Newest Teens Reviews
Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
Cassandra Clare is particularly impassioned about her latest book as it is set in the City of Angels where she grew up. She recalls, "I was an imaginative teenager, always seeing supernatural creatures and potential magic around every corner". Her novel is imbued with her love of film noir, classical texts and the murky literary gothic world of Edgar Allan Poe. These influences charge her urban crime fantasy with mystery and imagination. It works as a standalone though will appeal especially to teenage fans of 'The Mortal Instruments' who will be happy to rejoin the brave Shadowhunter warriors Emma and Julian last seen battling for their lives at the age of 12 during the Dark Wars in 'The City of Heavenly Fire' and now facing painful decisions. Full review...
The Private Blog of Joe Cowley: Straight Outta Nerdsville by Ben Davis and Mike Lowery
A lot has happened in the life of our hero Joe since we first met him. A lot must have happened in the third book in the series too, as we start here with him in a very new situation. He's in London, not the Midlands town of his upbringing, and three of his flat-mates and buddies are a band about to be signed by a major label, with him as their ostensible manager. And he's got a new, cosmopolitan girlfriend. But this is a teen diary book full of the comedy of embarrassment, and nothing can ever be expected to go his way… Full review...
See How They Lie by Sue Wallman
Fifteen year-old Mae has only vague memories of life before her dad, an internationally famous psychiatrist, set up Hummingbird Creek. To Mae the strict timetable, stringent exercise routine and perfectly balanced organic diet are normal. The Creek's patients – teens with psychological problems – might find it unnerving to be trapped in the middle of nowhere with no mobile phone or internet but Mae thinks she's lucky. Or she does until a chance incident reveals her parents have been lying about her mum's family. Mae starts to wonder what else they might have lied about. Soon Mae is questioning everything she's been told about Hummingbird Creek with dangerous, and potentially deadly, consequences. Full review...
Every Hiddden Thing by Kenneth Oppel
Three things stir Samuel's teenaged heart. Duty to his father is one, and another is admiration for the man's career as a dinosaur hunter and aspiration to follow in his tracks. Dad has never been a professor as such, but gets called it anyway, having lucked into being quite a pioneer in the field of finding fossils. And the third thing? Rachel. Not conventionally beautiful, Samuel still finds enough in her to arouse things. But that's where the trouble lies, for Rachel's father and his are confirmed enemies and rivals. And as luck would have it, they're all four headed to the same remote, outlawish region in search of notable remains. How can they be loyal to the science, and to their families, and to their hearts? Full review...
The Space Between by Meg Grehan
The Space Between tells the story of Beth, over the course of a year. We see Beth dealing with her mental illness, locked away in her own, personal 'safe' world where she feels she can maintain her happiness by remaining isolated. Mouse the dog, however, has other ideas about this! With the entrance of Mouse into her life there comes, also, Alice and slowly Alice brings both light and love to Beth's world. Full review...
Owen Pendragon by W S Markendale
Monsters are slipping through somehow from somewhere to kidnap children in Cornwall and the army seems powerless to do anything about it. 12-year-olds Owen and Mary assume they too are therefore powerless as they watch friends and neighbours disappear. Imagine their surprise when they realise that thanks to an ancient relative, they have more influence on what happens than they think and not just on what happens on Earth. And their distant relative? The former monarch and head of the round table, no less: King Arthur. Full review...
Stanly's Ghost: Book 3 (The Bitter Sixteen Trilogy) by Stefan Mohamed
Cynical, solitary Stanly Bird used to be a fairly typical teenager – unless you count the fact that his best friend was a talking beagle named Daryl. Then came the superpowers. And the super powered allies. And the mysterious enemies. And the terrifying monsters. And the stunning revelations. And the apocalypse. Now he's not sure what he is. Or where he is. Or how exactly one is supposed to proceed after saving the world. All he knows is that his story isn't finished. Not quite yet … Full review...
