Difference between revisions of "Newest Teens Reviews"
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|title=The Paradise Trap | |title=The Paradise Trap | ||
|rating=3.5 | |rating=3.5 | ||
| − | |genre= | + | |genre=Confident Readers |
|summary=When Marcus's mum has to economise over their holidays, it means just the two of them, revisiting a campsite she herself knew as a child, in a grotty old second-hand caravan. It's a greasy, shabby, squeaky little closet of a caravan, and no-one can agree on what the awful stink pervading it reminds them of. But when the trip is hyped up as a great time for both, it seems to have a chance of coming true, for a bizarre cellar to the caravan leads everyone to their dream trip - if only, unfortunately, one way... | |summary=When Marcus's mum has to economise over their holidays, it means just the two of them, revisiting a campsite she herself knew as a child, in a grotty old second-hand caravan. It's a greasy, shabby, squeaky little closet of a caravan, and no-one can agree on what the awful stink pervading it reminds them of. But when the trip is hyped up as a great time for both, it seems to have a chance of coming true, for a bizarre cellar to the caravan leads everyone to their dream trip - if only, unfortunately, one way... | ||
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857386735</amazonuk> | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857386735</amazonuk> | ||
Revision as of 07:43, 12 March 2012
Teens
Virals by Kathy Reichs
Tory Brennan is just a normal girl with an extraordinary aunt - the renowned forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan. Desperate to follow in her relative's footsteps, she seems to have little opportunity to do so living in South Carolina - but that quickly changes when she and her friends stumble on a decades old corpse. Desperately trying to find out what happened to the dead person, and cure a sick dog they've liberated from a laboratory on their island home, the quartet's lives have suddenly become rather complicated. And that's before a mysterious virus hits them all and leaves them with some very strange side effects... Full review...
Silver: Return to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion
Even if you have not read Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 classic Treasure Island, or you have read it a long time ago, the chances are that you will be broadly familiar with the story and in particular some of the rich characters he created because they have entered into the culture of our image of pirates. Before Johnny Depp convinced us that pirates looked like Keith Richards, it was the terrifying image of Long John Silver and his parrot, squawking 'pieces of eight', double dealing his way to buried treasure and the innocence of young narrator Jim Hawkins that conjures up what we think of in terms of pirate adventure. But Stevenson left some tantalizing threads to his tale, not least the fact that Silver made off with only the majority of the treasure and left the remaining silver behind together with three marooned pirates to fend for themselves. Setting the story 40 years after these events, Andrew Motion picks up the tale and has the offspring of Hawkins, in the form of his son also called Jim and Long John Silver's daughter Natty returning to collect the remaining bounty. Of course, it's never going to be that simple. Full review...
Bunheads by Sophie Flack
Nineteen-year old Hannah Ward, a dancer with the Manhattan Ballet Company, has devoted her entire life to dance. She works hard, watches her weight like a hawk, and navigates the complicated maze of relationships with the rest of the company who, in many cases, are both friends and rivals. But then she meets musician Jacob, and she realises just what she's missed out on while growing up like this. Will she do the unthinkable and give up her career, or pass up the chance of love in the hope of gaining success in the ballet world. Full review...
The Flappers: Vixen by Jillian Larkin
Gloria Carmody is a society princess in 1920's Chicago. Engaged to Sebastian Grey, both powerful and handsome, she is expected to be little more than an ornament to him. After spending a night at the notorious speakeasy the Green Mill, though, Gloria knows that there's more to life than balls and socialising... Full review...
The Paradise Trap by Catherine Jinks
When Marcus's mum has to economise over their holidays, it means just the two of them, revisiting a campsite she herself knew as a child, in a grotty old second-hand caravan. It's a greasy, shabby, squeaky little closet of a caravan, and no-one can agree on what the awful stink pervading it reminds them of. But when the trip is hyped up as a great time for both, it seems to have a chance of coming true, for a bizarre cellar to the caravan leads everyone to their dream trip - if only, unfortunately, one way... Full review...
