Newest Teens Reviews
Teens
Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton
Growing up in foster care has always left Ari wondering where she came from. The teal coloured eyes and strange, unchangeable, silver hair just adds to the mystery surrounding her. When she searches for answers to her questions about her past, she finds a simple message left for her by her mother – RUN. Desperately seeking answers and with scary figures on her trail, she returns to her birthplace of New 2, once known as New Orleans, to find herself plunged into a power struggle which could have far reaching consequences. Full review...
The Deserter by Peadar o Guilin
It's been four years coming, but this sequel to The Inferior won't disappoint those who have loyally waited. I've loyally waited. And I would like to say that four years has been too long. In that time dystopian fiction for young adults has become more and more popular - lots of it is very good - and I did wonder if I would love the central character Stopmouth quite as much as I had before. I shouldn't have worried. He's a gorgeous creation - brave, honest, loyal and committed, he will appeal equally to male and female readers. Full review...
Here Lies Bridget by Paige Harbison
Bridget Duke, daughter of a famous celebrity, is the undisputed queen of her school. Popular, wanted by the boys and feared or adored by the girls, she barely even notices the trail of destruction she leaves behind her as friends, teachers and even her stepmother end up being hurt by her actions. So when Bridget is in a car accident, and ends up in limbo, she's sent into the shoes of those she's wronged to see the effect she's had on them. Can she redeem herself? Full review...
Six Words and a Wish by Karen McCombie
Jem has a dad who's a clown, a best friend who's a hypochondriac, a house where it's always Christmas, and a sister who's missing – or is she? Gracie left home after something Jem said, and the younger girl has always wondered whether she's to blame for her big sister's disappearance. When her mother receives a present from Gracie on her birthday, she thinks she might finally be able to ask her. As well as hoping her sister returns, Jem also tries to form a band, helps her dad do his clown shows, and may even have found a cute boy she likes… Full review...
Killing Honour by Bali Rai
Sat comes from a prosperous Sikh family in Leicester. His mother spends a lot of time at the gurdwara but his father and brother don't and are not above breaking parts of the Sikh code - they both eat meat and drink alcohol. Overall, though, Sat's family is a traditional one and so when his parents hear a rumour that his sister Jas has a boyfriend at college, they withdraw her and arrange a marriage to Taz Atwal, a wealthy local businessman. Full review...
The Truth About Celia Frost by Paula Rawsthorne
Celia Frost has always been extremely careful, never playing with other children, always wearing gloves and long sleeves, and never getting into unwanted confrontations. For she knows from her mother that the rare disorder that she suffers from, which is not unlike haemophilia, will mean that just a small cut, a seemingly insignificant graze, can leave her bleeding uncontrollably until she dies. However, one day Celia snaps. When she humiliates a bully, the boy gets his revenge and with a small flick of a knife starts a cut that will kill her. Full review...
Darkness Rising: The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong
Maya has lived her whole life in strange little rural town, Salmon Creek. Although 'little' means a population of less than 200 and 'rural' really does mean in the middle of nowhere, Maya is happy living where she does. Sure, she gets more contact with cougars than she does with people some days, but she's always loved nature and she's always been content at Salmon Creek. Full review...
The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Calcutta, 1916. Lieutenant Peake sacrifices his life to save two twin babies from a terrifying and murderous demon.
Sixteen years later, the separated twins meet again. Sheere has spent her childhood moving from place to place with her grandmother - never staying still, always hypervigilant. Ben has lived in a Calcutta orphanage and has a band of friends - the Chowbar Society - who are all about to be released from care to make their way in the world. Full review...
Looking For Alaska by John Green
When Miles Halter leaves his safe, comfortable life in Florida for Culver Creek – a boarding school his father used to attend – he's looking for what French poet Francois Rabelais called the Great Perhaps. Miles thinks he's found it in Alaska Young – beautiful, flirty, sexy, but messed up Alaska. Her mood changes like the flip of a switch. She smokes and drinks too much. Miles couldn't be more in love with her. Full review...
