Newest Teens Reviews
Rebecca Is Always Right by Anna Carey
First things first: I must admit that I chose to review this book entirely based on its title. After all, what better book to keep on the coffee table and brandish at my husband when I'm making a point? What I did not realise when I volunteered is that it is the fourth book in a series that began in 2011 with The Real Rebecca, for which Anna Carey won the Senior Children's Book prize at the Irish Book Awards. This has its advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, you can tell that the characters are established and well-rounded. On the other hand, there are such frequent references to past events – presumably, adventures from the previous three books – that it is clear this is an instalment in an ongoing story and not a stand-alone book. Full review...
The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick
If anyone ever suggests to you that science and art (or philosophy) don't go together, give them this book! The Ghosts of Heaven presents four fabulous stories from different time frames linked by the natural constant of the spiral. The introduction provides a lyrical explanation of the birth of the universe, the Solar System and us and of the dimensional spiral we call the helix. It also explains that we can read the stories in any of the twenty-four possible orders we please. Full review...
Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 Stories by Malorie Blackman, Holly Black and others
How long do you keep your birthday presents for? A week, a month, a year – or life? Is that time-scale different, perhaps, when you're nearly a thousand years old? I only ask because Doctor Who is, of course, both 51 (in our earthly, televisual representation) and 900 and more in human years as a character. In 2013 we were given a great book that gave us a story for every Doctor Who we've seen on TV, in honour of the 50th birthday proceedings. But now is a year on, and we're a further Doctor down the line. And so what was '11 Doctors, 11 Stories' is now '12 Doctors, 12 Stories'. So while many of us would have cherished and kept said birthday present, the only addition is the last, which like the rest was available as an e-book. So it's worth revisiting what I said about the book last time, then chucking in the (what might only be temporarily) concluding story at the end. Full review...
Opal Plumstead by Jacqueline Wilson
Living in Edwardian England, Opal Plumstead is a fiercely intelligent girl. She has already won a scholarship to a public school and dreams of going to university. But all her ambitions are snatched away when her father is sent to prison and Opal is forced to abandon her education for a job in the Fairy Glen sweet factory. The other workers there find Opal snobby and arrogant but the factory's owner, Mrs Roberts, notices her artistic talent and treats Opal as a protege. Through Mrs Roberts, Opal learns about the suffragette movement and even meets the legendary Mrs Pankhurst. Full review...
Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
The year is 1959, and a small group of black students are attending Jefferson High, a previously all-white school. Barely anyone is happy that Sarah Dunbar and her friends are going to Jefferson, and the group face a terrifying ordeal as they're surrounded by people who want to see them fail. Chief amongst them is Linda Hairston, daughter of one of the town's most vocal segregationalists. But when Sarah and Linda start working together on a school project, they start to realise they may have more in common than they think - and friendship might not be all they're looking for from each other. Full review...
Spark by John Twelve Hawks
Jacob Underwood is dead. At least, he thinks he is.
Suffering the after effects of a traumatic accident, Jacob believes he is dead, just a spark existing inside a body, but unable to fully interact with anything around him. Emotionally detached and living in a shadowy, silent world, Jacob is the ideal assassin. When a new hit is assigned to him, Jacob must prepare himself - and his journey will change both his self, and how he sees the world around him. Full review...
The Cure For Dreaming by Cat Winters
Olivia Mead is strong, independently-minded and unrepentant in her beliefs, but there is a certain natural vulnerability to her personality which makes her so appealing. She isn’t a ruthless, remorseless warrior. She is a human being who simply wants to be treated like one, rather than a pet. She isn’t an elusive and daunting beauty, because this isn’t the point of her character. Her beauty lies in in her firmly held values, which she sticks by even at an age when it would be so easy to go with the flow. Full review...
Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
I was sent here because of a boy. His name was Reeve Maxfield, and I loved him and then he died, and almost a year passed and no-one knew what to do with me.
Jam's grief for Reeve has left her paralysed. She does nothing but think of him and the forty-one days of their relationship. She's not interested in school. friends, food, family, even therapy. And so, in desperation, Jam's parents send her off to a boarding school for Kids With Problems. Full review...
