Older fiction
Here are our recommended favourite fiction books from previous months.
The key stage/s indicate the age range for which each title is most appropriate.
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Charles Dickens, adapted by Scott McCullar, illustrated by Naresh Kumar A Christmas Carol The classic Christmas ghost story is given the graphic novel treatment. While the text is adapted for this illustrated format, it still retains a flavour of the original. The colourful illustrations also add to the reading enjoyment by offering a visual insight into the main characters and into Victorian London. One in an excellent series of classics, ideal for both reluctant and less able readers, this adaptation encourages further exploration of the original and finishes with a two-page spread exploring the scariest and ghostliest houses in England. 10+ Campfire Press 2010 £6.99 ISBN 9788190732680 |
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Ruth Eastham The memory cage Alex was adopted as a young child, from an orphanage in Bosnia, and has horrific memories that he succeeds in suppressing. Alex’s adoptive grandad has Alzheimer’s and, as well as the day-to-day realities that he forgets, he also has some memories he tries to suppress. Alex feels the odd one out in the family, connecting only with his granddad, and is terrified that his parents will put him in a home, as his forgetfulness becomes more and more dangerous to himself and others. He decides to create a memory scrapbook to encourage him to talk about the past, in an attempt to ward off progress of the disease. But as the process begins to unravel the secrets of grandad’s past, Alex becomes more and more concerned at what he finds. A well-constructed first novel, in a very readable format, which raises some important issues. 10+ Scholastic 2011 £5.99 ISBN 9781407120522 |
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Morris Gleitzman Grace Grace’s life is different. She lives with her family as part of a strict religious cult and is forbidden by the church and the odious elders to contact any ‘outsiders’ or to ask any questions about their religion. Her father is very liberal and encourages his family to be discerning, which ultimately leads him to be expelled from the church and from his family. Grace takes it upon herself to find out where they’ve taken him and enlists some ‘outsiders’ to help with her search. The use of biblical language in Grace’s narrative is a clever device by Gleitzman in portraying her endearing character but may not be fully appreciated by readers unfamiliar with the bible. The writing features the author’s usual combination of serious issues, laced with subtle humour, to develop a story which raises some interesting questions about religious extremism and family loyalty. 10+ Puffin 2011 £6.99 ISBN 9780141336039 |
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Sally Grindley Bitter Chocolate Set in West Africa, within the disputed territory between Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, everything changes the day rebels come to eleven-year-old Pascal’s village. With his parents and sisters believed dead, Pascal escapes, only to be taken as a boy solder by white mercenaries. Escaping to a refugee camp, he is tricked and sold into virtual slavery on a cocoa plantation where the children are beaten and made to work in appalling conditions. In all this grim experience there remains a strong message of hope as young boys in adversity band together to fight oppression, making their own decisions free from adult intervention. 10+ Bloomsbury 2010 £5.99 ISBN 9780747595021 |
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Andrew Lane Death cloud A young Sherlock Holmes is puzzled to discover two dead bodies, both apparently killed by a mysterious dark cloud. Resolving to get to the bottom of the mystery with the help of his new friend Matty, his American tutor Amyus Crowe (who has a few secrets of his own) and Crowe’s daughter Virginia, Holmes uncovers a sinister plot that will test his renowned deductive skills to the limit. The author captures the spirit of both Holmes and the period well, with the lurid sights and smells of Victorian England seeping out of the pages. Future titles promise to delve further into the unrevealed origins of the famous detective! 11+ Macmillan 2010 £6.99 ISBN 9780330511988 |
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Michael Morpurgo Shadow In mortal danger from the Taliban, Aman and his mother must flee their Afghan village home. They are accompanied by a half-starved springer spaniel, whose devotion to Aman earns her the name Shadow. When she is reclaimed by the British forces who trained her, Aman says a tearful goodbye to the dog and he and his mother undertake a gruelling journey to Britain. After six peaceful years, their asylum application is turned down and they are locked up in a grim detention centre to await their imminent deportation. Their plight seems desperate until Aman’s best friend Matt enlists the help of his grandfather, a retired journalist, to fight their cause. Told in turn by Aman and Matt, both now fourteen, and by Matt’s grandfather, this is a totally absorbing, moving and eye-opening story by a much-loved author on top form, beautifully illustrated by Christian Birmingham. 11+ HarperCollins 2010 £12.99 ISBN 9780007339594 |
