Newest Teens Reviews
Unbreakable by Kami Garcia
Set up centuries ago to fight the threat of a malevolent demon, the Legion is a secret society consisting of just five members at any one time, tasked with the responsibility of fighting and exorcising spirits. When all five members are murdered on the same night, their responsibility suddenly falls to five teenagers. Twins Jared and Lukas, Priest and Alara have been trained from a young age in the skills required to track, fight and destroy vengeance spirits. However, for Kennedy, who knows nothing of her mother's role in the Legion, everything is overwhelmingly new and highly dangerous. She will have to learn fast, as she cannot afford to be a liability as the team prepares to take on a mission with the utmost of stakes. Full review...
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
With the ley lines waking, things are changing around Cabeswater. Ronan is getting more and more adept at bringing his dreams to life, Gansey is needed at home, and Adam has made some mysterious new friends. At the centre of it all, Blue has to try to cope with her curse and her feelings for the Raven Boys. Full review...
Resist (Breathe) by Sarah Crossan
Resist carries on where Breathe left off. To catch you up: deforestation has resulted in environmental catastrophe and the world is a ravaged place in which there isn't enough oxygen to fully sustain human life. A corporation, Breathe, runs the Pod, whose inhabitants are divided into Premiums (plenty of oxygen) and Auxiliaries (barely enough). Outside, drifters struggle to survive. With one alternative to the Pod - The Grove - destroyed by the Pod Ministry, Alina, Bea and Quinn, our three central characters, set out on separate, but equally perilous, journeys to find the other, Sequoia. And back in the Pod, Ronan is rethinking the world he thought he lived in but didn't. Full review...
Ninja: First Mission (Ninja Trilogy) by Chris Bradford and Sonia Leong
If you are looking for adventure, Ninja First Mission will certain come up trumps. This book never has a slow moment. But even as the story races along at breakneck speed, there is plenty to think about as well. This book has as much to offer the deep thinker as the adrenaline junky. Tata, a young Ninja in training, is desperate to prove himself. He has failed the test for his black belt three times, but this was just a simple test. The sacred scrolls of his clan have been stolen, and all of the fully fledged Ninja but one are away on another mission. Tata faces another test, but this time the stakes are life and death, not only for himself, but for his clan. In order to succeed Tata must learn to find victory in failure. Most of all he must learn to believe in himself. Full review...
Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with a feather in her hair...
Tiger Lily tells the story of Neverland after Peter Pan arrived but before Wendy came. Our narrator is Tink, the silent, sometimes jealous, fairy. And our heroine is Tiger Lily, the native girl who is strange even to her fellow villagers. Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories but when she meets Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland, her heart burns with a fire she had never expected. Full review...
United We Spy (Gallagher Girls) by Ally Carter
The Circle of Cavan are still on the hunt for Cammie Morgan. Their other plans, though, might be even more terrible than their hunt for the young spy. Can Cammie and her friends save themselves, and take down the Circle before they carry out their deadly mission? Full review...
The Skull in the Woods by Sandra Greaves
Dartmoor wasn't exactly Matt's first choice as a place to spend his school holidays. He barely knows his Uncle or cousins, and there was obviously some bad blood between members of the family. But his father was away for the summer, as were most of his friends and he couldn't stand another day in the house with his mother's new boyfriend, especially as their relationship was dashing any hopes Matt might have held of his parents ever reuniting. But whatever the trouble may have been between Matt's mother and his now dead Aunt Rose, his Uncle Jack has welcomed Matt into his home and treated the boy with all the kindness one might expect for a prodigal son. His youngest cousin Kitty seems delighted to have a new member of the family to play with as well, but Tilda, who is near his own age can't stand him and is determined to have this interloping city dweller out of the way as quickly as possible. Matt treats Tilda with same contempt, with the two children carrying on where their feuding parents left off. Full review...
The Waking World (The Future King) by Tom Huddleston
Many tales have been told of the boy who became our greatest king. Very few have spoken of the future...
Aran is the son of one of the Island's wealthiest Laws. He lives in the underground farmstead of Hawk's Cross. He wants for nothing. But Aran is not entirely happy. Rumours are everywhere and the Island is under threat. Bands of fierce men known as Marauders are beginning to attack further and further inland, burning homes and taking slaves. Aran wants to join the fight against them but that task has been given to his older brother. Aran's future lies in overseeing the farmstead and it's not a future he wants. Full review...
