeth to Kusselman and their poor, wasted bodies to the School of Anatomy for dissection. Frau Drecht has also taken a street child for a servant. But to keep Liesel in line, Frau Drecht uses a hot iron, not a belt.
+
|summary=Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at a mostly white school. The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, a new school, and keep himself out of trouble. He listens to music constantly, and has always dreamed of being a rapper. But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the power of creativity and crafting your words.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385613598</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0241645441
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Jenny Valentine
|author=Jeff Norton
+
|title=Us in the Before and After
|title=The Dead are Rising (MetaWars)
+
|rating=5
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Jonah's father died in the battle for control of the Metasphere. He was a Guardian - a terrorist or freedom fighter, depending how you see things - and he had infiltrated himself into a position of trust with the Millenials, the group supporting the billionaire inventor who created and controlled an online world in which people living in a post peak-oil and devasted Earth spend most of their time. But before he died, Jason Delacroix's memories had been uploaded to the Metasphere as an avatar.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408314606</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Rachel van Kooj and Siobhan Parkinson (translator)
 
|title=Bartolome: the Infanta's Pet
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=In 17th century Spain, life is run by a strict code of conduct and appearances dictated by the Royal House. It is not a place of kindness or understanding, especially for a dwarf like Bartolome Carrasco. When his father, coachman to the Infanta Margarita, moves his family to Madrid for a better life; Bartolome is kept hidden from the world in a back room. But Bartolome is clever. He hears that a dwarf, just like him, has a position in the Royal household, he begins to educate himself in order to follow his dream and make his family proud. A sudden coach accident brings Bartolome to the attention of the young Infanta, and she demands that he be brought into the court as her pet. Forced to dress and behave as a dog, it seems life is destined to be one humiliation after another. Then, Bartolome meets the artist, Diego Velazquez, court painter who is working on Las Meninas, a portrait of the Royal family centring on the Infanta. A plan is hatched that may free Bartolome from his life of servitude and fear forever.
+
|summary=Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable.   Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908195266</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1471196585
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Max Boucherat
|author=Stephen Chbosky
+
|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|title=The Perks of Being a Wallflower
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=5
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|genre=Teens
+
|summary=We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong?  Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky.  For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?
|summary=Charlie is very bright but also very shy, introspective and socially awkward. He has a loving and close family who, by and large, support him and give him good advice. But this life lark is a tricky thing. High school is particularly tricky. Having been told to try to participate more, Charlie approaches Patrick and Sam at a football match. They're a couple of school years above him, but they take to him nevertheless and introduce him to their group. He writes about his experiences with his new friends, his family, his favourite teacher and his therapist in letters to a person he's heard about but never met.
+
|isbn=0008666482
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147111614X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|author=Gina Blaxill
+
|title=Compass and Blade
|title=Forget Me Never
+
|rating=3.5
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Sophie's cousin Dani has never been particularly stable, but Sophie never expected her to commit suicide. When she finds a memory stick in Dani's jeans which suggests that there may have been rather more to her death than there seemed, she does the sensible thing and goes to the police. The police don't seem particularly bothered, though, so Sophie and her friend Reece decide to investigate for themselves - only to find they may be in over their heads. Can they expose the people who caused Dani's death, or will they have enough trouble avoiding becoming victims themselves?
+
|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447208064</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.
|author=Jonathan Maberry
+
|isbn=0008664730
|title=Flesh & Bone (Rot & Ruin)
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Having escaped the horrors of Gameland at the dreadful cost of losing Tom, Benny, Nix, Lilah and Chong must journey through the Rot & Ruin without his warrior smarts. They're in search of the jet they saw in the sky months ago. They hope to find hope, some remains of a civilisation lost after First Night, when the zombie virus spread through the population like wildfire. When life as it was ceased to be. When the undead started to walk...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857079719</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Harry Allen
|author=Kat Zhang
+
|title=Children of the Sun
|title=What's Left Of Me
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Addie and Eva are 15 year olds living somewhere in America. They have a mother, a father and a younger brother. But Addie and Eva are not sisters, or twins, in the usual sense. They are two minds who share one body, and they are in trouble.
+
|summary= Ra Eun Seo lives in a North Korean town and she is a talented singer. Life is hard and food is difficult to come by, so Seo and her friends Nari and Min go foraging every evening, looking for tree bark and edible grasses to supplement the meagre rations of rice and kimchi at home.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007476817</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1805140493
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jeyn Roberts
 
|title=Rage Within (Dark Inside)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=
 
We left Aries, Michael, Clementine and Mason in a world they can barely recognise. After a series of devastating earthquakes many people changed. They became murderous monsters that the normal survivors called Baggers. There are few normal people left and they must hide in ruined cities, avoiding death at the hands of the Baggers. And in ''Rage Within'', the battle for survival is about to get even tougher. The Baggers are organising themselves, clearing the streets of bodies and setting up worker camps for captured survivors.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144721790X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Alexia Casale
|author=Melissa Marr
+
|title=Sing if you Can't Dance
|title=Carnival of Souls
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=In the City of daimons, the fighting is raging. Not war - this is much more organised. The Carnival of Souls is a once in a generation opportunity to change your future. Lower caste Kaleb and Aya, fighting the prejudice agaist women, aim to do just that. Meanwhile, in our world, Mallory knows of the City's existence but not she and her father need to run away so much. These three are about to be drawn together, and the consequences for everyone could be huge.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0061659282</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sarah Crossan
 