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Philip Reeve No such thing as dragons Ansel is a mute boy, but this turns out to make him the perfect squire for Johannes Brock, a gallant dragon slayer. This is because of Brock’s secret – there’s no such thing as dragons, and all Brock does is exploit the superstitious. But when, on a perilous trip up a frozen mountain, they discover that at least one dragon is still alive, Brock has a more important agenda than keeping Ansel alive. This is a thrilling adventure that, similarly to the author’s Carnegie Medal-winning ‘Here Lies Arthur’, shows how some people use superstition and mythology to exert power over others. A surefire hit for fantasy lovers of 10+. Scholastic 2010 £5.99 ISBN 9781407102443 |
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Philip Reeve Scrivener’s moon Fever Crumb is thrust back into the affairs of London, which is being re-made as a terrifying moving city, in this third of the prequels to the original Mortal Engines series. As alliances form amongst powers determined to destroy London before it is finished, Fever must confront the complicated relationship she has with her parents and suffer at the hands of the jealous and devious Charley Shallow. This volume really recaptures the epic action of the original books, but with Reeve’s trademark humorous references to today’s world and revelations about the fate of our own civilisation. And, in an unusual move for books aimed at this age range, Fever must struggle with her feelings for a wild nomad girl she encounters on her travels. Another fantastic story from this award-winning author. 10+ Scholastic 2011 £8.99 ISBN 9781407121574 |
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Jacqueline Wilson Lily alone Lily’s mum doesn’t want her new young boyfriend to know she’s a mother of four. When she takes off to Spain with him, she leaves a message for her ex, asking him to look after them. But he doesn’t show up and eleven-year-old Lily is left in charge of six-year-old twins Bliss and Baxter and toddler Pixie. With little food or money, no house key and no idea where her mother is or when she’ll be back, Lily has her work cut out trying to keep them all happy and fed without drawing attention to their situation, yet her loyalty to her mother seldom wavers. This touching story of a child stretched to the limits of her resourcefulness and courage by an irresponsible adult is standard Jacqueline Wilson fare but sure to delight her legion of young fans. 10+ Doubleday 2011 £12.99 ISBN 9780385618649 |
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Theresa Breslin Prisoner of the Inquisition A chance encounter between a poor man and a magistrate’s daughter in medieval Spain sets in motion a series of tragic events. The girl grows up with feelings of guilt over the death of the man, while his son is sold into slavery but remains determined to avenge his father. As both characters mature and converge for a climactic reunion, the sinister Inquisition grows in power and influence, and could spell disaster for them both. Readers of this sometimes bloody tale are treated to many locales of this period, from the finery of the royal court to the oppressive heat of a merchant galley and the escalating fear and intrigue of the magistrate’s house as the Inquisition turns people against one another. 12+ Corgi 2011 £6.99 ISBN 9780552560740 |
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Charlie Higson The enemy A devastating plague has swept the world, leaving everyone over the age of thirteen either dead or a shambling, cannibalistic monster. Struggling to survive in a ruined London, a group of children learn of a possible safe haven at Buckingham Palace. Their journey to the Palace is far from easy, and what the survivors find there is far from paradise. Meanwhile one of their number, captured by grown-ups and left for dead, has to fight his own way through London to try and rejoin his friends. Often gory but thrillingly written, this introduction to a new series by the author of the popular Young Bond books follows its characters through a variety of moral quandaries but the central message is that, even in a world as brutal as this one, some principles must be adhered to. 12+ Puffin 2010 £6.99 ISBN 9780141325019 |
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Katherine Lasky Ashes Berlin, 1932. Thirteen-year-old Gabriella’s privileged world is crumbling with the rise of Adolf Hitler. The only thing that soothes her is her favourite pastime, reading. As Germany’s political and racial tensions rise, her father’s friendship with Albert Einstein brings the family into conflict with the Nazis. Einstein makes a decision to flee Germany before it is too late and Gabriella increasingly finds solace in her books, soon to be destroyed in the mass book burning of 1933. The build-up to the Nazi takeover of Germany has a feeling of inevitability about it, but there are new insights for the teenage reader, particularly the considerable support for Hitler from ordinary Germans and a contemporary resonance for the plight of asylum seekers. 12+ Puffin 2011 £5.99 ISBN 9780142411124 |
