Category: Young Adult

‘The Name of the Star’ – Maureen Johnson

 

The Name of the Star is a light-hearted historical-based story. We focus on American teen Rory who moves from the US to study in the UK.

Her arrival coincides with a series of gruesome murders inspired by Jack the Ripper. Bodies are turning up on the sites of the Ripper murders, with similar names to the Ripper victims and they’re killed in the same way. Fear spreads through the town where Rory has come to study.

Initially I thought this would be a straightforward thriller,but then we learn of something unusual.

Rory appears to have seen someone that nobody else could. She is then followed by a team of extra-special police that few know about. They see ghosts – and their paranormal ability will be important in solving this mystery.

While the Ripper murders form the backdrop to the story, the real focus is the ability that Rory and the team share. Fraught with danger, and there’s real. Risk to the characters, but I loved the way the ending hints at what’s to come in book two.

 

‘Foul is Fair’ – Hannah Capin

With its focus on murder and a quest for power, Macbeth is an easy story to tap into. The determination to have sway over others, and the corrupting influence it has on you, is a feeling so many can understand – even if they wouldn’t act on it. While the supernatural element of the witches is a harder thing to transpose to the modern day, the influence these characters have is something we can fear.
With Capin’s ‘Foul is Fair’ we are brought straight into the modern era and given some very topical scenarios to wrestle with.

Our main character, Elle, starts the book heading out with her close group of friends to a party held by a student at a local school. The night of the party sets in motion a rapidly darkening series of events, that we just know is going to end badly. On the night of the party Elle is drugged and assaulted by a group of students. Their leader, Duncan, is the main person she blames but each and every one involved in the attack does – in Elle’s eyes – deserve to pay for their actions.

Intent on revenge, Elle enlists her friends (the coven) to research this group and find a way in. She enrols in St Andrews ( her parents’ willingness to transfer her to the school attended by the attackers is one of the main issues with this) and begins her campaign to bring down those responsible for her attack.

Elle picks out Mack, the boy who knew enough but wasn’t involved, to be the one to help her gain what she wants. She seems to fall for him, but it was clear he didn’t stand a chance. Elle wants payback, and the way she goes about it is ruthless and – maybe – just a little bit admirable.

This is graphic. Capin spares nothing and we see the demise of the group members in full glorious technicolour. While I didn’t like this, I definitely felt I was encouraged to sympathise with Elle and look beyond the callousness of her vendetta.

I’m grateful to NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication, and I can’t wait to see how students who are studying Macbeth react to this once it’s out.

‘Dread Nation’ – Justina Ireland

Jane McKeene is a gutsy young woman, and thank goodness because she ends up in all manner of awful situations and her special set of skills and bullish nature come in very useful.

When we first meet Jane she is training, learning how to be an Attendant keeping white people safe from the threat known as the shamblers. We’re in a world like no other – an historical setting but overrun with zombies. She has a love/ hate relationship with fellow student Katherine (whom she delights in calling Kate because it annoys her) and there is something she is keeping secret about her friendship with Jack.

Unfortunately, many no longer believe the shamblers are a real threat now. When this is shown to be foolish, some are determined not to give up their privileged position. The Mayor and one of the school assistants engineer a situation where Jane and Kate are sent away.

Told they are going to help patrol and keep the new town safe, the girls have to use their wits to stay alive. They are – quite rightly – suspicious of what is going on. As more and more secrets are uncovered, Jane has to come up with increasingly risky plans to ensure their survival.

The setting for this world is a strange mix of historical and modern. Jane is a great main character and there are some really interesting details given about her mother to suggest that what comes next will be good.

 

‘With the Fire on High’ – Elizabeth Acevedo

Emoni is a character that you can’t help but admire, root for and sit back with a huge grin on your face for how things work out for her.

A teen mum, she’s used to working hard and making sacrifices that so many of her peers wouldn’t even consider. Heading into her senior year she’s worried about how things are changing and what this will mean for her and her daughter. When she gets the chance to take a new course – a cooking elective – it sets up things she couldn’t expect.