|title=Breathe
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=When the trees were all felled to make crop land to feed an exploding population, oxygen levels on Earth fell. Eventually, the air became unbreathable. A government lottery decided who would live inside the life-saving Pod created by Breathe. Those left on the outside died. Years later, Pod society is divided into Premiums, who have easy lives, plenty of air and positions of power, and Auxiliaries, who labour at endless shifts and pay through the nose for enough oxygen to get by. A resistance group is trying to replant the Earth and reduce dependence on the Pod, but Breathe and the Pod Minister will stop at nothing to crush them.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408827190</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sally Gardner
 
|title=Maggot Moon
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=There are certain books that you know, right from the first pages, are destined to be classics. There is something about the phrasing, about the concept and about the main character which chime so perfectly together that they cannot fail to move you, to open a window in your world and show you another, deeper truth. Such a book is 'Maggot Moon'.
+
|summary=It's hard enough to navigate your teenage years without suddenly finding that you're having to navigate a life-changing disability too, but that's what Ven is dealing with after collapsing on stage in the middle of a dance performance that was going to change her life.  But she comes back fighting, desperate to avoid the pity stares, and desperate to get back to a life that's as normal as she can possibly manage.  Meanwhile there's a new (cute!) boy in school, her music A Level performance piece to try to sort out, and just the day to day traumas of all the challenges her body continues to throw at her to navigate. So even though she can't dance anymore, might she be able to sing her way through instead?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471400042</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0571373801
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Simon Fox
|author=Holly Black
+
|title=Deadlock
|title=Red Glove (Curse Workers 2)
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Cassel lives in a world where magic is frowned upon. Practice is banned and everyone wears gloves to prevent being worked. Cassel himself is a transformation worker - the rarest type. And he is the most powerful transformation worker in living memory. This makes him extremely valuable to the crime families who use curses to support and maintain their empires. It also makes him extremely dangerous as far as the authorities are concerned. And that's why Cassel tries to keep his status to himself, since he discovered it in the [[The White Cat (Curse Workers, Book 1) by Holly Black|first book]] in this ''Curse Workers'' sequence.
+
|summary=Late one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the force, and then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a secret place, and join him on the run. They get together, but barely begin to smell the whiff of Southern trains when the father is arrested, leaving Archie on the late express to Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, and the bearer of a whole heap of questions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575096764</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1839944420
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Lex Croucher
|author=Ilsa Bick
+
|title=Gwen and Art Are Not in Love
|title=Ashes
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Beware: it's impossible to review ''Shadows'' without giving spoilers for [[Ashes by Ilsa Bick|Ashes]], the first book in this dystopian trilogy, which ended on a huge cliffhanger.
+
|summary=Who knew that what I really needed to read right now was a gay Arthurian RomCom?  But honestly, it lifted my spirits in a most delightful way. In this story, Gwen and Arthur have been betrothed since they were tiny, much to their mutual disgust!  Gwen, you see, is in love with Bridget (the kingdom's only female knight) - something that Art discovers from her private diaries. And then when Gwen then catches Art kissing a boy they find themselves becoming reluctant allies, creating the subterfuge of falling in love with each other, when really they are enabling their own other romantic attachments. But as their impending wedding draws ever closer, will they find a way in which they can both truly be themselves, or are they destined to live a lie their whole lives?
 
+
|isbn=1526651793
The world has been devastated by a catastrophic electromagnetic pulse. Many of the young have become ''Changed'' - cannabilistic monsters with a penchant for violence. Alex was hiking in the wilderness when it all happened and although she isn't Changed, her senses have heightened and it seems the progression of her terminal brain tumour may have halted.
 
 
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857382640</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Neal Shusterman
 
|title=Unwholly
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=
 
At last! It's been five years since ''Unwind'', Neal Shusterman's first book set in a dystopian future where teenage children are ''unwound'' - retroactively aborted to provide organs and limbs for transplant surgery. If you're an adult reader, the world of ''Unwind'' is very much like ''Never Let Me Go'' by Kazuo Ishiguro. ''Unwind'' had a profound effect on me - as the best books for children do - it was exciting, touching, shocking and, above all, fearless. But there were flashes of humour that made it all bearable.
 
 
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857078623</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Nick Brooks
|author=Libba Bray
+
|title=Promise Boys
|title=The Diviners
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=1920's New York City. Jazz and gin mix with murder and mystery. For Evie O'Neill - fresh in from Ohio to the city of her dreams after her demonstration of a strange power caused a scandal in society - this is what she's always dreamed of. But dreams can become nightmares, and when Evie, her uncle Will and their friends find themselves trying to stop a serial killer, she'll have to use all of her wits, as well as her power, to stay alive.
+
|summary=When the principal (headmaster) of Urban Promise Prep school is murdered, three boys find themselves called into the police station as suspects. Each, seemingly, has a grudge of some description against Principal Moore, and each could have been there at the time of his murder. But who killed him, and why, and if any of the boys are innocent, will they be able to clear their names?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907410392</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1035003155
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1919635017
|author=Stefan Bachmann
+
|title=A Thief to Catch a Killer
|title=The Peculiar
+
|author=Kitt Townsend
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=
 
''Don't get yourself noticed and you won't get yourself hanged.''
 