The Flask by Nicky Singer
Twelve-year-old Jess is dealing with a lot. Her beloved Aunt Edie has just died. Her mother is expecting twins - but these new babies will be Jess's half-brothers and will complete Jess's mother's marriage to her stepfather. But will they complete Jess's family? Will they even survive? Because the twins are conjoined. And in 70% of separations, only one twin lives. And if this weren't enough in the way of trials and tribulations, Jess's best friend Zoe is moving towards a relationship with a boy. Does this mean she will leave Jess behind? Full review...
Pieces of Us by Margie Gelbwasser
Every summer Katie and her sister Julie meet up with Alex and his brother Kyle at a lakeside community in New York. They leave behind their problems - which are legion - and find comfort in each other. But when a dark secret of one of them leaks out, the four are all left reeling by the far-reaching consequences. Full review...
Torn by Stephanie Guerra
Stella Chavez is a fairly ordinary girl until she meets Ruby Caroline. She gets pretty good grades, has friends she's grown up with, and is a soccer star. New girl Ruby, on the other hand, is trouble with a capital T, right from the moment she storms into her first class wearing a band-aid of a skirt and swearing like a trooper. There's something about Ruby, though, that draws Stella to her, and the pair quickly become inseparable. But as Ruby's behaviour gets more and more erratic, and she's drawn into bad habits and an unsuitable relationship, can Stella save her friend - or will she get dragged down with her? Full review...
The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams
Back in the Middle Ages, Seraphina nearly died. Her boyfriend Cyrus saved her life - at the cost of someone else's. Using his newly discovered Alchemy potion, he transferred her soul into another body. They've now lived over 600 years, changing bodies every decade or so, but Sera is tired of this unnatural existence and is determined to end it. She runs away from Cyrus, ready to die for real this time. When she finds sixteen-year-old Kailey, who's just been involved in a car accident, her good intentions waver and she takes over the dying girl's body. Could this be her chance for a new start? Full review...
The Killables by Gemma Malley
In the City, evil has been eradicated. Each of its citizens has undergone the New Baptism - having the evil part of their brain, the amygdala, removed. But even this isn't enough - the City still needs its System, which monitors every citizen and labels accordingly. Any sign of evil results in a lower classification and the lowest classification of all is "K". Ks are sent for reconditioning. After this, they disappear and are never seen again. Full review...
The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Mara has just started her whole life over - new city, new school, new start. It's just what the doctor ordered, and her family - though still treating her like she might fall apart at any moment - are tentatively hopeful that it's just what she needs to get back on her feet. Mara just hopes her memories return. She needs to know what happened the night her two best friends and her boyfriend died in an accident she somehow managed to escape unscathed. Full review...
The Repossession by Sam Hawksmoor
Genie Magee hasn’t seen her boyfriend Rian all summer. In fact, she hasn’t seen anyone all summer – apart from the creepy worshippers of the Church of Free Spirits, whose leader Reverend Schneider has persuaded her mother she’s possessed, due to her strange mystical gift. Rian hasn’t stopped thinking of her, though, and has hatched a daring plan to rescue the love of his life and escape the town of Spurlake – but their escape will lead them into a situation more dangerous than they could ever have imagined. Full review...
Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
Having escaped from Portland at the end of book 1, Lena is alone in the Wilds. Having to face the unthinkable - life without Alex – she chooses to join the resistance of the Invalids in an attempt to bring down those who have made love into a disease. Flicking between the early days immediately following her escape, as she settles into the community along with her new allies Raven and Tack, and a time a bit later on when she plays a more active role in the resistance, Pandemonium has more of the thrills and excitement that made the first book an enjoyable read. Full review...