Dangerous to Know by Katy Moran
Jack and Bethany are in love. But Bethany's mother thinks Jack is a bad influence. He comes from a bad family - a broken home, one brother was a drug dealer, the other smoked too much dope and ended up sectioned - and he just isn't the sort of boy Bethany's mother wants her daughter to spend time with. It's not all snobbery though - Bethany's father is terminally ill and the family has too much on its plate to be thinking of first love affairs. Says Bethany's mother. But not Bethany. Full review...
Ultraviolet by R J Anderson
Alison wakes up to find herself sectioned in a secure psychiatric unit for teenagers. Arriving home with blood on your hands and gibbering endless confessions to having killed a girl who's gone missing will do that. But there isn't any proof and Tori is still missing so both the police and Alison's doctors want to get to the bottom of what happened.
The thing is, Alison herself can't explain what happened. Full review...
Magus of Stonewylde by Kit Berry
Stonewylde is a mysterious self-contained community that exists in the heart of modern England but operates in isolation from the rest of the world, offering a very alternative lifestyle. Pagan culture is an intrinsic part of Stonewylde, with its various seasonal festivals, unique style of living, and most importantly its reverence of nature. Society in the community is also pretty unorthodox, being based upon an autocracy ruled by the Magus, a figure who is blessed with Earth Magic, during each of the eight seasonal festivals, that gives him the power to run Stonewylde. Full review...
Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
Amy hasn't got in a car for months, since her dad died in the crash, so she can't believe it when her mother tells her she needs to take it from California to the East Coast, even if she has arranged for Roger, the seriously cute son of a family friend, to drive. She thinks the trip will be a four day nightmare, as scheduled by her mother. Except Roger's not keen on overly regimented trips, and Amy's so upset at being forced into doing this that she's happy to go off track… so the pair decide to take the scenic route and explore America on the way there. Full review...
Die For Me by Amy Plum
Ever since Kate's parents died, she's been living life on pause – moving from day to day without actually ever living. She's moved with her sister to Paris to live with their grandparents, but even the beautiful city of love can't shake her out of her apathy. At least, not until she meets Vincent. Full review...
Bad Tuesdays 4: The Nonsuch King by Benjamin J Myers
With Chess teaching herself the skills she'll need when time reaches the fifth node and with Box stuck on a distant planet fighting for his life with the other Fleshlings, it's time to see what Splinter is doing... Full review...
Dark Woods by Steve Voake
Cal has been taken on holiday to America by the latest in a long line of foster families. Despite the trip, there are tensions. Cal has been let down so many times that he refuses to trust in anyone and he rejects any overtures his foster mother makes. He knows they'll send him back to the children's home - the only question is when. So when he meets Eden - vital, funny, exciting - at a campsite and she suggests a walk in the woods, Cal snatches at the chance to get away with someone who doesn't know anything about him or his past. Full review...
An Act of Love by Alan Gibbons
Chris and Imran were childhood friends. Blood brothers. They swore it when they played together in the wilderness behind the estate where they lived. But not any more. The riots put paid to that. 9/11 put paid to that. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan put paid to that. Ten years on, Chris is a veteran of Afghanistan, waiting to receive a medal from the country for which he lost a leg. Imran is angry and rebellious, flirting with extremism. Terrorism has wrecked their friendship and sent them in different directions. And now, terrorism is threatening to end their very lives... Full review...
Ocean of Blood (The Saga of Larten Crepsley) by Darren Shan
In book two of this prequel series about the beloved orange-haired vampire from Darren Shan's Cirque du Freak series, we find Larten Crepsley and his friend Wester Flack finally free of the restrictions and privations imposed upon them by their master, Seba Nile. The young vampires have joined the Cubs, and are wandering the world enjoying all the "pleasures" human life can give them - wine, women, song, and a ringside seat at as many bloody wars as they could shake a stick at (plus a good supply of fresh blood in the aftermath of battle). Full review...