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Ali Lewis Everybody Jam Danny and his family live on a 1600 square-mile Australian cattle ranch where their nearest neighbour is fifty miles away. Danny’s slightly dysfunctional family and the other workers on the farm are wonderfully real and the fact they don’t get on with their neighbours is a nice comic touch. Danny adopts an orphaned camel with exciting and almost disastrous results and, when his mother employs a Pommie house girl, events become very funny and beautifully observed. The story is littered with Australian and Aboriginal slang and this itself is astonishingly entertaining as we and Liz the Pommie try to unravel the complex code of Australian English. Whatever is Everybody Jam? Read it and find out - you won’t be disappointed. 10+ Andersen Press 2011 £6.99 ISBN 9781849392488 |
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Andy Mulligan Trash This story is told through the individual voices of two teenage street children who are living amongst the rubbish of the Philippines’ largest city, Manila. It is a well-written and exciting modern adventure, in which young people not only find their own answers but the adult world remains a constant threat to their very lives. When Raphael and Garbo find something valuable on the massive Behala rubbish tip, it brings them to the notice of the corrupt local police, who regard street children literally as trash, and being arrested often ends in death. This is a remarkable story of self-reliance and living in the most terrible poverty imaginable, which will have the reader hooked from the first page. 12+ David Fickling 2011 £5.99 ISBN 9781849920568 |
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Patrick Ness A monster calls Picking up an original idea by fellow author Siobhan Dowd, who died tragically of cancer, this fantasy follows teenager Conor as he attempts to come to terms with his own mother’s cancer and her eventual death. This coming to terms is accompanied by Conor’s unhappy school life, the return of his absent father and his thorny relationship with his grandmother. His way of coping causes him to have graphic dreams (or are they dreams?) of an ancient Yew Tree monster. Through shared stories, the monster helps Conor deal with the school bully and become reconciled to his mother’s death. A highly original and very pertinent modern fable, wonderfully illustrated by Jim Kay and full of surprise and wisdom. 13+ Walker 2011 £12.99 ISBN 978140631152 |
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Jenny Valentine The double life of Cassiel Roadnight Chap, a homeless 16-year-old, is mistaken for another missing boy and sees a chance to enjoy the loving family life he’s never known. At first he can scarcely breathe for fear of being found out and evicted, but gradually realises that the identity he has stolen comes with a whole package of secrets and lies even bigger than his own. He begins to suspect that the missing boy has probably been murdered and that his own life may now be in danger. Exploring themes of personal identity, loneliness, loss and betrayal, this is a brilliant and intriguing mystery, full of tension and suspense, guaranteed to enthral boys and girls of 12+. HarperCollins 2010 £5.99 ISBN 9780007283613 |
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Alexandra Adornetto Halo Three angels are sent to a small American town to help fight the spread of evil in the world. Alongside seasoned warrior Gabriel and healer Ivy goes Bethany, a young angel on her first visit to Earth. Intoxicated by the vibrancy and variety of human experience, she soon defies God’s law by falling in love with a human, and is tempted to break the ultimate taboo and tell him what she is. Meanwhile the forces of darkness spread through the community, targeting the humans Bethany has come to care for. This is a great addition to the supernatural romance genre, and a formidable achievement for its eighteen-year-old author. Bethany’s trials on Earth look set to continue and could prove popular with fans of Twilight. 12+ Atom 2010 £9.99 ISBN 9781907410758 |
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Laurie Halse Anderson Wintergirls Eighteen-year-old Lia is a recovering anorexic. Wrapped up in their own concerns, her parents offer little support. The day after she ignores 33 phone calls from her ex-best friend Cassie, she discovers that she has died, alone in a motel room, triggering a relapse of Lia’s eating disorder and self-harming. As the need to control her life through starvation and exercise becomes more insistent, she employs increasingly devious techniques to disguise her obsessive behaviour and frail condition. Visions in which Cassie taunts her and dares her to join her in death leave her struggling to find a reason to live. This powerful and illuminating novel exploring this tragic and mysterious condition is at times difficult to read but Lia is an engaging character and her story is ultimately rewarding. 13+ Scholastic 2011 £6.99 ISBN 9781407117485 |