 
 
Such is life for peculiars like Bartholomew Kettle and his sister Hettie. Their mother is human but their - absent - father is a Sidhe, a high fairy. Fairies are contemptuous of the half-breed peculiars and humans distrust and suspect them. Hapless peculiar children are often hanged by humans. And, even more worryingly, bodies of peculiars have been turning up recently, quite dead, covered in ancient faerie script and as empty of bone and organ as they are of life.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0062195182</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kate Cann
 
|title=Witch Crag
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Kita lives in a hill fort as part of the sheepmen community. Life since the Great Havoc has been hard and brutish. There are few survivors from the time of technology and nature is gradually retaking the land. There are often droughts and both food and water are often in short supply. For the sheepmen, it's all about survivial. Food, what there is of it, is bland. Days are filled with grinding hard work. Relationships are frowned on. Women are treated like chattels. Although they have an alliance with the horsemen, other groups are avoided and disliked - the farmers, those who live in the ruins of the Old City.  
+
|summary= Solomon Klyne isn't a bad lad, so why is he running around London committing a series of robberies? And how did he learn to crack safes? You'll have to wait to get an answer to the second question because I avoid spoilers. But I'll answer the first one: for his grandmother...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140710702X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Patrick Ness and Tea Bendix
|author=Tammara Webber
+
|title=Different for Boys
|title=Easy
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|genre=Teens
|summary=Jacqueline gave up her dreams of becoming a classical musician to follow her boyfriend Kennedy to college. When he dumps her, it hits her hard – so hard she starts skipping classes and, as a result, failing economics. Dragged out to a party by her friend to help her get over the break-up, instead she faces terror as her ex’s friend Buck tries to rape her. A mysterious stranger, Lucas, intervenes to save her, and when she realises they share economics, she starts to wonder whether he could take her mind off Kennedy. She’s also receiving e-mail tuition from an older student she’s never met, who seems to be flirting with her. Soon, though, she realises that Buck hasn’t forgiven her for escaping his attentions, and she’s forced to try to find the courage to take a stand against him.
+
|summary=Ant is in Year Eleven at quite a standard school, and is surprised to find his geography class (within which it seems absolutely nothing about geography is ever learnt) has been restructured, so his desk is one of four with both his best buddy from the football team, and two other old muckers – in fact they all go back to primary school days together. As they're all fired up, straining at the leash only a single-sex school can form, the talk in class and out often turns to sexWhich is confusing for Ant, as he doesn't know what his score is, where his achievements in that regard lie. He's had a casual relationship, a secret one, for several months now, and so has effectively progressed up the ladder headed by 'experienced', but whether that's set in stone, he can't be sure.  And that's mostly because of who he's been having the relationship and the sex with.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141347449</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1529509491
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=John Marsden
 
|title=The Third Day, The Frost (The Tomorrow Series)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Narrator Ellie and her friends are carrying on with their resistance efforts against the invaders and hit on a stroke of luck as they discover their old comrade Kevin working on a nearby farm. A daring rescue attempt succeeds, and he's brought back into the fold. He's also learnt something of explosives, and is able to help plan the group's most audacious attack yet. But with security higher than ever, can they pull it off, and at what cost?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857388754</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sarah Rees Brennan
 
|title=Unspoken
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Kami Glass, intrepid journalist in the making, has always been used to being an outsider. She might have a best friend and run the school paper, but she also talks to a boy in her head. A boy who talks backThough her imaginary friend has lost her real friends in the past, Kami is quite happy with her life as it is. As long as she doesn't get caught staring into space as she conducts conversations with him in her mind too often, things are pretty good.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857078070</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Marilyn Kaye
 
|title=White Lies and Tiaras
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Alice has been invited to a wedding, but she’s not that excited by this news. The groom is her childhood sweetheart, Jack, but since she’s moved on (sort of) and has a new boyfriend (sort of) there’s no real reason for her not to go. After all, the wedding is in Paris, and her best friend Lara, Jack’s cousin, will also be there. They’ve both been invited with plus-ones so Alice can take Cal, and Lara can bring Harry, and they can have some fun in the French capital when they’re not expected to be doing family-and-friend stuff with the wedding party.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144490311X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gregory Hughes
 
|title=Summertime of the Dead
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Yukio lives with his grandmother in Tokyo. He enjoys school, practising kenzo, and hanging out with his two best friends, twins Hiroshi and Miko. They do everything together - swimming, shopping, eating, even visiting nuns. But then the yakuza - the Japanese mafia - come into their lives. And Hiroshi and Miko are dead - blackmailed and tormented, they take their own lives. Filled with grief, Yukio vows revenge...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780875525</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Michael Gerard Bauer
 
|title=Don't Call Me Ishmael
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Fourteen-year-old Ishmael Leseur is a loser. He can't help it - how is he meant to survive with a name that school bully Barry Bagsley can twist into Fishtail Le Sewer, Fishwhale Manure, or even worse combinations? He's so fed up of being bullied that when the nerdy James Scobie moves to his school, he almost welcomes the arrival of a new target for Bagsley's scorn. But Scobie doesn't fear anything. With his help, and that of Miss Tarango, the new English teacher, can Ishmael learn to stand up for himself?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848776837</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Paul Dowswell
 
|title=Eleven Eleven
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=It's 2am in Paris on Tuesday 11th November 1918. Negotiations for ending World War I are almost complete and both sides will announce the Armistice at 11am. But the people actually fighting the war don't know that yet...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408826232</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tera Lynn Childs
 