Fire & Ash by Jonathan Maberry
ALERT! Spoilers for early books in the Rot & Ruin series are scattered throughout this review. So if you haven't read the others, get thee over to my words about book one. Full review...
Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan
Kami Glass' hometown is about to become ground zero for a sorcerer fight for supremacy. And the sorcerers aren't bothered about humans becoming collateral damage - in fact, one faction wants a human sacrifice to increase the power of their magic. Full review...
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
In the future, vampires exist, and everyone knows it. To try and deal with the problem of vampirism, cities have been given to the monsters and designated Coldtowns – walled cities where people can enter, but hardly ever leave. With these cities broadcast on TV 24 hours a day, they look glamorous – but those just watching can’t see the deadliness behind the glitz. Seventeen-year-old Tana is about to find out. Along with her ex-boyfriend Aiden, who’s just been infected by a vampire and has to go without drinking blood for eighty eight days or turn into one himself, and a mysterious vampire named Gavriel, she’s headed for the largest Coldtown of them all. Can they get there – and if they do, will any of them survive? Full review...
Haunted by William Hussey
Emma Rhodes is haunted by the memory of her younger brother Richie, whose death has torn apart her family and left Emma plagued by intense guilt. But when the arrival of a mysterious boy, Nick Redway, heralds the arrival of spirits of the dead to Milton Lake, Emma finds herself being haunted by altogether more dangerous entities. The 'unmade' are spirits of people who died violent, unexpected deaths, now corrupt and desperate to possess living flesh. A necromancer is calling the dead back to the world using the fabled Ghost Machine. The more the machine is used, the weaker the gates between life and death grow, until nothing can stop the unmade being unleashed upon the town. Only Nick seems to know how to fight the ghosts, and Emma must help him to find the necromancer operating the Ghost Machine, before all hell breaks loose. Full review...
More Than This by Patrick Ness
Here is the boy, drowning.
And Seth does drown. He is alone; taken by the sea, arms and legs flailing and breaking, skull dashed against the rocks whilst the icy water constricts his muscles and breath. Seth is consciously aware of his final moments. His death consumes him with a heavy, confusing blur until… he awakens and finds himself in a desolate, shattered world; naked, alone, starving and alive. This place looks familiar. It looks exactly like the English village where he spent his early childhood before his brother’s accident and his family’s move to America, but it is now overgrown and devoid of human life. It is as if the whole place was simply abandoned one day. Full review...
The Lord of Opium by Nancy Farmer
At last! A long-awaited sequel to Nancy Farmer's acclaimed House of the Scorpion, in which she explored the life of a little boy who was created solely to provide organs for the failing body of a drug lord. Matt's story was exciting and heartbreaking - would you want to find out you were a clone? It was also incredibly thought-provoking, exploring ideas of prejudice, power, courage, love and sacrifice. And it all took place in a dystopian future in which the drug trade was all but legitimised and in which people are enslaved by microchips in the brain. Full review...
The 100 by Kass Morgan
Nuclear war has rendered the Earth uninhabitable for centuries. The remains of human society, a colony of people that managed to escape the cataclysm, live out their lives on massive city-like spaceships. Unfortunately, the spaceships are becoming unsustainable and as resources begin to run out, the Council is forced to introduce strict new plans and measures in an attempt to protect the remaining population. With options running out, a dangerous mission is conceived as a desperate roll of the dice: one hundred juvenile delinquents are sent to the Earth to test if the planet can once more sustain life. There is no telling what the remaining radiation will do to the teenagers, but in this hardened society, this is a risk worth taking. Full review...
Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper
I loved Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising Sequence, but as surprised as I am to say this - this book is far better. While still suitable for older children, this is definitely a book that adults will want to read as well. The book is more mature than her early works, and while obviously gifted from the start, Cooper's talents have matured as well. This book is nothing short of a masterpiece. Full review...