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Pam Bachorz Candor Imagine living in a community where everyone is well behaved: there is no litter, no graffiti, every teenager works hard at school, there are no drugs or teenage sex, no bad language and everyone happily married. The town of Candor is such a place - a community where families volunteer to be brainwashed by inaudible subliminal messages. Oliver, the teenage son of Candor’s owner and creator is aware of the way everyone is manipulated. He uses music to blot out the messages as he and his girlfriend Nia experiment with drink, drugs and sex, behaviour that could land then both in the dreaded ‘listening room’. Set within a gated community in Florida, this is a highly original and exciting thriller ideal for teenagers who would like to blot out our own society’s subliminal messages. Highly recommended. 13+ Egmont 2010 £6.99 ISBN 9781405250276 |
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Helen Bailey Running in heels Daisy Davenport is rich and seems to have it all - until her whole life goes into meltdown. When the house is raided by the police and her dad is taken away, charged with fraud and corruption, the family are forced to move from their mansion to a tiny flat over a kebab shop, where her mother has taken a job. Not only that, her gorgeous boyfriend has decided that he no longer wants to be with her and Daisy has to move from her expensive fee-paying school to Bensham High, affectionately known to her upper-class mates as Chavarama High. Her sister is having an affair with a married man and her brother has been caught with drugs. Can Daisy cope with living above the kebab shop or will someone save her and her family from their fate? A brilliantly funny yet poignant story of family life, friendships and relationships, through the eyes of a teenager. 12+ Hodder 2011 £6.99 ISBN 9781444900842 |
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Kevin Brooks iBoy A brutal gang-related attack leaves Tom with fragments of an iPhone embedded in his brain and Lucy, the girl he loves, raped and traumatised. When Tom discovers that he now has an array of terrifying superpowers – including instantaneous mental access to the Internet and the ability to harness electricity in a variety of ways – he decides to embark on a bloody campaign of revenge against the boys who raped Lucy and the man in charge of them. But indulging his powers leaves Tom at risk of losing his very humanity – and could cost Lucy her life. Though Tom treads a path familiar to characters in other ‘superhero’ stories, the urban setting and the problems he experiences due to information overload make this taut and highly readable thriller stand out. 13+ Penguin 2010 £7.99 ISBN 9780141326108 |
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Jim Carrington In the bag Best mates Joe and Ash are on their way home from a night out on the rec when they discover a crashed car and a bag in the woods. The bag contains £20,000 and a stash of drugs and, unsurprisingly, the boys succumb to the temptation to keep the bag for themselves. Then Ash discovers two more items hidden in the bag - a gun and a mobile phone, which is receiving text messages from someone who wants the bag back. When Ash finds out his dad is having an affair, he goes off the emotional deep end and starts making some very stupid choices. Gritty, exciting and very readable, this is a great teen thriller with a bloody climax. 13+ Bloomsbury 2011 £6.99 ISBN 9781408802700 |
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B.R. Collins A trick of the dark Annis’s family is in meltdown after her brother Zach blew the whistle on her Dad’s affair, so the whole family has gone to convert a barn in France in a desperate attempt to heal some wounds. But a ruined house nearby holds a dark power and, after somehow surviving a dreadful accident, Zach is soon being pursued by a mysterious dark figure. The supernatural element of this novel is interesting, with Zach splitting his soul and forestalling death, but its real strength comes from the way it portrays the complex relationships between the different members of the family. The horrifically spiteful and selfish ways that people can act towards those they love are described with passion and chilling authenticity, but the story ends on a brighter note, with some of the characters rediscovering their humanity through the nightmare they have endured. 12+ Bloomsbury 2010 £6.99 ISBN 9781408809150 |
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B.R. Collins Tyme’s End A teenage girl struggling with her adopted family finds solace in a rundown country house called Tyme’s End. When she encounters Oliver, the house’s young owner, she discovers that she isn’t the only one with family issues. However, Oliver’s problems are darker and date back to 1936, when his grandfather had an unforgettable encounter with the original owner of Tyme’s End. Deliciously dark and brooding, this superb thriller takes the reader progressively further back in time to experience crucial incidents at Tyme’s End through the eyes of the girl, Bibi, Oliver and his grandfather. As one character comments, ‘no one escapes the past…it’s simply a question of how long the leash is.’ A horrifying climactic revelation gives the earlier chapters a chilling clarity and shows just how true that statement is. 12+ Bloomsbury 2011 £6.99 ISBN 9781408806470 |