No Passengers Beyond This Point by Gennifer Choldenko
India is fourteen and, like many teenagers, doesn't see much outside her own narrow sphere of interest. She's spiky and defensive and reacts to any setbacks with anger and aggression, usually turned against her family. But inside, like many teenagers, she's rather lonely and lost. Finn is twelve and not as good at basketball as he'd like. He's not as popular as he'd like either. But he is honest and loyal, and he longs for a chance to prove it. Mouse is six and a bit of an oddity. She has an imaginary friend and a brain the size of a planet. This doesn't always make her easy to get along with. Full review...
Piccadilly Love Stories: Don't Ask by Hilary Freeman
Lily thinks of herself as being about a 6 out of 10 on the scale of 'hideous gargoyle to Brad Pitt' and she knows her boyfriend Jack is an 8. So why would he want to be with her? Despite him seeming to be the perfect boy she's convinced there's something in his past and only gets more suspicious when he keeps clamming up about it. So when she finds his ex-girlfriend on a social networking site it seems like a great idea to create a fake profile and make friends with her. Is it worth telling this many lies just to find the truth? Full review...
Notes From the Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell
Gem, only child of arty mother Bev and an absent haiku-obsessed father always found fitting in difficult until the mysterious Lo turned up at school. The trio of her, Lo and Mira have been inseparable for a while now but as they plan their summer project – an Andy Warhol inspired underground film – she starts to feel pushed out by the other two. Can she deal with exams, romance co-worker Dodgy, save her friendship with Mira and Lo and cope with her father’s reappearance? Full review...
For the Record by Ellie Irving
Luke is obsessed with records. He's so busy planning on breaking world records when he grows up, and playing world records DVD games, that he doesn't take much of an interest in what's going on around him. But that's about to change, because when the village of Port Bren is chosen to host a waste-incinerator plant his house will be demolished and the graveyard where his dad's buried will be destroyed – unless the village is too historically important for this to happen. How can they put themselves on the map in one week? Luke comes up with the idea to break 50 world records… but why won't his mum let him take part? Full review...
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time by Yasutaka Tsutsui
Kazuko is clearing up her school science lab after hours when something strange happens. She appears to disturb an intruder busy doing some kind of chemistry experiment - one that leaves a lavender scent to the room. She faints, and comes to to find no trace of any disturbance. But things get weirder - she starts to see her and her schoolfriends enduring disaster after disaster. Has she now got powers of premonition, or is something odder at foot? Full review...
Swim the Fly by Don Calame
Matt and his friends, Coop and Sean, set themselves a challenge every summer. This year, with fifteenth birthdays under their belts and hormones a-go-go, their goal is to see a girl - any girl - naked. They know it won't be easy but, as Coop insists, it's step one in a very important and natural order of things. I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to what the final step could be... Full review...
The Radleys by Matt Haig
Rowan Radley is a freak who has to wear factor 60 sunblock. Clara is wasting away as she tries to turn vegan. Their parents are a normal suburban couple – aren't they? When a bully tries to take advantage of Clara in a secluded field, he finds he's bitten off rather more than he can chew – and she's bitten off rather more than he can survive without. Who do you call when you need a body to be buried? Abstainers Peter and Helen haven't had to deal with this sort of thing since they gave up drinking human blood – so in a moment of desperation they turn to Will, Peter's brother, who's rather more of a traditional vampire. Things are about to get messy… Full review...
Outside In by Maria V Snyder
Although the revelation that Inside, a society crammed into a self-contained cube-shaped metal hull, is actually floating through space came as a shock to the population of Inside, both the Uppers and the Lowers of society expected life to get better after the success of the revolution and the deposition of the tyrannical Travas. However, Trella learns that setting up a new society that smooths over the divides and prejudices that consumed the old one is a cumbersome process. When bombs start exploding and violence begins to flare, a new potent threat has to be confronted by the divided population of Inside, in the form of Outsiders. Full review...