|title=Sweet Venom
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Grace is the new girl in San Francisco, who can't understand why she's seeing weird creatures whom no-one else seems to notice. Gretchen is an experienced monster-hunter. Greer is a socialite. The three of them look eerily alike - what's their connection, and can this mismatched trio of teens defend the world from the demons who seem to be appearing with ever-increasing frequency?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848779321</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1800901232
|author=Keren David
+
|title=Stitched Up
|title=Another Life
+
|author=Steve Cole
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
|summary=Ty's cousin Archie, son of two top lawyers, has managed to get himself expelled from another boarding school. He wants to be back in London, spending time with his friends and with his cousin. But with Ty struggling to cope as he's sentenced to a spell of time in a Young Offenders Institution, Archie tries to find out more about his cousin's past.
+
|summary=Twelve-year-old Hanh wanted to be a fashion designer.  Life in the rural village where she lived with her family was happy, if not prosperous, so when the smartly-dressed man and woman came to the village to offer Hahn a job in Hanoi it was an opportunity not to be missed. Some money changed hands and Hanh was on the mini-bus to Hanoi.  Only, Hanh and the other girls were not going to work in a shop, they were to work in virtual slavery in an illegal garment factory.  You know those jeans you really wanted: the ones with intricate embroidery and beading on the legs?  The ones with the artfully-placed rips and distressed seams that felt so soft when you touched them?  It's quite possible that Hanh and her co-workers made them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847802869</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Patrice Lawrence
|author=Sophie Jordan
+
|title=Needle
|title=Vanish
+
|rating=3
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Events have forced Jacinda back into the arms of the Pride. When her mother took her away from them, it was the last thing Jacinda wanted. But now she's back, she wants nothing more than to spread her wings and fly away. But it's not that easy. Severin, leader of the Pride, has her under virtual house arrest. Tamra, Jacinda's twin, is going through some tumultuous changes, and needs the support of the Pride. And there's Cassian - a permanent fixture in Jacinda's life, the one who brought her back to the Pride, who she is beginning to think cares about her for more than just her firebreathing talents.
+
|summary=Brave. Charlene, the 'heroine' of this piece is extremely hard for some people to like, characters and readers both. Kicked out of multiple homes and schools, she's fostering with a pleasant yoga tutor, Annie, and has taken up residence in her son Blake's old room while he's at uni. Such a tempestuous personality may be in need of a comfort blanket, you might perhaps think, and the creation of one such item is part of the plot here, as Charlene is a wonder knitter, and is making something full of love for her younger sister – a younger sister she's allowed contact with no more. We see Charlene prove her belligerence with a store detective, and then force people to give her two days off school, when she shouts someone down as expletively ignorant. And then... well, what exactly happens is not for me to say, only to remark how sharp and pointy those knitting needles can be...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192756540</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1800901011
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Ann Sei Lin
|author=Kevin Crossley-Holland
+
|title= Rebel Skies
|title=Scramasax: The Viking Sagas, Book Two
+
|rating= 5
|rating=4
+
|genre= Teens
|genre=Teens
+
|summary= Kurara has spent her entire life as a servant on the Midori, a massive dining hall floating in the sky where soldiers of the Empire come to drink and make merry between their conquests. However, when a man named Himura arrives to tell her that she is a Crafter like him, someone with the power to form paper into whatever she desires – a power sought after all across the Empire. He asks her to come with him, to leave the life of dreary servitude that is all she has known. Well, soon Kurara won't have any say in the matter, because the Midori is destroyed by a monstrous paper spirit known as a shikigami, and she is forced to flee out into the world. She joins Himura aboard the Orihime, a sky-ship whose express purpose is to hunt down shikigami, and a whole world of adventure awaits her…
|summary=We left Solveig finally reunited with her Viking father, after a journey that took her all the way from her Scandinavian home to Miklagard (Constantinople). There, her father is in the service of Harald Hardrada, who in turn serves the Empress Zoe. Zoe's court is a dangerous place, full of spies and prisoners and instant punishment by death - for the smallest of transgressions. So Solveig needs to learn fast if she is to persuade Harald to allow her to stay with the Viking guard.  
+
|isbn=1406399590
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184724940X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Marcus Sedgwick
|author=Darren Shan
+
|title=Wrath
|title=Zom-B
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Strange news reports are coming out of Ireland. YouTube is buzzing with clips of zombie infestations and the military clearing remote villages. This is all taken with a pinch of salt by B Smith, schoolfriends, teachers and parents. Most people think it's all a promotion campaign for a new film, but there are also scatterings of various conspiracy theories. None of it really impinges on B and pals though - they carry on with life regardless. There's hanging out in the park to be done, after all. Various peer group scores to settle. Fake IDs to find and attempts to buy alcohol. You get the picture. Some silly fake zombies barely register.  
+
|summary=Meet Fitz, a young Scottish lad full of frustration at himself. Lockdown is only just over, and he should be free to do what he wants, to go where he wants and with whom he wants, but he cannot stop himself from putting his foot in it when he talks to his best friend, Cassie. They were half of a desultory school band, but Cassie was also one hundred per cent the enigmatic – saying she could hear a subhuman hum coming from the earth. Is this connected with one of her eco-warrior parents saying the end of the world is already a done deal? Is it some spooky new kind of music she's dreaming of? Is she just bonkers? And can Fitz find out the truth? Well, not when Cassie has gone missing he can't...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085707752X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1800900899
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Tori Bovalino
|author=Catherine Fisher
+
|title=The Devil Makes Three
|title=The Obsidian Mirror
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Jake's father disappeared while working on a secret project with his best friend, the celebrated explorer and recluse Oberon Venn. Jake is sure that Venn is a murderer and sets out to prove it, dragging his teacher, Mr Wharton, into the investigation. But the truth is perhaps even more frightening: David Wilde isn't dead, he's lost in time. Venn and his sidekick Piers are intent on re-entering the past to find him, using a device called the Chronoptika. But it's dangerous and they aren't the only ones hell bent on using the time machine. There's Sarah, who can turn herself invisible, and who's being pursued by a murderous Replicant and his wolf. And there's the scarred man with his acolyte and his strange weapon. And there are the Shee, who keep their own counsel, but have their own ambitions, and who enchant the forest on Venn's estate...
+
|summary= Working all summer in her boarding school's library is the last thing Tess Matheson wants to do — especially when she gets a request for over a hundred books that she has to deliver herself. What makes it worse is the man who requested the books: Mr Birch. The boarding school's headmaster, and a man Tess hates. As a petty act of revenge for making her find and deliver such a large request, Tess sticks post-it notes on each of the books, scribbled with the ugliest insults she can think of. They're never meant to reach him, of course. Her plan is to get her anger out like this, and then take them all off before delivering them. No harm done… Or it would be, if someone hadn't delivered them for her.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340970081</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1789098130
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Robert Muchamore
 