Secrets of the Henna Girl by Sufiya Ahmed
Sixteen-year-old Zeba Khan wasn't particularly looking forward to the family holiday with her parents in Pakistan. It was eight years since she'd been there and she had only vague memories of the heat, the mosquitoes, her Uncle's home and her cousin Asif, who is eight years older than her. She's just finished her GCSE exams and - along with her best friend Susan - was planning which subjects she would take for A level and university as well as looking at future careers. She's always been happy in her Muslim faith and the lack of boyfriends, alcohol and drugs had never worried her, although she was perhaps a little envious of the fact that Susan could go out in the evenings. Full review...
Itch by Simon Mayo
Itchingham Lofte - cool name, cool guy, but he's Itch to you and me - is an element-hunter. Like many kids, he's a collector-magpie, but football stickers and manga-style cards aren't his thing. Itch is a science geek and he is trying to collect a sample of all 118 elements. Itch lives in Cornwall, where he has recently arrived from London, and his element-hunting doesn't carry much kudos at his school, where he spends most time dodging the bullies. At home, Itch has a tendency to formulate disastrous experiments and the latest explosion not only removed his eyebrows but also got his collection banished to the shed. Full review...
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Greg is trying to survive high school, and is doing rather well at it. He's got a wonderful tactic of just avoiding pretty much everyone - never getting close to any group of people, never alienating any group either, just coasting along on nodding terms with everyone. The exception is Earl, who he makes low-budget version of cult classic films with. His life is about to be changed, though, as his mother is determined that he should rekindle an old friendship with Rachel Kushner – who’s dying of leukemia. Full review...
CRYPT: Traitor's Revenge by Andrew Hammond
There are teenage spies, ghosts and gore aplenty in store for readers of this series: the books are a non-stop, fast-paced battle against all manner of supernatural nasties, where the adrenalin remains high and the body count just keeps on mounting. Full review...
Skin Deep by Laura Jarratt
14-year-old Jenna survived a car crash which killed her best friend. Sometimes, she wishes it was her who was dead. Because the crash left her face scarred, and she can't stop feeling like a freak. As if that wasn't hard enough to cope with, her dad is out for justice and has set up a pressure group in response to the light sentence given to the driver of the car she was in - and the youth is responding with intimidation. Just as she hits rock bottom, though, 16-year old New Age traveller Ryan comes into her life. Could he be the person to see past her scars? Full review...
Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal
Framed by Jobs' iconic speech at a Stanford College graduation ceremony, and the three stories he told the students, about connecting the dots, love and loss, and mortality, this biography gives a succinct and balanced account of Jobs' life, his successes and his failures, his passions and his ideals, and his infamously polarized personality. The author actively annotates the backstory of Jobs with references from this speech, as well as future events, carefully chosen statistics, and Jobs' own reminiscence, giving a rich context to his story. Jobs' achievements are incredible and they're not simply down to his genius, but his attitudes towards life and his incredible charisma. Full review...
Dark Storm by Sarah Singleton
Ellie is spending the summer with her grandparents, in the house where her mother grew up, while her dad and his new girlfriend go on holiday together. Although it's been more than a year since her mother's death, Ellie is finding it hard to move on with her life. Whilst shopping in an antique shop one day she comes across the model of an old theatre, and sets free a ghost who made the model theatre with his sister hundreds of years ago. With this model is a script for Romeo and Juliet, which the local theatre group are currently putting on. Ellie's grandparents are keen for her to join the group, and it's here she meets new friends and begins to fall in love with a ghost. Full review...
Arcadia Awakens by Kai Meyer
Rosa can't wait to get away from New York. En route to Sicily to be reunited with sister Zoe and her continental extended family, she makes sure every aspect of her American life is deleted, right down to the songs on her iPod. Arriving in Palermo, she's thrown into a sinister Mafia underworld filled with murder, corruption and clan rivalries going back more generations than you could shake a stick at. Zoe seems at home in this world but Rosa kicks against it right from the outset. Her rebelliousness is only exacerbated by the mutual attraction that springs up between Rosa - an Alcantra - and Alessandro - a Carnevare. Romance between scions of warring clans? It can't be tolerated. Full review...