Alongside the potential for studying something she loves, there’s a new boy in school who seems determined to show Emoni that not everyone assumes things about her because she has a child. Though the romance was quite a large part of this, it was part of a much bigger picture and this kept it interesting.

Emoni has a passion for food. The way she talks about food and the relationship she has with it was so intimate that it was hard not to fall a little in love. Even though the events may have been quite fortuitous I didn’t begrudge anything – from the off I wanted the happy ending, or at least the opportunity for it to be so.

I can’t wait to see what Acevedo comes up with next.

‘We Are Not Okay’ – Natália Gomes

This story by Nataliá Gomes is of the moment, and it certainly delivers a clear message to teen readers.

We focus on four teenage girls: Lucy, Ulana, Trina and Sophia. Though they are all the same age, they have very different experiences and lives. However, each has a secret that they want nobody to know about, and they’ll do anything to ensure it stays secret.

Of the four girls I felt a lot of sympathy for Trina. She has a lot of people talking about her, and ends up in a situation over which she has no control. As a result she makes some difficult decisions which have pretty extreme consequences. Ulana faced a very real fear, but a lot of it seemed to be about her doubting herself and her family. Ultimately, things worked out okay (or at least looked as if they would). Sophia gets caught up in something that, increasingly, seems to be felt to be a normalised experience – and we see her just how damaging it can be. Lucy was the character I found it hardest to empathise with because so much of her story revolved around situations she had instigated. You don’t wish harm on anyone, and the way the others interacted with her did give a positive message eventually.

There was a lot happening here. It seemed as if most topical scenarios were explored here, and not all were given quite as much detail/exploration as they might have been. I felt one such incident (concerning Sophie) seemed to come out of nowhere and I had to reread a section wondering if I’d missed something.

Ultimately this was a book that made me very very relieved to not be a teenager of the social media generation, and determined to try to encourage people of this age to be as open as possible about their experiences. Everyone plays their part in this bullying culture, and the sooner we take responsibility for it the better.

Thanks to NetGalley and HQ Young Adult for allowing me access to this prior to publication.

 

‘The Sky is Mine’ – Amy Beashel

Due for release in February 2020, I’m pretty convinced that this will be a hit read.

Plunged straight into the life of our main character, Izzy, it takes a while to establish quite what’s going on. We see Izzy get drunk at a party and she is threatened by someone in her college who vows to send round an embarrassing picture from the party unless she does what he asks her to. There’s no doubt that Izzy would be perfectly in her right to ignore this and call him out – but we see how insidious such attitudes are, when even his mates try to justify his behaviour by calling it ‘banter’. As a parent this horrified me, and I am really scared that anyone could ever think such behaviour is okay.

Izzy finds herself in a difficult situation. She fears just what this boy could do, so she goes to his house. He rapes her – no matter what name he gives it – and continues to try and threaten her into doing what he wants her to through her fear of what others will say.

Izzy says nothing. This is totally believable – however much you wish it weren’t. Against the backdrop of Izzy’s home-life it becomes even more relatable. She sees her once vibrant mother as a shell of herself. Her step-father controls everything and we are, slowly, given details that chronicle a horribly abusive relationship.
Eventually Izzy’s mother leaves, and Izzy gets the opportunity to reflect on her experiences and how to move on from them. Some elements of this are easier than others.

There was a lot packed into this read, but I am sure it will strike a chord – in some way – with many readers. Though elements of the story felt resolved far too easily, there were some positive outcomes that did inspire hope.

This is just another example of why NetGalley is such a great thing – getting to see new books before publication.

 

‘How Not to Disappear’ – Claire Furniss

Our memories make us who we are. So, what does this mean when we start to lose our memories?

This story focuses on two characters-Hattie and Gloria. They have never met, but find each other at just the moment that each needs the other. Worlds apart in many ways, yet there are striking similarities between them.