|title=Guardian Angel (CHERUB)
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Reviewers at the Bookbag have had mixed feeling about cherub in the past, so I wanted to start this review by saying I'm a big fan of the series in general. I thought [[People's Republic (CHERUB) by Robert Muchamore|People's Republic]], the first of the 'new' books, actually showed a significant improvement on the last couple of the James Adams books because Muchamore didn't use the long flashback which had irritated me in both of them. I really liked Ning, one of the new characters introduced in that one, and was looking forward to reading more about her here.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340999217</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Philip Reeve
|author=Susan Waggoner
+
|title=Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep
|title=Timedance 1: Neptune's Tears
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=The premise is both original and timeless: star-crossed lovers separated by an apparently unbreachable barrier. Two hundred years into the future, a healing empath meets a mysterious young man to whom she is immediately attracted. For Zee this could be a disaster, not only because falling in love so intensely is likely to damage her ability to do her work, but also because the boy has a secret so huge and terrifying it could destroy them both.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848122721</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Colin Mulhern
 
|title=Arabesque
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=When a group of amateur criminals find themselves suddenly short of twenty grand for an ambitious deal with a weapons dealer, one of them has the bright idea to kidnap a pair of semi-celebrity teenage girls, Amy May and Mia, to extort money from their wealthy parents. But when the kidnappers make a mess of the situation the girls find themselves in the hands of a decidedly more sinister villain. Galloway likes to think of himself as a higher class of criminal and when he realises that Amy May is an Olympic standard gymnast, he decides to take advantage of the situation, using a combination of sly manipulation, threats and blackmail to coerce the girls into working for him. Galloway isn't a fool and he has all the cards in his hand, but somehow Amy May has to push herself to the limit to save not just herself, but her best friend too.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846471486</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jillian Larkin
 
|title=The Flappers: Ingenue
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Gloria Carmody and Jerome Johnson fled Chicago for New York to escape the mob and the police after Gloria killed a man. They thought that their love would be enough to get them through – but a white woman and a black man living together will need a lot more than that to get a happy ending. After witnessing another murder, Jerome's sister Vera knows that New York is about to get even more dangerous for the pair, but can she find them to warn them in time? Meanwhile Lorraine Dyer, formerly Gloria's best friend, is also trying to find them – but in her case she wants revenge on Gloria. As for Clara Knowles, former 'Queen Sheba of the flapper scene', she may be back in New York but she's not going back to the speakeasies and parties. She's happy with quiet, respectable Marcus Eastman. Until she gets an intriguing offer...
+
|summary=In a word, rich. There is certainly an abundance of riches in this story set on a peculiar island called Wildsea, British but way west, beyond the Scillies. There are troll people on it, and sea-witches, and legends of the Dark family that has to keep watch for magical islands and their monster approaching from even further west, where no ship dare sail. The current Darks are the Watcher, Andrewe, who has to keep notes of activity from the Hidden Lands, his brother Will who lives in London with too much science in his head to worry about such local yokel superstitions, and Andrewe's foundling daughter, who washed up out of the sea one day eleven years ago. But when Andrewe Dark drowns himself, both his sullen brother and his curious ward are thrust into the world of protecting their island, like it or not.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552565059</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1788452372
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston
|author=Joss Stirling
+
|title=Julia and the Shark
|title=Seeking Crystal
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Crystal Brook has always struggled with her paranormal gifts, but meeting the Benedict brothers makes things even worse. While her sister Diamond finds her soulfinder in Trace, Crystal can't stand his conceited brother Xav. After an unforeseen attack, though, the unlikely pairing will have to pool their resources to save their families.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192793519</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gillian Philip
 
|title=Wolfsbane (Rebel Angels)
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=After the terrible events at the end of the [[Rebel Angels: Bloodstone by Gillian Philip|second book]] in Gillian Philip's ''Rebel Angels'' sequence, we move on a decade or so. Finn is back in the mortal world. But Rory and Jed have stayed with Seth, now the captain of the MacGregor clann's dun. Faerie queen Kate NicNiven continues to plot against Seth and to wrest Rory, the Bloodstone and prophesied saviour, from him. She is as determined as ever to destroy the veil separating the mortal and faerie worlds.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905537352</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=B R Collins
 