The Nest by Kenneth Oppel and Jon Klassen
Steven can narrate this book to us, but he can hardly ever mention the name of his newborn baby brother. That's not down to a fault with Steven, although there are many of those – obsessive hand-washing, nightmares, anxiety attacks. It's because there's something wrong with the new addition to the family. His parents mutter behind closed bedroom doors of regretting trying for a new child so late in life, but whatever the reason there is something demanding a lot of medical care and attention, even if the child can more or less live in the family home. But hope seems to be shining a light into Steven from the most unlikely source – angels that come to visit him in his dreams, from within a pleasant, light-filled haven, with full knowledge of the family's troubles and an offer of a way out. Obviously, worried for the happiness of his family, and knowing this is just a dream, Steven will only say yes to the offer of help… Full review...
Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky
Women in Science takes fifty prominent women in STEM fields and celebrates their achievements. There are women from the ancient world and women working today. Each of them is given a double page spread including a stylised portrait and infoboxes with factoids on one side and a page of text with a brief biography and outline of her achievements. These intrepid women are inspirational for their work and their discoveries but also for the barriers they overcame - barred from classes or employment because they were women or even barred from employment because they were black in racially segregated America. Full review...
King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard
He caught me in a prince's trap. And now I'm in a King's cage. But I'm not leaving this place unless I leave behind his corpse – or mine.
The third instalment in the Red Queen series, picks up right after the final events of Glass Sword. Mare has been taken prisoner; shackled in Silent Stone and powerless without her lightning. At the mercy of the boy who wears the crown, Mare is haunted by the consequences of her past decisions. Tortured and weak, Mare has a front seat to watch Maven's clever tactics unfold and destroy all that she believes in. Being broken and beaten, Mare will never be the same again after her captivity but can she escape the Palace with her life to fight another day? Full review...
The Pavee and the Buffer Girl by Siobhan Dowd and Emma Shoard
When Jim's family halt at Dundray, his heart grows heavy. A new Buffer school for this Pavee boy to attend. Jim doesn't like school. He doesn't like Buffers. And you know, you couldn't really blame him because the distrust and suspicion is mutual. Prejudice against the Traveller community is strong and when Jim and his cousins turn up on their first day, it's to stares and muttered insults from the pupils and condescension from the teachers. Within days, Moss Cunningham and his gang have accused Jim of stealing a CD - he did no such thing - and have begun a campaign of threats, bullying and worse. Full review...
Moondust by Gemma Fowler
Lunar Inc. is lying to us. It's been lying to us from the moment lumite power was discovered.
After the dark days of future Earth, where an energy crisis has led to chaos, lumite power has become the only solution for peace. Yet that peace is fragile. The memory of the reactor explosion at Andrianne, ten years ago, is still fresh in the public's mind. FALL, the First Anti-Lumite League, continues to campaign fiercely against the United Government and the company responsible for lumite power – Lunar Inc. Full review...
Fish Boy by Chloe Daykin
Billy is struggling at school. He's being picked on by the school bully and he's starting to feel very alone. His mum is sick, although nobody seems to know what's wrong with her. She has been sick for a long time meaning that she can't work, so Billy's dad is working extra hours to try to keep the family afloat and Billy is frequently left to fend for himself. His only escape is in watching his favourite, David Attenborough, or in swimming in the sea. One day, however, things take a magical turn as whilst swimming Billy meets a mackerel who speaks to him! This, combined with the entrance of a new boy at school, starts to change Billy's life in some rather unexpected ways. Full review...
See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng
Meet Alex. He's just eleven, but is sure he has the responsibility age of a thirteen year old. He'll prove this by taking his rocket Voyager 3 and his dog Carl Sagan on an Amtrak train to the desert to a launch festival for hobbyist rocket-makers – and all without the help of the adult brother he only knows now from phone calls, his seemingly comatose couch potato mother, and the father he was told died when Alex was three years old. This book is a transcript of verbal essays and conversations he has made to put in his rocket to send to the stars, so aliens can learn about life on earth in 2017. The fact that we're able to find out what's on it does seem to suggest a failure with Voyager 3, but as for finding out about life – we can only suppose the lad is a bit more successful… Full review...
