Newest Teens Reviews
A Thousand Nights by E K Johnston
E. K Johnston describes 1000 Nights as a work fashioned around the creation of beautiful crafts charged with magic. She confesses that her setting is not historically accurate, explaining, I cheated a bit, because the usual date for the stories ranges from Middle Persian literature to the Caliphate Era, and I set the book about two thousand years before that. Her locations are beautifully evoked and based on her sensory experiences as an archaeologist in Jordan. A Turkish bath in Amman, the Umayyad palace on top of the Amman Citadel and the swirling sands at Wadi Rum are just a few sources she has used to recreate the spirit of Lo Melkhiin's dangerous qasr [Middle Eastern palace] juxtaposed with the mercurial nature of his wife's desert home. Full review...
Cuckoo by Keren David
Jake is a household name thanks to his role on the UK's most popular soap opera. But his character went upstairs to his bedroom six months ago and never came down again, and now Jake is facing an uncertain future. Add to that his dad's anger issues, the family's precarious finances and the demands of a severely autistic brother; Jake's home feels like a powder keg waiting to explode. It's easier to spend nights on friends' sofas and futons, but what happens when you feel like a cuckoo in every nest? Full review...
All About The Hype by Paige Toon
Jessie Jefferson, daughter of rockstar Johnny Jefferson whom I first got to know in the excellent Johnny be Good by Paige Toon has left the UK behind to move to the City of Angels and be with her long-lost, recently-rediscovered father. As the third book in the Jessie offshoot, there's a bit of back story to be had but long story short, she grew up not knowing about him, but then her mother died in horrible circumstances and one thing led to another and it all came out in the wash. Now, a year later, Jessie is living with Johnny, her step mum Meg and her two half-brothers. Full review...
Gold by Geraldine Mills
Twins Starn and Esper are growing up in a world made dark and silent by massive volcanic explosions. Ash now covers the planet and every aspect of life is controlled by the government, policed by the strict, heavy-handed Sagittars. They long for sunshine, fresh air and the freedom of a life only vaguely remembered by a few. But a game of dares leads them to discover an ancient book written by their great-great aunt, filled with strange writing and a treasure map. This propels them headlong into a journey across the darkened skies in a hand-built glider, in search of the gold that will vastly improve their lives. What they find there is a hidden world; one left behind when the volcanoes exploded. The revelation of the gold is not at all what they thought it would be, and is a discovery that could expose the governments' lies and save a dying planet. Full review...
We Are All Made of Molecules by Susin Nielsen
After two years of pain following his mum's death, Stewart is pleased his dad has found someone else and he's 89.9% excited that he and his dad are moving in with Ashley and her mom. Ashley, however, is 110% horrified at the prospect of a new 'blended' family. She's still dealing with her parent's breakup and the revelation that her dad is gay. She's simply not prepared for a new step-dad and his geeky, socially clueless, son. Full review...
The Power of Dark by Robin Jarvis
Something is brewing in the coastal town of Whitby. To best friends Lil and Verne, it just seems like a particularly bad storm. But Cherry Cherise, the last of the town's guardian witches, fears that ancient forces are work, reviving the curse of a long-lost magical artefact and a feud that has survived beyond death… Full review...
How to Set a Fire and Why by Jesse Ball
Lucia Stanton is a sarcastic 14-year-old misfit who lives with her elderly Aunt Lucy in a garage they rent from an evil landlord at the bottom of his large garden. She never comes right out and explains why she's there, but if you read between the lines you work out that her father is dead and her mother is in a mental hospital – presumably for his murder. Aunt Lucy is dignified and principled – Don't do things you aren't proud of is her motto – even though they are undeniably poor: Lucia only has one set of clothes and mostly lives off of liquorice and Aunt Lucy's terrible homemade bread. Full review...
The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon
Subhi is ten years old. He has lived his whole life in a detention centre for refugees in Australia. He is Rohingya and his mother and sister fled persecution in their native Burma while his mother was expecting him. They left Subhi's father behind and are waiting for him to join them. Subhi believes that his father is sending him secret messages contained in tokens that wash up from the Great Sea of his imagination. And these tokens mean a great deal to Subhi because the camp isn't a very nice place. His tent sleeps fifty people. The food is inedible. Water runs out on a regular basis. There's no school because the classroom burned down. And the guards? Well, with the exception of Harvey, they are not very nice people. Full review...
Children of Icarus by Caighlan Smith
Daedalum's children have one collective ambition. They pray to be chosen as Icarii - honoured ones between the ages of ten and sixteen who will enter the labyrinth, find their way through it to Alyssia, and become angels. Every child yearns to be chosen. Every parent yearns for their child to be chosen. Clara, our girl's best friend, is the most devout of everyone. She knows she is destined to become an angel. Our girl, though, does not want to be chosen. In her society, this is such a badge of shame that she keeps silent. And, along with Clara, chosen she is. Full review...
Nothing Tastes as Good by Claire Hennessy
As warnings against disordered eating go, this one is quite interesting. Annabel, you see, is already dead when we meet her. She got too thin and one day that was it, her body ceased to function. Her mind, however, is still sharp. Full review...