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
It is probably impossible to read this book without crying. It is one of the most heart-breaking and yet uplifting books around, and reading it feels like a privilege. Begin it early in the day, because you will not want to put it down until you have reached the very last page, and when you do you will care for many of the main characters like friends. You will weep for those who die (or most of them, at any rate: even the gentlest of readers will be glad that the world is rid of one or two). You will be proud to be human, if people like these are in our world, and you will burn for shame that others can be so cruel, so cold and so vicious. And the worst of it is, our study of history tells us that even if these precise events did not happen, then there are many other events in war, both in the past and doubtless now as well, which resemble them. The whole book is a testament to human courage and human frailty. Full review...
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Beatrice - or Tris as she becomes - belongs to one of five factions in a segregated future world. Beatrice is Abnegation (selflessness) but has always struggled with the self-effacing lifestyle embraced by her faction. But she's not sure if she's any better-suited to one of the others: Candor (honesty), Amity (kindness), Erudite (intellect) or Dauntless (courage). So Tris approaches the faction aptitude test taken by all sixteen-year-olds in her society with a large dollop of trepidation. Full review...
Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
When Kali sees the Orobouros mark on cheerleader, Bethany, at her high school, she doesn't hesitate in tempting the parasitic creature - a Chupacabra - out of Bethany and into her own body. The parasite is a death sentence for humans. Some days, Kali's blood is toxic to paranormal creatures. Some days she's blessed with strength, speed and killer instinct, and the parasite feeding off her memories wouldn't have stood a chance. But not on this day. On this day, Kali is completely human. And she has to survive the next 17 hours before she changes back. Full review...
After the Snow by SD Crockett
On a near future Earth, Willo lives with his family in an isolated community without technology. His parents remember a time when there were machines but all this has changed. Now there's only enough petrol for the sinister government trucks. One day Willo finds himself totally alone, his parents missing, presumed taken. Armed with his father's cryptic sayings and his only friend, (a dog's skull that speaks through his imagination) Willo leaves all that's familiar in order to find his loved ones. The unknown is a ruthless place filled with Stealers and starvation but there's escape from what he needs to do. Full review...
Wyrmeweald: Bloodhoney by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
Micah and his mentor, the grizzled old tracker Eli, have holed up in a mountain cave: fullwinter in Wyrmeweald is harsh, and few humans could survive its rigours. With them is Thrace, a kingirl who bonded with a whitewyrme but who was abandoned by the enormous dragon-like creature after she and Micah fell in love. Used to flying free across the skies, she finds the confinement almost unbearable, and she is wasting away before their eyes. Full review...
Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
Mockingbird is the story of Caitlin, an 11-year old girl with Asperger's syndrome trying to recover from the death of her brother Devon in a school shooting. With her dad struggling to cope and Caitlin no longer having her brother to explain to her things she doesn't understand, the young narrator must seek closure on the tragedy herself. Full review...
Drive By by Jim Carrington
It's hot. Johnny and his friends tire of the park and ride their bikes to the local shop for an ice cream. Sitting outside in her husband's car is the Poisoned Dwarf, the miserable old lady who burst their football when it landed in her garden. Armed with water soakers, the boys just can't resist. But this "drive-by soaking" has catastrophic consequences. The Poisoned Dwarf has a heart attack and is carted off in an ambulance. And a few days later, she dies. Johnny is overwhelmed with remorse but is too afraid to come forwards. But are the weird things that start happening - waking up at the same time every night, a feeling of being watched - just tricks played by a guilty conscience? Or is the Poisoned Dwarf haunting him? Full review...
Oliver Twisted by J D Sharpe and Charles Dickens
A small boy, Oliver, is brought up in a workhouse before being sent to work for an undertaker. Running away from the cruel undertaker and his wife, he finds himself in London, where he falls in with a disreputable old rogue called Fagin and his gang of thieves. Think you know the story? Think again - and add soul stealers, werewolves, and magic... Full review...