Exploring Space: From Galileo to the Mars Rover and Beyond by Martin Jenkins and Stephen Biesty
I take it as read that you know some of the history of space exploration, even if the young person you buy books for doesn't know it all. So I won't go into the extremes reached by the Voyager space craft, and the processes we needed to be expert in before we could launch anything. You probably have some inkling of how we learnt that we're not the centre of everything – the gradual discovery of how curved the planet was, and how other things orbited other things in turn proving we are not that around which everything revolves. What you might not be so genned up on is the history of books conveying all this to a young audience. When I was a nipper they were stately texts, with a few accurate diagrams – if you were lucky. For a long time now, however, they've been anything but stately, and often aren't worried about accuracy as such in their visual design. They certainly long ago shod the boring, plain white page. Until now… Full review...
Knife Edge by Robert Swindells
I'm just not interested. I'm not interested in there ever being a knife in junior fiction, unless it comes with a lesson. And I'm just not interested unless that lesson tells you one thing – that they're quick. Knives can be quick to find, are quick to whip out, and quick to get the bearer into trouble, whether they actually meet flesh or not. Sam is the student of that lesson here – his school has a Citizenship campaign whereby the pupils do odd jobs for local elderly, and he finds a perfect knife he thinks will defend him from the local gang – a gang whose leader he constantly rattled in primary school. As for the rest – I'll leave his personable first-person narrative to teach you… Full review...
Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee by Mary G Thompson
Six years ago, cousins Amy and Dee were abducted. They were never recovered and no trace of them was ever found - that is until Amy suddenly returns home, alone and unable to tell anyone where Dee is or what happened to her. Amy's unexpected homecoming gives hope to her family, but she's a different person after spending most of her teen years in captivity, and she's not sure if she can ever fully go back to her old life. Amy is someone she left behind when she was 10 years old and in the years of her absence, she became Chelsea and Dee became Stacie. But why has she come back now? Who took them in the first place? And where is Dee Full review...
Waking in Time by Angie Stanton
Abbi has had a hard year. Her beloved grandmother died and, before the grief really had a chance to settle, Abbi has left the safety and security of home to start college in Wisconsin. And it really does feel as though she has left the two most important people in her life - mother and grandmother - behind. But it's hard to forget and somehow the past keeps hold of Abbi's mind. And then, one morning, she wakes in her dorm room to find herself transported back in time to 1983. And it won't be the first time-shift she experiences. As Abbi jumps further and further back in time, she meets Will. Time is pushing Will forwards, not backwards and his journey began in 1927. Full review...
Caraval by Stephanie Garber
Scarlett Dragna has had one desire all her life: to visit a Caraval. These interactive events put on by magician and entrepreneur Legend are world famous but very exclusive. It's therefore a huge surprise when Scarlett and her sister Tella receive tickets. These will take them away from their sadistic father and prison-like island home for the first time. Caraval is never what one expects though and when Tella is kidnapped, Scarlett experiences the sinister side of a game in which nothing is what it seems. Full review...
Wild Lily by K M Peyton
Lily did love Antony. She was just 14 years old and he was 17, but Antony was the son of the big house and Lily was the daughter of one of the estate workers. They laughed and played together with all the other teens and children on the estate and Antony accepted Lily's adoration and was fond of her. He was an odd mixture of a spoiled brat and a neglected child. His mother was long dead and his father mainly absent on business and parenting was something which was bought in. In the early 1920s cars and aeroplanes were in their infancy and for his 17th birthday (his father thought it was his 12th...) Antony asked for an aeroplane. His father agreed and Antony went to Brooklands and bought a Sopwith. Full review...
All About Mia by Lisa Williamson
Mia thinks she's being ironic when she has the phrase 'All About Mia' emblazoned on her T-shirt. Ironic because it's NEVER about her. How can it be? She's just the mess in the middle – sandwiched between her oh-so-perfect straight A grade sister, Grace, and her super-talented soon-to-be Olympic swimmer sister, Audrey. As far as Mia's concerned she may as well get permanently wasted. She's convinced there's no point trying until a series of events coincide to show her just how wrong she is. Full review...