Chime by Franny Billingsley
Briony is a witch. She's ready to be hanged 'now, please.' She's an engaging and captivating central character struggling to cope with the death of her beloved stepmother and looking after her slightly deranged twin sister Rose. And she can talk to the Old Ones, a crew of supernatural spirits who are best compared to ghostly rejects from 'Cold Comfort Farm'. Chime is in turns beguiling, frustrating, enjoyable and annoying. Full review...
Blood Red Road by Moira Young
Saba has lived in the desolation surrounding the dried-up Silverlake for all of her eighteen years. The family has just one neighbour - a chaal addict, so not exactly sociable - so Saba's only companions are her father, her twin brother Lugh, and younger sister Emmi. Saba worships Lugh, resents Emmi for their mother's death in childbirth, and is confused by her father, who believes he can read the future in the stars. But it's all she knows and as long as Lugh is close, she's happy enough. Full review...
Sky Hawk by Gill Lewis
Rob and Euan want to chase Iona McNair off Callum's farm. She's newly returned to the village, staying with her grandfather, her mother nowhere to be seen. It's a close community and rumours abound - and Iona is a bit of a pariah amongst the children. But something about her draws Callum in and Iona returns the favour by trusting him with her deepest secret: she's found an osprey's nest high above the loch and she's desperate to protect the endangered birds. And so the two of them forge a friendship as they try to keep Iris and her mate out of harm's way. Full review...
Forgotten by Cat Patrick
Here's the thing about me: I can see the future in flashes, like memories. But my past is a blank. I remember what I'll wear tomorrow, and argument that won't happen until this afternoon. But I don't know what I ate for dinner last night.
As you can imagine, life is quite tricky for London. At 4.33am every morning, her memory resets. Full review...
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Imagine a world without love... Where romance was dead, parents felt no affection for their children, and Romeo and Juliet was studied as a cautionary tale. Lena's world has nearly reached that stage. The cure has been found for amor deliria nervosa, and is given to all children when they reach the age of 18. After her mother's suicide for love Lena is desperate to reach that age and receive the cure. She knows things will change - she's seen the effect it has on those who go through it and the way it makes them all calmer - but she's ready to welcome it. And then she meets a boy, and her views on love are turned completely upside down. But with the date of the cure so close, can she possibly do anything about her new feelings? Full review...
The Hunting Ground by Cliff McNish
When Elliott and Ben move into Glebe House with their father, a professional renovater, they don't expect anything other than another short pause in their peripatetic lives. Elliott kind of wishes the family could put down some roots, but there is something to be said for staying in huge mansions with grounds to explore. But right from the start things aren't as they should be. Why does Elliott wake at night, feeling afraid? Why is Ben lying about going into the abandoned East Wing? Who is the old lady with the dead flowers pinned to her dress? And why is the house full of pictures of a previous owner, all with a hunting theme? Full review...
Angel's Fury by Bryony Pearce
From the very first lines of this powerful story we are dragged into a terrifying world where Cassie's nightmares are so real she continues to feel the pain of the injuries even after she has woken up. She fights sleep, dreading the bullet-ridden agony, the screams of family and playmates, and the awful, breathless hunt through the field of barley until at last the gun fires again, ending Zillah's life. Such a nightmare would shake a person for days afterwards . . . but Cassie goes through this night after night after night. Full review...
One Seriously Messed-Up Week: in the Otherwise Mundane and Uneventful Life of Jack Samsonite by Tom Clempson
Jack is an endearing lad with all the uncertainties, desires and preoccupations of his ilk. One minute he is worshipping the lovely Eleanor from afar, praising her as a pure and beautiful angel, and the next he is comparing the merits of various girls' mammary glands with his mates. He plays it cool but constantly frets about looking like an idiot; he wants to do well in his exams but skips class with barely a qualm, and he rarely allows something as unimportant as a lesson to intrude on his conversations. He is, in fact, that collection of contradictions, anxieties and bravadoes which is known as the average teenage boy. Full review...