Blame by Simon Mayo
A small hand in hers. 'Is it our fault?' Abi said nothing. These tender words show the situation. Ant (a teenaged girl) and Mattie (her younger brother) are innocent and in a prison – HMP London, no less. Since the death of the EU and a huge, all-conquering recession, people are being imprisoned left, right and centre for the crimes of their parents and their parents in turn, meaning anyone with any slightly dodgy firm or habit in their family that might have taken money away from the common good is having their children imprisoned. And even though Ant and Mattie are legitimately in there, due to their parents' activities, they've since been adopted by people who have themselves been accused and imprisoned, thus making them real tabloid-fodder as the worst criminal family in Britain. Surely, then, there's no hope? Full review...
Wave by Paul Dowswell
Wave, set in WW1, tells the story of the battle of the Somme. Although the story spans 100 years, 1st July 1916 and 1st July 2016, the majority of the action takes place during 30minutes between 7am and 7.30am on 1st July 1916. It follows two brothers, Charlie and Eddie, as they prepare for the moment when they are to go over the top, as the first wave, into No Man’s Land. The story is a poignant, reflective and brutally honest account of the events which lead to the biggest casualty rate in one day in the history of the British Army. Full review...
Concentr8 by William Sutcliffe
In a speculative near-future London, there's a new wonder drug to treat ADHD. Concentr8 is cheap and effective. So effective that the mayor has instituted a programme to identify children for early, preventative treatment. Almost every troublesome teen in London is taking it, often before they've actually become troublesome. But then an austerity drive sees the program cut abruptly. Riots break out, led by the unmedicated teens. Full review...
The Leaving by Tara Altebrando
Eleven years after they disappeared in the traumatic event the local community knows as The Leaving, five sixteen-year-olds come home. Where have they been? Who took them? And where is Max, the sixth child? Why has he not come home too? And why can the five remember nothing about themselves or where they have been? Full review...
The Monstrous Child by Francesca Simon
Hel is the ultimate gloomy, angst-ridden teen. Her dad's hardly ever around, her mum is at best indifferent to her, and her brothers are evil little beasts. She lives in a land of sleet and noise and ice. But that's not the worst of it. She has been, since birth, half human and half corpse, with all the accompanying odours that produces, and - wait for it – there'll never be an end to her misery because she's eternal. And you feel hard done by because you have to take the occasional exam? Full review...
My Favourite Manson Girl by Alison Umminger
Fifteen year old Anna has had an excruciating year, topped off with new stepparents and a new school. So she borrows her family's credit card, and runs away to LA to crash with her sister. But Hollywood isn't the escape she needs, and it soon dawns on her: she's trapped in a town full of lost souls and wannabes, with no friends, no cash and no return ticket. When her sister's obsessive ex offers her a job researching the murderous Manson girls for his next indie film, she accepts – albeit reluctantly. This is not quite the summer Anna had in mind; but the more she learns about the girls and her fate, the more she comes to understand her family – and herself. Full review...
Doctor Who: The Legends of River Song by Jenny T Colgan, Jacqueline Rayner, Steve Lyons, Guy Adams and Andrew Lane
Hello, sweetie. And with those words we know where we are – in the company of River Song, one of modern TV's more infuriating characters. Now she's likeable enough, it was just the timey wimey stuff she was lumbered with that made her hard to live with. I would say this was a return to her side, but have we had that pleasure yet – isn't it in our future, which is her past, and vice versa at the same, er, time? Either way, five tales here bring a selection of her escapades to a YA audience. The results can be bordering on the written Who as seen elsewhere, but can certainly frustrate as usual. Full review...
The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson
The Unexpected Everything follows Andie, the daughter of a prominent US politician, who has led a careful life as a result. Incredibly organised, her plans of attending the John Hopkins medical program all summer long are set. Until they're not. A political scandal implicating her dad causes all her neatly arranged plans to evaporate. So instead, to make sure her summer isn't wasted and there's no gap in her resume, she gets a dog-walking job. Full review...
Bubble Boy by Stewart Foster
Eleven year old Joe was born with a rare condition that means he has no immune system and, therefore, no resistance to the germs that surround us in our daily lives. The result is he's spent his whole life trapped in a bubble – a small room in the hospital where the air is filtered and temperature and air purity is constantly monitored. His only escape is through his dreams of being a superhero and, unless something changes, it looks like he'll never get to see the outside world for himself. Full review...
Changers, Book Two: Oryon by Allison Glock-Cooper and T Cooper
Ethan is a Changer. Changers are an ancient race of humans who change identities four times during adolescence before choosing a permanent persona to inhabit for the rest of their lives. Because of this, Changers gain insight into other people's lives and become better people because of it. They literally walk in another man's shoes, if you will. Full review...
These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly
Jennifer Donnelly wrote one of my all-time favourite books, A Gathering Light, so I was very excited to read her latest novel and see how it compared. Like A Gathering Light, These Shallow Graves is a historical novel with a murder mystery at its heart and a feisty heroine who challenges the standards of the day. Full review...
Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz
Bond is back, this time authored by international best-selling author Anthony Horowitz. It all begins with a seemingly simple mission (at least for Bond). After a few days training, James heads to Germany to race in the European championship at Nürburgring where he plans to stop the Russians using dirty tricks to secure victory. However, we're not surprised that Bond soon uncovers a much bigger and more serious plot: a scheme by Korean Sin Jai-Seong (otherwise known as Jason Sin) and SMERSH (a top-secret department of the Russian government) to undermine the American space programme whilst simultaneously murdering millions of New Yorkers and toppling the Empire State Building. As the clock ticks down, only Bond and CIA field-agent, Jeopardy Lane, can stop it. But are they already too late? Full review...
Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky
Rupert Pierpont has put his head above the parapet and taken his juggling act onto a Britain's Got Talent-styled TV show, as you do. Bizarrely there were three other Ruperts contesting, and all four got lumped into the same boy band – The Ruperts, as you do. Several massive albums and hugely successful tours later, the four lads are globally known, and have entered the world of true fandom – the realms where girls know to wear incontinence pads and live with it rather than forsake their front-row concert position, and where girl fans (with their own inclusive, tribal nickname, of course) send online death threats to anyone sexually linked to the stars. The band has got a showcase Thanksgiving TV special to perform in New York, and is in town at a hipsterish swanky hotel. And here is Rupert P waking up surrounded by four huge Ruperts fans, and hardly seeing anything other than girls' tights – as you do. But this is through no intent of his own – for he has been kidnapped by four of the very same fans he soon attests to hate… Full review...
The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner
I'm hardly the first person to comment on the saturation of the young-adult fiction market in recent years. I've several friends who love YA so much they seem to exclusively read this genre, and here's the thing – I really want to like it, too. I know there's good stuff out there, but it seems like the more I look the less I find. I've slogged my way through dozens – maybe even hundreds, who knows – of formulaic, samey and often downright repetitive books which didn't inspire any of that passion in me. Full review...
The Hunt by Paul Bird
This is Britain after the Very Big Crash. Life is very different, especially if you live in one of the lower suburbs under the Local Government's authority. Cush lives in one such suburb. He works as a detective in the floating Krawczyk building and, though he thinks it himself, is pretty good at his job. His wife Samir doesn't work, even though she'd like to, and spends her days at home reading those most antiquated of things: books. Their son Nim is sixteen and is obsessed with a video game called The Hunt. Cush and Samir fall out constantly over their differing approaches to Nim's obsession. Full review...
The Sword of the Spirit (Spirits 3) by Rob Keeley
There are truths which must be revealed before the battle may commence. You do not yet know the meaning of the sword.
Ooh! Events are moving apace in Rob Keeley's Childish Spirits series. Let me explain... Full review...
Whisper to Me by Nick Lake
Cassie lives with her father in a New Jersey beach town. Dad spends most of his time closeted away with his insect collection. He's an ex-Navy SEAL who suffers from PTSD and its concomitant anger issues. Frankly, Cassie finds him best avoided. Cassie herself is doing ok, despite a recent tragedy. Until, that is, she finds a dismembered foot on the beach, thought to be from a victim of a serial killer stalking the locality. Full review...
Moth Girls by Anne Cassidy
The first seven weeks of secondary school changed Mandy Crystal's life. It was in those seven weeks that she became friends with Petra Armstrong and Tina Pointer. And it was at the end of those seven weeks that she refused to join them when they impulsively decided to explore the house on Princess Street. That was the last time anyone saw either of them – Petra and Tina disappeared, never to be seen again. Labelled the 'Moth Girls' by the media, the two girls have haunted Mandy ever since. For five years she has had to live with the guilt that for many hours she didn't admit where she'd last seen her friends. Were those hours crucial? Would they have been found it she'd told the police where they'd gone sooner? When the house is knocked down, Mandy can't resist visiting. It is during this visit that a chance encounter changes everything. Full review...
Lying About Last Summer by Sue Wallman
Skye's sister, Luisa, died in a tragic accident last summer and Skye is still struggling to come to terms with both the events she witnessed and the loss of her sister. It's, therefore, not surprising that she welcomes the opportunity to escape – even if it is on a holiday for bereaved teens. She's up for anything that will stop her thinking about the past so she's totally unprepared when she starts receiving text messages from an account only Luisa had access to. Rather than erasing all thoughts of the past, Skye finds herself having to confront her worst fears. Full review...
Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
School Frances is a single-minded study machine, with just one purpose: get into Cambridge. She's responsible, studious, and furiously focused on ticking all the boxes needed for a perfect application, boxes with no place for friends and hobbies. And this is the Frances that pretty much everyone sees. Only her mum knows there is more to her than meets the eye, from her distinctive, geeky fashion sense and serious artistic talent, to her fangirl love for the wonderful podcast show, Universe City. When a chance encounter leads to her meeting the creator of University City, Aled Last, she finally has a friend with whom she can genuinely be comfortable around, and celebrate all her weird and wonderful quirks. However, when complications and secrets threaten to shatter this powerful friendship, Francis finds herself at a crossroads, caught between her old secure path of least resistance, and the much scarier option of putting her true self out there and risking it all to discover what she truly wants. Full review...