The Real Test (Shades 2.0) by Jill Atkins
Ryan had just passed his driving test at the first attempt and he knew it meant that he was a great driver. There was just one snag: his mother wasn't exactly on board about this and wouldn't let him borrow her car. There was always an excuse as to why it just wasn't possible, even when he'd promised his friends that he could have the car so they could go off somewhere. Finally he got his Mum to admit that she was a bit worried about him using it - but she did offer to go out with him so that he could get some practice in. Ryan knew that the time for practicing was past. I mean, he'd passed his test, hadn't he? Full review...
The Winter Horses by Philip Kerr
It’s the winter of 1941 and we are in the Ukraine. A fourteen year old girl is hiding in a wood on the vast and bitter-cold steppe. Her name is Katinka, a name from folk song and fairy tale, and she has been befriended by two of the wild Przelowski’s horses. Full review...
Aftershock (Shades 2.0) by Jill Atkins
She's MADDY, you know, not MADELEINE, but that's only one of the problems which she has with her parents. They might be on holiday in one of the most beautiful places on earth, but her mother simply will not lighten up. She's always complaining about what Maddy does, what she wears or doesn't wear (there's not nearly enough of that bikini...) and Maddy has had enough. She slams out of their bungalow and goes down to the beach - but it's not long before the sea is all sucked away and tragedy hits. Will Maddy have the chance to apologise for all the hurtful things which she said? Full review...
ZOM-B Family by Darren Shan
REPEATING STANDARD WARNING! If you haven't read the first book in this series, STOP READING NOW! NOW! Spoilers ahoy! Full review...
Skulduggery Pleasant: The Dying of the Light by Derek Landy
Everything comes down to this. The war between the Sanctuaries was merely a prelude to the real battle, the fight against Darquesse, perhaps the most powerful sorcerer of all time. Prophesied to burn everyone and everything to ashes, her arrival heralds the end of the world as everyone knows it, and the stakes have never been higher, the need never greater, for Skulduggery Pleasant and what remains of his allies to do what they do best: kicking evil very hard in the face. Full review...
Eren by Simon P Clark
People - Mum, mostly - are keeping secrets from Oli. Why have they had to leave London and come to live in the country with Uncle Rob? Why hasn't Dad come too? Why does everyone keep turning off the TV news every time it comes on? Why does Em's dad dislike Oli when he doesn't even know him? When will Dad come? When will life go back to normal? Full review...
Young Sherlock: Stone Cold by Andrew Lane
Every human being is a mystery, even to themselves, so there's a particular pleasure to be found in tracing the roots of someone's interests and life's work. Just how did our hero develop his ability, for example, to tell a person's character, profession and history within minutes of meeting him or her? In this, the seventh volume in the series of books about the early years of the famous Sherlock Holmes, we see how events and a most intriguing couple of mentors combine to lead him down a path to his eventual role as a consulting detective. Well, if he survives till adulthood, that is. Of all his talents the most pronounced one does seem to be the knack of finding people who are determined to kill him. Full review...
The Rising by Tom Moorhouse
Strife and Kale are two young water voles who can sniff out trouble better than their careful sister Ivy and to the fury of their protective mother, Aven. They just can't help it. But Kale isn't telling Strife everything - he has a secret. When long-lost Uncle Sylvan arrives warning of danger and the siblings eavesdrop on the adults' conversation, Kale's secret is exposed. Even though she doesn't fully understand it, Strife follows her brother into danger to avert a bigger danger. The quest on which these two young water voles embark will test them to their limits and they'll need all the help Uncle Sylvan and Fodur the rat can provide... Full review...
Wolf Brother: Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver
Living six thousand years ago, after the Ice Age but before the spread of agriculture, Torak and his people understand the natural world. They revere the animals they hunt and never waste an ounce of prey. A deer provides them not only with food, but also with clothes, water carriers, shoes, rope, even needles. Torak and his people also understand spirituality. They see the sacred in the seasons and the cycle of the moon. And they believe in demons. Full review...
Found by Harlan Coben
It's been eight months since Mickey watched his father die in a car accident. Since then, he's been drawn into the work of the mysterious Abeona Shelter, rescuing children and young people from dangerous situations. The latest person to go missing is Ema's online boyfriend. Mickey isn't convinced he exists, but Ema's adamant they need to look for him. Meanwhile, Mickey's nemesis Troy has been taken off the basketball team after failing a steroid test. Troy isn't exactly Mickey's favourite person, but he knows the team won't play so well without him, so when Troy asks Mickey for help to prove his innocence, Mickey reluctantly agrees. Full review...