|title=Maze Cheat
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=This fast-paced story, with its overtones of Greek tragedy, is set in a dystopian world where acid rain is so bad people must wear a mask just to go outside. People find distraction in role-play games, particularly the Maze, which is the creation of the immensely powerful conglomerate called Crater. The game taps directly into players' minds, making them feel as if they are really present in the virtual world, and is promoted as being unbeatable, but with the help of people like Ario who make their living by creating and selling cheat codes, it looks as if someone is about to reach the final level. And Crater isn't happy about that.
+
|summary=Julia, our pre-teen heroine, has been packed off with her parents and their cat from the family home in SW England to be lighthousekeepers for a summer, in the far NE of the Scottish islands. Here be Vikings, that kind of Scottish island. Dad is going to be automating the lantern, which is his specialist thing, while mum will be leaving her career in algae behind to hunt the elusive Greenland shark. And Julia, well, she will be homesick and alone until she suddenly finds company one night.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408827603</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1510107789
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Abby McDonald
 
|title=The Anti-Prom
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Bliss has spent years waiting for the perfect prom. Part of the school's social elite, it's her night, isn't it? She gets a rude awakening when she sees best friend Kaitlin and boyfriend Cameron making out in the limo. Jolene didn't even want to go to the prom - she was pushed into it by her mother, who's tired of her bad girl image. Meg's so invisible that she's stood up by a boy she's never even met, a family friend who was going with her out of pity, but obviously doesn't pity her enough to turn up. With the help of these two unlikely allies, can Bliss get revenge on Kaitlin? One thing's for sure - this will be a night no-one will forget.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406337587</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sam Hawksmoor
 
|title=The Hunting
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Genie, Rian and Renee escaped from the Fortress in the Repossession, but their plan to spread the word about the evil people running it went wrong. Now they're on the run, with a reward on their heads, roadblocks in their way, and a whole host of fellow victims to worry about. Can they escape or will they become the hunters in an attempt to take control of their lives back?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340997095</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Maggie Stiefvater
 
|title=The Raven Boys
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Ley lines, sleeping kings, clairvoyants and the night the dead walk . . . this intriguing book is full of ancient myths and beliefs. They give a depth and flavour to the story, which could so easily have just been a trivial tale about the rich boy who dabbles in the occult to amuse himself, and the poor girl who helps him.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407134612</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Niall Leonard
 
|title=Crusher
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Finn's life isn't really going anywhere. He's working at Max Snax, a horrible fast food emporium. It's not fun. But you don't have many choices when you're a) dyslexic and b) your anger at your mother abandoning you has led to some bad behaviour and a criminal record. But Finn's dreary life is about to be turned upside down...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857532081</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Jonathan Stroud
|author=David Belbin
+
|title= The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne
|title=Student
+
|rating= 4
|rating=3.5
+
|genre= Teens
|genre=Teens
+
|summary= Scarlett McCain is an outlaw, rejecting the draconian conformity of the Surviving Towns and Faith Houses to wander the wildlands between the Seven Kingdoms of Britain, robbing banks and shooting other outlaws to keep herself alive. But then she meets Albert Browne, a dark boy with dark powers and a darker past. With mysterious militiamen hunting them down, they plan to flee to the mythical Free Isles of the London Lagoon. Together, they must brave man-eating wildlife, the cannibalistic Tainted and all the horrors of post-apocalyptic society to reach the Free Isles, but will they be any more accepted there than they are in the rest of Britain?
|summary=When Allison secured her place in Nottingham University, she thought of it as a way to escape a miserable home life, with an absent father, drunk mother and un-committing boyfriend. She thought university would be a place for intellectual debate, and the creation of loyal friendships and love. However, she quickly realises that student life isn't like those rosy pictures you get on prospectuses. In ''Student'', we see a university experience defined by a trinity of drugs, lust and study, one that changes Allison and everyone around her.
+
|isbn=1406394815
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907869530</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Thrillers Reviews]]
|author=Katie McGarry
 
|title=Pushing the Limits
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Echo used to be popular. Until a particular night when something happened, leaving her with scars on her arms and a blank space where her memory of that night should be. As if having a stepmother who used to be her babysitter and a brother who died in Afghanistan wasn't already making life hard enough, she's trying to work out if she'll ever recall what she went through. Then she meets Noah, who shares a therapist with her and is nearly as damaged as she is. Torn away from his beloved younger brothers after their parents died, he's desperate to become their legal guardian when he turns eighteen – but with a hot temper and a dubious academic record over the past couple of years, is there any way a judge would choose him over the foster parents they're currently living with? Could these two broken teenagers help each other to heal?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184845077X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=William Richter
 
|title=Dark Eyes
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Born in Russia but brought up in New York by wealthy adoptive parents, before rejecting them to live on the streets with her friends, Wallis Stoneman has never known too much about her past. This lack of knowledge might turn out to be deadly, though, when a chance encounter leads to her being given a letter from her birth mother. As Wally tries to track her down, she and her friends enter a murky world where the stakes are high, the truth is hidden, and every move they make could be their last.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>014134234X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lisa Stasse
 
|title=The Forsaken
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Alenna Shawcross has grown up in a newly-formed super country controlled by the military dictatorship that stole her parents from her as a child. Alenna has grown up in a state-run orphanage, in anticipation of the Test, a government-administered initiative designed to identify those teens most likely to become criminals. As you'd expect in a dystopian thriller, Alenna fails the test and ends up on an isolated island with other potential criminals. However, she soon finds that the island isn't all that she had been led to believe.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408318806</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Andy Mulligan
 