Chronosphere: Time Out of Time by Alex Woolf
It's the 22nd Century, and finally the ideal gap year is available. Before being forced into a career prescribed him by his big society, Raffi buys his way into the Chronosphere, whereby his body will live in stasis for one minute in general time, while passing a year of sunny hedonism, with sports, shopping, girls and partying in a perfect idyll of mod-cons. But of course all is not well in paradise. His peers have a habit of vanishing without trace, and who knows? - even his newly-found friends may have something to do with it. Full review...
The Circle Cast by Alex Epstein
Anna is just a girl of eleven, when her father is involved in protecting the British Isles from the Saxon invaders. But, when the warlord Uter Pendragon decides to claim her mother Ygraine as his, with lethal consequences, things change. Her locale - from southwestern England, to sanctuary in Ireland. Her standpoint - from proud young girl absorbing some passed-down military knowledge, to a young woman of magic, bent on vengeance. And her name - from Anna, to Morgan. Full review...
Clash by Colin Mulhern
Alex Crow is the sort of kid who you stay well away from, whether you're the nerdy classroom joker or the loudmouthed bully of the class. From Kyle's point of view he appears to be a disturbed psycho, with barely restrained brutality, and he does everything possible to avoid him. However, events conspire to bring the two together, and we learn that there is a lot more to both characters than first impressions seem to imply. As tensions mount and stakes are upped, it is down to a tortured Alex to overcome his internal confusion, fight to save those close to him, and redeem himself as a person. Full review...
Tomorrow When The War Began by John Marsden
Ellie and her friends are going to Hell. On a camping trip, that is. Taking enough supplies to last a week, the Australian teens are determined to have fun in the remotest part of the bush and get to know each other a little better. Or a lot better in certain cases… The week goes well, but all too soon it’s time to leave. Except when they get back, it’s to find their worlds have been turned completely upside down. Their farms are devastated, animals dead or dying, and families nowhere to be found. How can this have happened, and is it related to the mysterious planes they saw flying overhead on Commemoration Day? The teens set out to find out what happened to their families and work out just how they can survive. Full review...
Miles From Ordinary by Carol Lynch Williams
Lacey wakes up one summer morning ready to start her new job at the library. Maybe she'll actually make her first real friend. It's also Lacey's mother's first day too, working at the local grocery store. But, Lacey's mother is ill – she hears voices, or to be more specific she hears the voice of Lacey's dead Grandfather telling her what to do. But they need the money after Lacey's mother spent all their money on tinned food ready for the end of the world that Lacey's Grandfather had told her was coming. Everything starts off well, and Lacey even manages to become friends with one of the cool kids, Aaron, on the bus to the library. But, as the day goes on Lacey's memories come flooding back and what started off as a normal day starts to spiral out of control. Full review...
The End of Everything by Megan Abbott
On the surface this book is about the disappearance of a thirteen-year-old girl. Her best friend and neighbour Lizzie relates how she searches for clues, how she discovers that a local man may be involved, and how Evie and Lizzie's families struggle to cope. But look again at the title. What really unfolds here is the story of the effect a single incident has on three families, not two, how that one event came about, and why nothing will ever be the same for everyone involved. It is a book which is complex, deep and very, very intense. Full review...
Bracelet of Bones (Viking Sagas) by Kevin Crossley-Holland
It's 1036 in Trondheim, Norway. Solveig lives with her father, stepmother and stepbrothers. Her mother died many years ago and neither Solveig nor her father Halfdan have ever truly recovered. Before his injury, Halfdan was a Viking mercenary and his dearest wish is to rejoin his old commander, Harald Hardrada in Miklagard (Constantinople). He promises Solveig that, should the call ever come, he will take her with him... Full review...