No Stone Unturned by Helen Watts
Kelly doesn't have any friends at school. People don't like travellers. So she's glad to find a new friend in Ben over the summer holidays. Even Kelly's dog, Tyson, likes Ben. Exploring the disused quarries local to their village of Wilmcote, they find some interesting treasures, including an old boot. So when school starts again and Mr Walker sets a local history project, Kelly decides to find out more about the old quarries, the coming of the railway and the use of Wilmcote limestone in the construction of the Houses of Parliament. Ben offers to help and soon the pair uncover worrying evidence about what really went on all that time ago... Full review...
Counting By 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Willow is not like other girls. She is not just smart, but certifiably gifted. She gets on better with adults than she does her peers. She loves patterns and plants, the colour red and the number 7. She is charming and adorable and quirky. She is one of the most real characters I've met in a book this year. And she is hurting. Full review...
The 100 Society by Carla Spradbery
Grace and her friends at the Clifton Academy boarding school have a secret. They have resurrected the 100 Society and intend to complete the grafitti tagging of a hundred locations around the city. A scandal involving a previous incarnation of the society means that this is an expulsion offence so Grace is playing with fire. But to her, the 100 Society isn't a game; it's an obsession. And she's determined to complete the mission. Full review...
The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel
William Everett's father has risen high in the railway. But it wasn't always thus. He spent many years working for Cornelius Van Horne as a manual labourer, cutting and blasting through swathes of Canada and laying tracks. When Will and his father witness the laying of the last piece of track, there's an avalanche. And Will's father saves Van Horne's life. Promotion and success followed and now Van Horne is dead, Will's father is general manager and the world's biggest train - the Boundless, at 987 carriages long - will carry his body in perpetuity. Full review...
The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
Hayley is back in her childhood home after years on the road with her father, trying to outrun the past. She doesn't really remember living here, nor does she really want to. Not when her father can't drive under bridges for fear of snipers. Not when he's self medicating with alcohol and drugs. Not when he refuses help from the VA. Full review...
The Witch of Salt and Storm by Kendall Kulper
Avery wants just one thing: to take her place as the witch of Prince Island. The witch who controls the winds and helps the whalers on their way. The witch whose charms on which the whole island relies. But Avery's mother, who has rejected magic, came and stole her away. Avery's prison in her mother's house is a luxurious one - there are dresses and trinkets and ponies most girls would die for. But Avery doesn't care. All she wants is to get back to her grandmother and to continue her witch's apprenticeship. Full review...
Splintered Light by Cate Sampson
When she was just a child, Leah's face was horribly scarred in an attack in which her mother and another woman died. And it's all brought horribly back when the man convicted is released years later after new evidence has emerged. Charlie's father is that man. And Charlie wants more than anything to reunite with his exonerated father and help him get revenge on the people who falsely accused him. Then there's Linden, newly released from a young offenders institute, whose brother Victor has an inexplicable obsession with this years-old crime. All three teenagers are defined by a single calamity. But what really happened? Full review...
Pills and Starships by Lydia Millet
Ravaged by the effects of global warming, disease and an increasingly unsustainable population, the future in which Nat and her brother Sam live is a far cry from the world of their parents' youth. Corporations run the remains of their society, forbidding the birth of new children, using a ubiquitous supply of pharma drugs to keep the population in check, and perhaps most sinister of all, taking control of death itself. Riddled by depression Nat's parents have decided to buy a death contract to take their Final Week in a slickly engineered resort in what remains of Hawaii. As the days tick down, Nat finds herself following the lead of her more cynical and rebellious brother, and begins to genuinely question the system that she has previously accepted all her life; however, what chance do two teens possibly have against the all-seeing, all-powerful corps? Full review...
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
Alina Starkov, the Sun Summoner, has fallen. In her confrontation with the Darkling, she called on forbidden powers. Not only did she nearly die, but she didn't succeed in stopping him. Now he sits on Ravka's throne, ruling the country through fear, while she wastes away underground, weakened, and far from the light that would strengthen her. Full review...