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Gillian Cross Where I belong Three different teenagers, three different backgrounds, thrown together in a story that explores identity. Abdi has never been to Somalia, the land of his parents’ birth from where his mother fled from violence and corruption, but feels a deep connection and sense of belonging. Geri is smuggled from her beloved Somalia to live with Abdi’s family so that she can have an education and the opportunities that life in Britain can create. Freya struggles to empathise with the priorities of her famous fashion designer mother and the difficulties of her broken home. Then famine hits Somalia hard, and Geri, desperate to help her family, is spotted by Freya’s mother as a potential model for her forthcoming Collection…and suddenly all hell breaks loose as the tentacles of corruption start to coils around Geri and threaten her family. An exciting and pacy read. 12+ Oxford U.P 2010 £6.99 ISBN 9780192755544 |
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Ivy Devlin Low red moon In the American backwoods, a small woodland community lives peacefully, with only the trees for neighbours. Some families have sold out to developers but others, like Avery’s parents, would never do so. Now they have been killed, and all Avery can remember of the horror of that night is an inhuman and swiftly moving silver, and herself covered in blood. Rumours of werewolves in the woods are rife, and when Avery falls for new boy in town Ben, she realizes he is a werewolf… and then notices how his eyes flash with silver. Told with passion and tenderness, horror and tension, this is a riveting addition to the genre. 13+ Bloomsbury 2011 ISBN 9781408813980 |
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Catherine Forde Fifteen minute Bob Rory’s stuck with possibly the most embarrassing parent ever: his loser of a dad, whose only ambition is to emulate his musical hero Bob Blade. After thirty years he’s had no success and almost dragged his family into the gutter because of it, but one day he writes a genuinely good song and, with the help of Rory’s mates, becomes a viral music sensation. Rory finds this all very difficult, especially as they’re using his image to sell the song. And worst of all, his mum is on the verge of leaving them. Bursting with energy and boasting an assortment of complex, believable characters, this is a fantastic story about the life-changing power of music with a dash of romance thrown in and a (mostly) happy ending which doesn’t detract from the gritty flavour of the rest of the novel. 12+ Egmont 2010 £6.99 ISBN 9781405229302 |
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Sandra Glover Fallout When her family goes away for the weekend, Hannah invites a few friends round. But someone invites a couple of other people and her house gets wrecked in an impromptu house party. Even worse is what happens after the party, when Hannah asks her ex-boyfriend to come round and he allegedly rapes her. As the battle lines are drawn up, the big question is - who is telling the truth? This hard-hitting story deftly explores the complications often associated with date rape and the ways in which both parties attempt to control how the truth comes out but ultimately end up sabotaging their own credibility. There is no clear-cut resolution and the reader is left to make up their own mind about who was in the wrong. 12+ Andersen Press 2011 £6.99 ISBN 9781842709948 |
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Helen Grant The glass demon When her father embarks on a desperate search for some legendary medieval stained glass, Lin Fox and her family move to the sinister forests of Germany. But death seems to follow them everywhere – and each tragic scene is marked by broken glass. Is it the work of Bonschariant, the ‘Glass Demon’, reputed to haunt the stained glass, or is the killer all too human? The author skilfully builds up the tension to a bloody crescendo and also continually probes Lin’s relationship with her obsessive father, negligent mother and anorexic sister. This is an intriguing mystery which, despite a seventeen-year-old protagonist, is ideal for able readers aged 12+. Penguin 2010 £6.99 ISBN 9780141325767 |
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Julie Hearn Wreckers A twist on the myth of Pandora’s box interwoven with a thread of Cornish history. The descendants of the much maligned wreckers of old are living in a future where ecological disasters and wars are beginning to be overcome. The four young teenagers telling this story live frugally and somewhat puritanically, connected to the outer world only by the intertelly. The arrival of an American film crew intent on filming the story of the wreckers upsets the peace of the village, and the discovery of Pandora’s box threatens the recovering world. A fabulous tale, weaving mythology, religion, adolescence and ecology into a fast-paced adventure that cleverly constructs some very different characters and celebrates the warmth of humanity. 12+ Oxford University Press 2011 £6.99 ISBN 9780192729293 |