The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart
Reuben is a small boy growing up with his mum in a big city full of injustice and fear. The family have little money and working two jobs means that Reuben's mum trusts him to be on his own a lot. For a young child Reuben develops a lot of independence, which really helps him when he finds an unusual and precious object and decides to try to uncover its secret. He hopes it might be valuable and dreams of being able to buy his mum her ideal home. Unfortunately there is someone else also looking for the object and Reuben enters into a dangerous game of hide and seek as he dares to take on the most powerful and ruthless man in the city Full review...
The Goldfish Boy by Lisa Thompson
Matthew has OCD. Not that he knows that's what it is. He just likes things clean, he really hates germs, or going outside, and he feels safest upstairs in his room and the front bedroom, where he can control the dirt, and where he can watch everything that's going on outside, making notes on his neighbours' activities. When a little boy, Teddy, from next door goes missing one day, it turns out that Matthew was the last person to see him, and with all of his neighbours as suspects Matthew struggles against his crippling anxieties in order to try and uncover the truth of what happened to Teddy. Full review...
We Come Apart by Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan
We Come Apart tells the story of a burgeoning friendship and romance between Jess and Nicu. Both have problems to deal with. Jess has an abusive stepfather who beats up her mother. Nicu is a Romanian immigrant to the UK and faces xenophobia in the UK as well as an unwanted arranged marriage when he returns home. Both kids get caught shoplifting and are sent on a rehabilitative course (mostly involving picking up litter). The friendship they strike up is born of circumstance yet gradually becomes more, a lot more... ... but is there a future for Jess and Nicu? Full review...
Waiting for Callback: Take Two by Perdita Cargill and Honor Cargill
Everything seems to be slotting into place for 15 year-old wannabe actress, Elektra James. The summer's here and she's finally landed the boy of her dreams. Added to that she's about to start filming a blockbuster film with internationally famous co-stars. Could life get any better? Ur… maybe… No, definitely … especially when said boy of her dreams lands his own starring role in a TV series that's filming in Transylvania. And, to make matters worse, shooting a blockbuster film (while dressed in a costume that looks like a sack) isn't quite as smooth and glamorous as Elektra imagined. Full review...
The Memory Book by Lara Avery
Sam McCoy has her life all planned out. She is going to win the national debating competition, go to college in New York and become a human rights lawyer. She is so sure of this that it almost feels ordained. And she has worked for it too, sacrificing relationships and friendships in the service of ambition. You can imagine, then, that Sammie views a diagnosis of Niemann–Pick type C as little more than a rock in the road. She won't let a pesky health condition stand in her way. Full review...
Tilt by Mary Hoffman
To make an author, you first show someone books. To make a reader, you first show them the books they want to, and/or can, read. To make a builder, you first show someone buildings. I use those platitudes to introduce Simonetta, or Netta, who lives in Pisa late in the thirteenth century. She is surrounded by fabulous buildings – it's not for nothing the area will become known as the Field of Miracles, for the Cathedral, Baptistry and bell tower look gorgeous. But something is wrong with the latter one – it's definitely leaning, cracks are showing, and over the hundred-plus years it's taken to get this far people have built the floors at odd angles to correct the problem. Netta is intent on being the person who can solve it, alongside her father who's employed to finish it off. But therein lies the problem – it's all well and good showing someone buildings, and making them want to be an architect, but if they're the wrong gender then all hope is lost… or is it? Full review...
Until We Win by Linda Newbery
The best journeys are made with little steps. Lizzy is slowly leaving her boring village behind – by being cheeky yet clever at her lessons, and getting a job in an office in the nearest proper town – and by saving to buy, and teaching herself to ride, a bicycle. All that's under the watchful eye of a mother insistent she learns to knuckle down with the housework on behalf of the men, and an older brother working at the village hunt. At the office, however, further steps are suggested to her – shorthand and typing classes, but she gets diverted. A chance encounter in a tea rooms puts more stepping stones in her way – en route to becoming a fully committed Suffragette, concerned only with making demands for votes for women. Full review...
