Difference between revisions of "Newest Teens Reviews"

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

Crime

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

General Fiction

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

Confident Readers

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

Confident Readers

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

Paranormal

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...

Night Witches by LJ Adlington

Rain Aranoza comes from Rodina. It's a nation of science and rationality. It holds no truck with superstition and religion. And, in the tradition of all authoritarian societies, it is ruthless in stamping out traces of the Old World and its belief in witches. Rodina is controlled by a network known as Aura and Aura encourages denunciations. Control is enforced by the Scrutiners and Aura instructs citizens in even the minutiae of their daily lives. Full review...

Blinded by the Light by Joe Kipling

Some time in a near-future Britain, things look very different. The Sandman virus wiped out most of the population. The fortunate few live in one of three Neighbourhoods, each protected by the Boundary. Beyond the Boundary is Outside - a wasteland populated with infected feral Echoes. Luckily for MaryAnn, she lives in the Neighbourhood that was once known as Manchester. And she's a rich and privileged Alpha. Although her parents aren't celebrities - which MaryAnn would like, because then she'd be invited to cooler parties - they are influential in the Light, the Neighbourhood's leadership. So MaryAnn has designer clothes, servants, and nothing more to worry about than bagging a date with peer group kudos. Full review...

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau

I'll break from my usual reviewing style of starting off with a plot summary here, for reasons which will shortly become obvious, and just start by saying The Testing is an interesting dystopian read, with a wonderful narrator, which I'd definitely recommend. Full review...

The Phenomenals: A Game of Ghouls by F E Higgins

Confident Readers

Once again, I’ve jumped right in here – going straight to the second book in a series. As it happens, A Game of Ghouls is not a bad one to do that with. You’re never left confused because you haven’t read the first one (A Tangle of Traitors) because they keep you up to date enough for it to be a fairly good stand alone. You want to find the first one though, because if it’s going to be anywhere near as good as this one it’s a book you want to read. Full review...

Up In Flames by Nicole Williams

Elle Montgomery has spent her whole life doing exactly what she's supposed to - what everyone else thinks is how she should live her life. Outside, Elle is smiling politely and perfectly happy with her perfect-fit boyfriend. Inside, Elle is screaming for the chance to do something a bit wild. Full review...

Heroes (Most Wanted) by Anne Perry

Trench warfare has widely been acknowledged as one of the most soul destroying forms of combat. It broke men physically and mentally. Death seemed inevitable for many, and life was so horrible that at times it must have come as release. So what is one more death among the multitudes? To Chaplain Joseph Reavely every death counts, but he can not let this one go. Morton was not killed by enemy fire - he was murdered and Joseph will not rest until justice is done. It sounds pretty straight forward, but there is far more to it than this and justice is truly poetic in this case. Full review...

Moose Baby by Meg Rosoff

Jess is a pretty average teenage mother - except for one thing. Instead of giving birth to a normal little girl as she was expecting, she ends up delivering a 23lb moose calf by C-Section. It seems there has been a cluster of non homo-sapien births to human mothers. For some unexplained reason, a number of women have given birth to animals - mostly moose. Jess feels confident she can cope with the trials and tribulations of teenage parenthood. She can handle the midwives' harsh looks, her mother's disappointment and her boyfriend's parents' disapproval. But giving birth to a moose instead of a human may be more than any mother can adjust to. Full review...

Memory: She's Dying to Remember by Christoph Marzi

Jude can see the dead. His life has changed immeasurably since he saw his first ghost about six months ago. He's lost interest at school and become even further distanced from his father, who works away a lot. Instead, he spends most of his time in Highgate Cemetery with the shapeshifting vixen Miss Rathbone and a circle of dead people headed by ex-rock star Gaskell. Jude feels more at home with ghosts than he does with the living. Full review...

Dead Brigade by James Lovegrove