This is a great coming-of-age story that also encourages its readers to empathise with the other characters encountered (even if from a distance).

Hattie is pregnant by her best friend, Reuben. He’s disappeared to France while her other friend, Kat, has gone to Scotland with a new girlfriend. When Hattie is contacted about an elderly relative in the grip of early onset dementia she decides to visit her.

What follows is a road trip with a difference as Hattie takes Gloria on a trip back through time.

Told with unflinching honesty this is a moving exploration of family, memories and learning to accept the decisions you make.

 

‘Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl’ – Jeannie Vanasco

This was a fascinating, if depressing, book.
Jeannie is a creative writing lecturer who specialises in memoir writing. She recounts a number of students who tell her stories of rape. Some of those have ended badly. But all of them share the common experience of someone taking away an individual’s right to control what happens to them.
There’s no doubt this is a book that will strike a chord with many readers. Some will feel anger, others will empathise…but, I imagine all will feel a sense of amazement at the way this experience is recounted.
We follow Jeannie through a very unusual experience. She decides to write about the man who raped her fourteen years ago. At the time he was a good friend, but they’ve not really spoken since. He is not the only person to have assaulted Jeannie, and he wasn’t the first, but she gets in touch with him to try and talk to him about the experience.
The story itself was not one you’d expect to find pleasant reading, but I was absorbed to follow her process as she creates this book. Sometimes the narrative felt muddled, yet this reflected the subject/feelings with which she was struggling.
I’m still undecided how I feel about the perpetrator of this crime, or her decision to engage with him. However, reading about her experience and the way she/those close to her respond to this was compelling stuff. There’s no easy way to view such crimes when we see who might do such things/see how common it seems to be, but it certainly stops such things being swept under the carpet and blaming victims for their experience.
Thank you to NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication.

 

‘The Bone Houses’ – Emily Lloyd-Jones

A wonderfully atmospheric and, above all, hopeful read.

Ryn has always felt herself to be a little different to her neighbours. As one of the daughters of a gravedigger she doesn’t fear death, but her people are superstitious and when things start to change around the village it causes fear.

There have long been stories of the need to keep others happy, of the need to make offerings to those that dwell in the woods in exchange for peace. It would be easy to dismiss this as nonsense – as many do – but Ryn has seen the bone houses. She has killed them, doing her best to protect those she loves.

As with so many mysterious quests, one day an unknown visitor arrives in their village. The mapmaker Ellis seems harmless, but some fear he’s a spy. Ryn is asked to help take him to the mountains to plot his maps. She hopes that this trip will give her answers as to what happened to her father.

What follows is a slow journey as we discover a little more about the world Ryn inhabits, and a developing relationship.

I got drawn into this, and found the latter part quite moving. It was definitely a read that encourages you to reflect on yourself and your interactions with others. At times this felt like a read better suited to the younger end of the market, but I think there’s plenty here to keep readers happy.

 

‘The Woods’ – Vanessa Savage

This was one of those strangely compelling reads that unsettled from the off.

Tess is haunted by memories of her sister. She was the only witness to her sister’s death, but has no recollection of it. Tess is convinced the death was no accident, but has been trying to put events behind her. Unfortunately, her fear of the woods surrounding her old family home prevents her from visiting and it is not until her father calls desperate for help that she feels she can put it off no longer.

Details are slow to come by. Tess is shown to be struggling with her mental health from the outset, and we’re never quite sure what she recalls accurately and what is deliberately being concealed.

When she is given the news that her stepmother is close to death Tess knows she should visit. But her fear of what she remembers is a huge barrier. What we do know is her family is not a cohesive unit. She has had a problematic relationship with her stepbrothers for years, and her reluctance to look into what happened definitely makes us wonder what she’s hiding.

At its heart this was a story of complex relationships. There are numerous secrets and it’s only as we unravel them all that we can establish exactly what happened all those years ago when two girls went into the woods and only one came out.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this in exchange for my thoughts, and I look forward to seeing what is made of this when it come out in January 2020.