|title=Ribblestrop Forever!
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=It's a new term for Ribblestrop, the weirdest boarding school in the world of fiction. The pupils, who of course include a bus-load of orphaned Himalayan circus stars, are so used to the extraordinary that when three returning children arrive by landing the plane they're travelling in - '''onto''' the said bus - nobody bats an eyelid. But problems begin when they stray onto a rival school's ground, and practically rescue a historian living in a stolen mobile library, who is tracing the ghosts of an ancient tribe across the local region. Soon things conspire to put the whole faculty on the same path...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857078003</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=S J Kincaid
 
|title=Insignia
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Tom is awkward, wary and self-reliant. He has spent his life on the road, moving from casino to casino with his dad and catching a little online education whenever the opportunity presents itself, but frankly he is far more concerned with finding his next meal than any more distant future. A poor diet and a life spent in gaming rooms has left him scrawny, small, and with a serious case of acne. He feels he is nothing and no one, and cannot imagine ever living any other life.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147140000X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 09:54, 8 July 2024

000862657X.jpg

Review of

Lover Birds by Leanne Egan

4.5star.jpg Teens

When new girl, Isabel, moves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, and that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn't it? Because Lou is straight, isn't she? Even though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and she's never had a good kiss with any of them? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she? Full Review

0241645441.jpg

Review of

Wild East by Ashley Hickson-Lovence

4.5star.jpg Teens

Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at a mostly white school. The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, a new school, and keep himself out of trouble. He listens to music constantly, and has always dreamed of being a rapper. But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the power of creativity and crafting your words. Full Review

1471196585.jpg

Review of

Us in the Before and After by Jenny Valentine

5star.jpg Teens

Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together. Full Review

0008666482.jpg

Review of

The Last Life of Lori Mills by Max Boucherat

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn? Full Review

0008664730.jpg

Review of

Compass and Blade by Rachel Greenlaw

3.5star.jpg Teens

I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.

Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear. Full Review

1805140493.jpg

Review of

Children of the Sun by Harry Allen

5star.jpg Teens

Ra Eun Seo lives in a North Korean town and she is a talented singer. Life is hard and food is difficult to come by, so Seo and her friends Nari and Min go foraging every evening, looking for tree bark and edible grasses to supplement the meagre rations of rice and kimchi at home. Full Review

0571373801.jpg

Review of

Sing if you Can't Dance by Alexia Casale

5star.jpg Teens

It's hard enough to navigate your teenage years without suddenly finding that you're having to navigate a life-changing disability too, but that's what Ven is dealing with after collapsing on stage in the middle of a dance performance that was going to change her life. But she comes back fighting, desperate to avoid the pity stares, and desperate to get back to a life that's as normal as she can possibly manage. Meanwhile there's a new (cute!) boy in school, her music A Level performance piece to try to sort out, and just the day to day traumas of all the challenges her body continues to throw at her to navigate. So even though she can't dance anymore, might she be able to sing her way through instead? Full Review

1839944420.jpg

Review of

Deadlock by Simon Fox

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Late one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the force, and then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a secret place, and join him on the run. They get together, but barely begin to smell the whiff of Southern trains when the father is arrested, leaving Archie on the late express to Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, and the bearer of a whole heap of questions. Full Review

1526651793.jpg

Review of

Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

4star.jpg Teens

Who knew that what I really needed to read right now was a gay Arthurian RomCom? But honestly, it lifted my spirits in a most delightful way. In this story, Gwen and Arthur have been betrothed since they were tiny, much to their mutual disgust! Gwen, you see, is in love with Bridget (the kingdom's only female knight) - something that Art discovers from her private diaries. And then when Gwen then catches Art kissing a boy they find themselves becoming reluctant allies, creating the subterfuge of falling in love with each other, when really they are enabling their own other romantic attachments. But as their impending wedding draws ever closer, will they find a way in which they can both truly be themselves, or are they destined to live a lie their whole lives? Full Review

1035003155.jpg

Review of

Promise Boys by Nick Brooks

4star.jpg Teens

When the principal (headmaster) of Urban Promise Prep school is murdered, three boys find themselves called into the police station as suspects. Each, seemingly, has a grudge of some description against Principal Moore, and each could have been there at the time of his murder. But who killed him, and why, and if any of the boys are innocent, will they be able to clear their names? Full Review

1919635017.jpg

Review of

A Thief to Catch a Killer by Kitt Townsend

4.5star.jpg Teens

Solomon Klyne isn't a bad lad, so why is he running around London committing a series of robberies? And how did he learn to crack safes? You'll have to wait to get an answer to the second question because I avoid spoilers. But I'll answer the first one: for his grandmother... Full Review

1529509491.jpg

Review of

Different for Boys by Patrick Ness and Tea Bendix

4.5star.jpg Teens

Ant is in Year Eleven at quite a standard school, and is surprised to find his geography class (within which it seems absolutely nothing about geography is ever learnt) has been restructured, so his desk is one of four with both his best buddy from the football team, and two other old muckers – in fact they all go back to primary school days together. As they're all fired up, straining at the leash only a single-sex school can form, the talk in class and out often turns to sex. Which is confusing for Ant, as he doesn't know what his score is, where his achievements in that regard lie. He's had a casual relationship, a secret one, for several months now, and so has effectively progressed up the ladder headed by 'experienced', but whether that's set in stone, he can't be sure. And that's mostly because of who he's been having the relationship and the sex with. Full Review