Skulduggery Pleasant: Last Stand of Dead Men by Derek Landy
Kingdom of the Wicked left the magical world reeling and on the precipice of conflict, a conflict that erupts into full out war between Sanctuaries. Although the Supreme Council has vastly superior numbers, Ireland is home to some of the most powerful sorcerers in the world, including the legendary Dead Men, creating a formula for endless violence. But this is no straightforward war. Friends and former allies suddenly find themselves on opposing sides of the conflict, and not everyone is prepared to follow orders. Then there is the threat of an army of Warlocks, gathering to attack the mortal population, and thereby reveal the magical population to the world. And despite Roarhaven being the new site for the Irish Sanctuary, can its population, including the secretive Children of The Spider, really be trusted? And looming above all this chaos is the greatest threat of all: Darquesse. Valkyrie knows that she doesn't have any more second chances. If she succumbs to that sinister voice in her head, the lure of that incredible power, she will watch everyone she cares about die by her own hand. Full review...
Hurt by Tabitha Suzuma
Matheo is a golden boy. His family is wealthy and he wants for nothing. He goes to a prestigious private school. Oxbridge beckons. He is a champion diver and a hot prospect for the upcoming Olympics. He moves in the most desirable circles. And he has a beautiful, hot girlfriend in Lola. Most boys would give their eye teeth to be Matheo. Full review...
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
Paul is gay, and confident in his sexuality. With a loving, supportive family, he doesn't have to hide his feelings. Life seems pretty good to him - but falling in love can change everything. Full review...
Ostrich by Matt Greene
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon deserves every piece of praise it received, as a children's novel with plenty to interest older readers and a wonderful way of portraying Asperger's Syndrome through its narrator, Christopher Boone. Ostrich by Matt Greene follows quite similar lines, although this time the narrator, Alex, has a brain tumour. Full review...
Arclight by Josin L McQuein
Many years into the future, after terrifying monsters called the Fade have taken over most of our world, the survivors have banded together in the refuge of the Arclight. With nowhere to go, they stay within their wall of light - until a teenage girl Marina comes out of the Dark and finds them. Marina, though, has lost her memory. What is her secret, why are the Fade taking such a special interest in her, and can she help her rescuers fight back against them? Full review...
Stay Where You Are And Then Leave by John Boyne
Alfie is just five years old when the Great War breaks out in 1914. His father joins up straightaway. Cheerful letters come from Georgie for a while and Alfie's mother reads them to him. But then the letters grow miserable and frightening. Alfie's mother stops reading them aloud and hides them away - but Alfie finds them anyway. And then the letters stop altogether. Alfie is told that his father is on a secret mission and can't write, but he sees through the lie immediately. And then, one day, a chance meeting tells Alfie exactly what has happened to his father. He's home from the front but he's in hospital, suffering from a condition nobody understood at the time: shell shock. Full review...
Severed Heads, Broken Hearts by Robyn Schneider
Ezra Faulkner thinks that everyone has a tragedy in their life, something which will forever define you. His happens when he loses his girlfriend, his tennis ambitions, and his social life in one night after a car accident shatters his knee. Drawn back towards his old friend Toby - whose own tragedy, years ago, was to catch a decapitated head on a theme park ride, forever dooming him to misfit status - he meets new girl Cassidy. With new friends around him and a potential new love, can Ezra rebuild his life? Full review...
Paradise by Simone Elkeles
Caleb Becker has spent the last year in juvie for hitting Maggie Armstrong in his car whilst drink driving. He thinks getting out of jail is the first step to things going back to normal, but he's about to learn exactly how much can change in a year and the terrible price of a secret within his family. Full review...
The Summer of Telling Tales by Laura Summers
Grace and Ellie are at the seaside with their mum. They're not on a holiday, though - they've escaped from their domineering and abusive father. As the two settle into a new school and make new friends, Grace - who only ever speaks to Ellie - meets someone she can be herself around, while Ellie reinvents herself as Elle, a confident and popular girl instead of the shy and scared youngster she used to be. But can they ever be free of the shadow of her father? Full review...
Antigoddess by Kendare Blake
Athena and her brother Hermes are a lot less godlike than they used to be. In fact, they are dying. Athena is being slowly suffocated by feathers growing inside her and Hermes's body is eating itself. Literally. They are on a road trip to find out exactly what it is killing the gods and to save themselves if they can. No matter the cost to themselves or others. Gods don't count costs. Full review...
Split Second by Sophie McKenzie
Nat and Charlie are connected long before they meet. They were both there the day a terrorist bomb decimated the marketplace. Nat was trying to find his brother and stop him because he's pretty sure Lucas is the bomber. Charlie was sulking because her mother wouldn't let her get a tattoo. And the bomb went off. Charlie's mother died. Nat's brother was left in a coma. In this Britain of the near-future, beset by an endless cycle of more and more austerity, where people queue for free food handouts and racist extremist groups are increasingly dominating the public conversation, neither Charlie nor Nat had thought anything could get any worse. But it did. Full review...