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Curtis Jobling Wereworld: Rise of the wolf When a vicious beast invades his home and murders his mother, sixteen-year-old Drew transforms into a werewolf and fights it off. Unfortunately his father believes he is the killer, so he must go and live out in the wild. But a chance encounter forces him to rejoin society and become part of a growing rebellion against the tyrannical werelion king of Lyissa. This is a familiar story but well-told (with plenty of gory action), and with interesting elements, such as the ruling Werelords who range from werebears to werestags and even a wereshark. Drew’s transformation into a reluctant king is complete by the end of the book, but it will be interesting to see how further books in the series will develop the storyline and lead the reader deeper into Lyssia. 12+ Puffin 2011 £6.99 ISBN 9780141333397 |
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Gemma Malley The Returners It is 2016 and Britain is in the grip of a brutal economic depression. Extreme nationalist groups are on the rise, inciting hatred against immigrants. Will, the son of one of these nationalists, is haunted by a group of people who follow him everywhere, staring at him. After he witnesses a murder, he has to face the incredible truth about these people - the Returners. They are reborn throughout history into periods of suffering and extreme barbarity – and Will is one of them. Can he embrace his destiny, and will he defy his father by supporting an immigrant boy who is accused of the murder he witnessed? This emotional story tackles some hard issues, including racism, domestic violence, free will and the darker side of human nature. 12+ Bloomsbury 2010 £6.99 ISBN 9781408800904 |
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Mary E Pearson The adoration of Jenna Fox Seventeen-year-old Jenna wakes up from a coma with a blank memory and no recollection of the accident. All she has to bring back the memories is a set of discs, each portraying a year of her life, which she dutifully watches. Although the memories start flooding back, there is something seriously bothering her about her emotionless relationship with her parents and the strange way her body feels, as if it’s not real. Soon Jenna uncovers the truth behind her worries and the horror that she faces is too much to bear. This is a deep psychological thriller that entices the reader to delve into some serious ethical issues that seem all too near, despite the book being set in the future. Walker Books 2010 £5.99 ISBN 9781406323016 |
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Bali Rai The gun Jonas and his friends Binny and Kamal have always had each other’s backs. But when Jonas grabs a gun dumped by some local gangsters, he can’t foresee the impact on their group as Kamal gets hold of it and goes totally gun-crazy. Jonas and Binny can’t stand by him any more - but Kamal decides that someone is going to have to pay for their betrayal. This is another gripping short story from Bali Rai which shows the damaging effect that crime can have on teenagers in inner city Britain. 12+ Barrington Stoke 2011 £6.99 ISBN 9781842998588 |
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Meg Rosoff The bride’s farewell This beautifully written historical novel, set in the New Forest at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, is a wonderful evocation of the period. Seventeen-year-old Pell runs away from home on the day of her wedding, taking her adopted brother and a beautiful horse that was a present from her future husband. A resourceful young woman at odds with a future of childbirth, drudgery and dependence, Pell hopes to make a living from her innate skill with horses. Often dark and frequently heartbreaking but romantically resolved, this is a novel that is likely to have limited appeal but would make an ideal reading group text for able and thoughtful teenage girls. 13+ Penguin 2010 £6.99 ISBN 9780141323404 |
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Ruta Sepetys Between shades of gray Set in 1941, this excellent novel tells the harrowing story of teenager Lina and her family’s deportation from Lithuania, with tens of thousands of other innocent people, to Siberia. It is a wonderful and often thrilling story of survival and love, set in the horror of a Soviet Gulag. The title refers to things you have to do to survive, the colours of the arctic, and the limited pallet of Lina’s paint box as she attempts to record her imprisonment and the small, unexpected kindnesses from fellow prisoners and even the cruel camp guards. Even after the death of her mother and father, Lina never gives up hope that she will survive. Based on real life memories, this remarkable story is inspirational. 13+ Penguin 2011 £6.99 ISBN 9780141335889 |