1800901232.jpg

Review of

Stitched Up by Steve Cole

5star.jpg Dyslexia Friendly

Twelve-year-old Hanh wanted to be a fashion designer. Life in the rural village where she lived with her family was happy, if not prosperous, so when the smartly-dressed man and woman came to the village to offer Hahn a job in Hanoi it was an opportunity not to be missed. Some money changed hands and Hanh was on the mini-bus to Hanoi. Only, Hanh and the other girls were not going to work in a shop, they were to work in virtual slavery in an illegal garment factory. You know those jeans you really wanted: the ones with intricate embroidery and beading on the legs? The ones with the artfully-placed rips and distressed seams that felt so soft when you touched them? It's quite possible that Hanh and her co-workers made them. Full Review

1800901011.jpg

Review of

Needle by Patrice Lawrence

3star.jpg Teens

Brave. Charlene, the 'heroine' of this piece is extremely hard for some people to like, characters and readers both. Kicked out of multiple homes and schools, she's fostering with a pleasant yoga tutor, Annie, and has taken up residence in her son Blake's old room while he's at uni. Such a tempestuous personality may be in need of a comfort blanket, you might perhaps think, and the creation of one such item is part of the plot here, as Charlene is a wonder knitter, and is making something full of love for her younger sister – a younger sister she's allowed contact with no more. We see Charlene prove her belligerence with a store detective, and then force people to give her two days off school, when she shouts someone down as expletively ignorant. And then... well, what exactly happens is not for me to say, only to remark how sharp and pointy those knitting needles can be... Full Review

1406399590.jpg

Review of

Rebel Skies by Ann Sei Lin

5star.jpg Teens

Kurara has spent her entire life as a servant on the Midori, a massive dining hall floating in the sky where soldiers of the Empire come to drink and make merry between their conquests. However, when a man named Himura arrives to tell her that she is a Crafter like him, someone with the power to form paper into whatever she desires – a power sought after all across the Empire. He asks her to come with him, to leave the life of dreary servitude that is all she has known. Well, soon Kurara won't have any say in the matter, because the Midori is destroyed by a monstrous paper spirit known as a shikigami, and she is forced to flee out into the world. She joins Himura aboard the Orihime, a sky-ship whose express purpose is to hunt down shikigami, and a whole world of adventure awaits her… Full Review

1800900899.jpg

Review of

Wrath by Marcus Sedgwick

4.5star.jpg Teens

Meet Fitz, a young Scottish lad full of frustration at himself. Lockdown is only just over, and he should be free to do what he wants, to go where he wants and with whom he wants, but he cannot stop himself from putting his foot in it when he talks to his best friend, Cassie. They were half of a desultory school band, but Cassie was also one hundred per cent the enigmatic – saying she could hear a subhuman hum coming from the earth. Is this connected with one of her eco-warrior parents saying the end of the world is already a done deal? Is it some spooky new kind of music she's dreaming of? Is she just bonkers? And can Fitz find out the truth? Well, not when Cassie has gone missing he can't... Full Review

1789098130.jpg

Review of

The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino

4.5star.jpg Teens

Working all summer in her boarding school's library is the last thing Tess Matheson wants to do — especially when she gets a request for over a hundred books that she has to deliver herself. What makes it worse is the man who requested the books: Mr Birch. The boarding school's headmaster, and a man Tess hates. As a petty act of revenge for making her find and deliver such a large request, Tess sticks post-it notes on each of the books, scribbled with the ugliest insults she can think of. They're never meant to reach him, of course. Her plan is to get her anger out like this, and then take them all off before delivering them. No harm done… Or it would be, if someone hadn't delivered them for her. Full Review

1788452372.jpg

Review of

Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep by Philip Reeve

5star.jpg Confident Readers

In a word, rich. There is certainly an abundance of riches in this story set on a peculiar island called Wildsea, British but way west, beyond the Scillies. There are troll people on it, and sea-witches, and legends of the Dark family that has to keep watch for magical islands and their monster approaching from even further west, where no ship dare sail. The current Darks are the Watcher, Andrewe, who has to keep notes of activity from the Hidden Lands, his brother Will who lives in London with too much science in his head to worry about such local yokel superstitions, and Andrewe's foundling daughter, who washed up out of the sea one day eleven years ago. But when Andrewe Dark drowns himself, both his sullen brother and his curious ward are thrust into the world of protecting their island, like it or not. Full Review

1510107789.jpg

Review of

Julia and the Shark by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Julia, our pre-teen heroine, has been packed off with her parents and their cat from the family home in SW England to be lighthousekeepers for a summer, in the far NE of the Scottish islands. Here be Vikings, that kind of Scottish island. Dad is going to be automating the lantern, which is his specialist thing, while mum will be leaving her career in algae behind to hunt the elusive Greenland shark. And Julia, well, she will be homesick and alone – until she suddenly finds company one night. Full Review

1406394815.jpg

Review of

The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud

4star.jpg Teens

Scarlett McCain is an outlaw, rejecting the draconian conformity of the Surviving Towns and Faith Houses to wander the wildlands between the Seven Kingdoms of Britain, robbing banks and shooting other outlaws to keep herself alive. But then she meets Albert Browne, a dark boy with dark powers and a darker past. With mysterious militiamen hunting them down, they plan to flee to the mythical Free Isles of the London Lagoon. Together, they must brave man-eating wildlife, the cannibalistic Tainted and all the horrors of post-apocalyptic society to reach the Free Isles, but will they be any more accepted there than they are in the rest of Britain? Full Review

Move on to Newest Thrillers Reviews