Tregarthur's Promise by Alex Mellanby
Mrs Tregarthur has assembled a very strange assortment of children for her hiking trip on Dartmoor. She seems to have collected the misfits, the trouble makers, and the unwanted. In other words, the children that will not be missed. This is of course more than a simple day trip. Mrs Tregarthur has made a dreadful promise which can only be fulfilled by the children. The children are more of a handful than she expects though and fail to reach the cave as quickly as she would like. When an earthquake drives some of the group into the cave for shelter the teacher shouts out the very strange words to Alvin: Keep my promise. Save him! Alvin soon has other things to worry about though as a cave-in leaves the group trapped. Eventually finding their way out on the other side, they find themselves in a primeval forest with no way back to their own homes or time. Survival will become a battle which not all of them will win, but their biggest danger will not be the cold, starvation or dangerous animals. It will be from the other children. Full review...
Under Attack by Jim Eldridge and Dave Shepherd
My sons are army barmy as they say, and have been begging for military stories so I was delighted to see this in the Barrington Stoke range. The book reminded me a bit of a cross between the old Commando comic books and Action Man books with heroes blazing to the rescue, but sadly I found something lacking. It is a very short story and packed with action, but there really does not seem to be any character development. The story itself is very simple but flat. The Taliban attacks a hospital repeatedly and the British Army comes to the rescue. A very small child is shot and the doctor elects to perform emergency surgery on a kitchen table rather than waiting for the helicopter to arrive, but the Taliban haven't given up. The doctor valiantly tries to operate to remove a bullet next to the child's heart under the most desperate of circumstances, without blood, anaesthetics etc.... all the while under heavy fire. Will the British Army be able to save the day? Full review...
Gamer by Chris Bradford
Gamer is written for the child who would rather be in front of a console than reading book. Even the cover depicts action with a scene that changes to depict fighting if you tilt the book. This isn't to say it lacks depth. This has a well developed plot, and very good characterisation, but the action never stops. It is perfect for children who are used to the high adrenaline experience of a video game, but it has plenty to offer the child who loves books as well. Full review...
Have a Little Faith by Candy Harper
Faith has been moved into a different form to separate her from her friend Megs, as the teachers seem to think they're a bad combination. On the plus side, the school are bussing in cute boys for their choir - and Faith is ready to get to know the dreamy Finn a lot better. Until she realises he's singing a duet with her sworn enemy, at least. Can Faith get the boy? And will she be able to move back into the same form as Megs by impressing Miss Ramsbottom with her new found maturity? Full review...
The Dead Men Stood Together by Chris Priestley
A young boy lives in a harbour town with his mother. It's a happy life, but the boy misses his father, a sailor who left for the sea a year ago and died far from home. He also dreams of the sea and of adventure. So when his uncle comes to visit, full of stories of faraway lands and treasure, he is entranced. He ignores the warning from the pilot's son. How could his uncle be the devil? And, despite his mother's tears, he follows his uncle to sea. Full review...
Shine by Candy Gourlay
This is not a ghost story even though there are plenty of ghosts in it. And it's not a horror story though some people might be horrified. It's not a monster story either, even though there is a monster in it and that monster happens to be me.
Thirteen-year-old Rosa doesn't get out much. She lives with her father, a doctor, and their housekeeper-come-governess in the remote island community of Mirasol. It's always raining on Mirasol. And it's a superstitious place. People believe that if the rain stops, evil will come. And they also believe that monsters can stop the rain. Monsters like Rosa. Full review...
Bloodtide by Melvin Burgess
Set in a world only a book could inhabit - half in a post-apocalyptic future, half in the mists of the myths of the past - Bloodtide retells part of the Volsunga saga - Icelandic tales of gods and heroes and villains. Civilisation has long abandoned London to its criminals and its gang wars, going so far as to surround its borders with released halfmen, genetically manipulated creatures with a lust for violence. With the population trapped inside the city walls, Val Volson has risen to a position of power. Only King Conor is left standing in his way. But Val wants peace. He wants unity so that his people can break out of the city and prosper. Full review...