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Todd Strasser Blood on my hands Finding the dead body of Katherine, a girl she hates, Callie picks up the murder weapon and promptly gets her photo taken. With her older brother already in prison for attempted murder, she feels she has no choice but to go on the run and find out who really killed Katherine. But the truth is far from simple and life on the run is much harder than Callie expected. This excellent teen thriller skips along at a fast pace, with flashbacks scattered through the book charting the girls’ turbulent relationship and putting a growing number of suspects in the frame for Katherine’s death. A tense and exciting story that authentically portrays the cruelty and double-dealing of high school. 12+ Walker Books 2011 £6.99 ISBN 9781406329933 |
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Carlos Ruiz Zafon The Prince of Mist This atmospheric and, at times, chilling thriller is cleverly-written to engage and stimulate the mind. The setting is Europe in 1943, with the unsettling presence of war providing a backdrop to a story that involves evil of another kind, but that also reflects the unending consequences of human actions and decisions. Young Max, his two sisters and their family move from the city to a seaside existence that is to provide them with an escape from the menace of war. However, they soon become embroiled in a mystery that threatens their very existence. As their new home’s history is gradually revealed, Max learns of the evil Prince of Mist, the promises made to him in the past in return for desires granted, and the terrible revenge when promises are unfulfilled. 12+ Orion 2011 £7.99 ISBN 9780753828557 |
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Matt Haig The Radleys Peter and Helen Radley have a shadowy secret that they conceal from their teenage children - they are closet vampires. The whole family survive in a weakened state by living on red meat and avoiding direct sunlight. In abstaining from drinking human blood, they have also given up the right to live forever. However, when their daughter Clara is sexually assaulted, she reverts to type and furiously slaughters her assailant and drinks his blood, bringing the family to the attention of an undercover police unit investigating vampire activity. The author creates a wonderfully believable clandestine world of abstaining vampires living in conflict with their true nature. Highly recommended. 14+ Conangate 2010 £10.00 ISBN 9781406330281 |
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James Klise Love drugged Fifteen-year-old Jamie’s top priority is stopping anybody finding out he’s gay, as he’s not yet ready to come out. When someone accidentally discovers the truth, Jamie panics and starts a sham relationship with the beautiful Celia. He is delighted to discover that Celia’s father is developing a new drug which represses the homosexual impulse, and steals a few pills. But can they really help him make his relationship with Celia genuine and turn his back on his shameful secret? This engaging novel shows the way that many gay teens are conditioned to think about their feelings, and it is very interesting to follow Jamie’s changing attitude to the ‘miracle drug’ before reaching a more mature appreciation of his sexuality. Unfortunately the subject matter may make this book difficult to promote to the audience to whom it will be of most use. 14+ Flux Books 2010 £8.99 ISBN 9780738721750 |
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Veronica Roth Divergent Following a major catastrophe, the world has been rebuilt along factional lines, determining not only people’s future careers but also how they dress, behave and even their names. Everyone must belong to a faction or be cast out of society. At sixteen, Beatrice makes the choice to leave the submissive Abnegation faction and join the violent Dauntless faction. What she doesn’t realise is that she is divergent and doesn’t fit into any faction and this eventual discovery will have electrifying consequences. New author Veronica Roth has created a believable glimpse into a dystopian future where people are controlled by factional animosity. With clear references to divisions in our own society, teenagers will lap this up. 15+ Harper Collins 2011 £9.99 ISBN 9780007420414 |
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Alex Woolf Chronosphere: Book 1 Time out of Time This imaginative and well-researched debut novel is set in the twenty-third century, when recreational drug taking is the norm and you can buy anything - good looks, strength and stamina, even the ultimate designer accessory, time itself. Buying time lies at the heart of the story and the protagonist, eighteen-year-old Raffi, spends his inheritance to enter the Chronosphere, a parallel recreational universe in which you can live in luxury while your life in the real world stands still. This timeslip world is inhabited by young, beautiful hedonists and the weather is always sunny. What could possibly go wrong? The author has created a future world where the trade-off for a life of luxury is control by a ruthless police state. The story is in turn exiting, sexy and thought-provoking and the author shows an intuitive knowledge of his target audience, the gadget-savvy teenager. 15+ Scribo Books 2011 £6.99 ISBN 978907184550 |
Page Last Updated: 17 January 2012