Death on Toast (Shades 2.0) by John Townsend
Freddy has the ultimate disadvantage of having rich parents. Well, actually, I guess it's not so much that they're rich as that they're far too busy doing what they want, have to do to take much if any notice of Freddy and what he's doing. He's left on his own - often overnight - to do exactly as he wants to do. And what Freddy wants to do is to watch horror DVDs. Who's to say whether it was the DVDs or his parents lack of interest which drove him to do what he did, but whichever it was, Freddy does something from which there is no return. Full review...
The Eye of the Falcon (Gods and Warriors Book 3) by Michelle Paver
It's been seven long months since Hylas and Pirra were separated in the wake of the devastating eruption of Thalakrea. The eruption was followed by tsunami and the coldest winter anyone can remember. There is no spring. No sun. Full review...
Replica by Jack Heath
There is a tendency for adults to feel embarrassed about reading young adult fiction, but this book demonstrates that a focus on a younger character shouldn’t prevent a wider audience from enjoying a good story. Replica is a strange and compelling combination of action, mystery, thriller and science-fiction. Heath has even included a hint of a romance. There is something for everyone and although the book raises some challenging and thought-provoking problems, the text is easy-to-read, immersive and unpretentious. Full review...
Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan
A story about sad endings.
A story about happy beginnings.
A story to make you realise who is special.
This is the blurb on the back jacket of Apple and Rain and it sums up the book just perfectly. Full review...
Between the Lives by Jessica Shirvington
Sabine lives two lives. Literally. Each night, at midnight, she shifts from one self to another. Time resets too; Sabine may be a teenager to her families and friends but in reality, she has thirty-odd years-worth of life experience. It's a stressful existence: the shift itself is frightening and painful, and Sabine must be careful to behave appropriately in each environment. And her lives are very different. In Wellesley, Sabine is wealthy and popular with two brothers and a boyfriend other girls are jealous of. In Roxbury, she has one sister, parents whose business is struggling, and a reputation for rebelliousness. Full review...
Night Runner by Tim Bowler
Strange men are watching Vinny's house but he doesn't know why. His mum is being disloyal to his dad but he doesn't know why. Something is up with his dad and his job but Vinny doesn't know what. But Vinny does know that he's had enough of school, where he's being bullied. Everything is going wrong. And now, the men who are watching the house are after Zinny too. Mum ends up in the hospital. Dad disappears.
What's going on? Full review...
Doing It by Melvin Burgess
First published in 2003, Doing It is the story of a group of teenagers discovering sex for the first time. It's explicit. It's unflinching. And it caused a stir at the time. With high teen pregnancy rates, is there such a thing as too much accuracy? Or are honest portrayals the best form of education? Reissued a decade later, we can have that conversation all over again through the prism of the three teenage boys this novel follows. Full review...
Runaway by Marie-Louise Jensen
After her father is brutally murdered, Charlotte escapes the city to try to find a new life, and to avoid the vicious killer who is surely tracking her down. Disguising herself as a boy, she puts her skill with horses to good use by finding employment at a grand country estate, drawing the notice of a kind man far above her station in life. But while Charlie tries to grasp happiness where she can find it, the shadow of the past looms over her. Will she ever be truly free of the terror of her father's death? Full review...
Noggin by John Corey Whaley
Listen. I was alive once and then I wasn't. Simple as that. Now I'm alive again. The in-between part is still a little fuzzy, but I can tell you that, at some point or another, my head got chopped off and shoved into a freezer in Denver, Colorado.
Erk! That's how Noggin begins and I defy you not to want to read on. Travis Coates was terminally ill. In a last ditch Hail Mary, he consented to cryogenic preservation. And now, he's back, his head grafted onto a donor body. Of all the original volunteers, Travis is one of only two patients successfully brought back to life. It's a cause for celebration, right? Full review...
Shimmer by Paula Weston
Gaby is still struggling to come to terms with the many major revelations that have been thrown at her in the past few days - not least that the brother she's believed dead for a year is actually alive. Oh, and they're both Rephaim, half-Angel children of the Fallen - angels that fell from grace after seducing human women. Full review...
Minty by Christina Banach
Fourteen-year-old twins Minty and Jess are barely ever parted, until a fateful trip to the coast ends in tragedy. Minty tries to rescue her dog but is soon fighting for her life. Full review...
