reviews


gang. When he dies a gruesome death seeking to make the Fit,       role of the gangsters’ prime player. Three narrative questions now pose themselves. Will Daniel succeed in making the mysterious Fit? What are the gangsters after? Can Daniel’s father be helped? This book tries to be a genre hybrid. The details of the father’s medical case are well researched and convincing. But at the same time the book tries to be a crime thriller. The former narrative thread appeals to a reader’s human feelings and emotions. Then along comes the gangster story. Daniel is trying to make the Fit. Wallis is trying  never quite pulls it off.


RB Thirteen Days of Midnight 


Leo Hunt, Orchard Books, 384pp, 978-1-4083-3746-2, £6.99 pbk


      with his mother. His father left home ten years earlier and in the meantime there has been very little face to face contact. Luke, however, sees his father regularly on TV, where his father hosts a popular supernatural TV show. Out of the blue Luke receives a


letter. His father has died and he must go and meet the lawyer, Mr Barclay. At this meeting Luke is told he will       is a condition: he must sign a contract agreeing to take control of the eight spirits who were his father’s charge. The rest of Hunt’s book narrates


how Luke copes with these restless spirits, how he manages them when they turn malevolent, how he can aspire to disconnect himself from them, and what damage will be done in the process.


characters are convincing, commanding the reader’s concern for their welfare. Even Luke’s dog, who narrates one episode of the book, speaks in skilfully credible tones. Second, Hunt manoeuvres the psychology of his readers with great skill, playing elegant tricks on the reader’s susceptibilities.         between Luke and the malignant spirits, his mother acts in a way that takes the reader’s breath away. I have three points of criticism for


this well-crafted book. The narrative picture that the author needs to establish before the book gathers        puzzle. It thus requires determination on the part of the reader to press on with the book. Some readers will probably give up before the real action starts. Second, for this reader the book      violence, though maybe the readers for whom this book is intended may not be as squeamish as me. Finally, as a wheelchair user myself,


The book has two strengths. Its


14+Secondary/Adult continued Black Cairn Point





Claire McFall, Hot Key Books, 259pp, 978-1-4714-0487-0, £7.99 pbk


Madeline Whittier is seventeen years This is a spine-chilling thriller for the YA market set around the aftermath to a terrifying camping trip. Five friends make the journey to Black Cairn Point, but then things start to go wrong. There is a sense of pervading evil and not all of the group make it out. The action moves on a year and Dougie is still in a  at the Cairn, whilst his friend Heather is being held in a psychiatric unit; she is desperate that he gains consciousness so that she will no longer be a suspect in the deaths of the three friends who did not make it out.


perhaps because it does not go into a great deal of detail. It is left to our        guess what really went on. The story takes place over two time periods: the        silent contest with the psychiatrist who wants her to accept that she killed her friends; and the second is set during the trip to the Cairn where we see and hear the action from Heather’s point      is that the author provides us with several options for an ending and then brings a gigantic twist into the story at the very end, so that we are left with a question mark about whether we have really understood what has been going on. It is one of those stories that you keep replaying in your mind, trying    The characters are all normal young people, there is no one that shows any signs of being sinister or dangerous and yet the trip has horrifying consequences. A great read for those who enjoy having their nerves tested and are not afraid of the unknown. MP


Everything Everything 


Nicola Yoon, Corgi (Random House Children’s Publishers), 320pp, 978-0-5525-7423-5, £7.99 pbk


I was dismayed by one character’s       wheelchair was a destiny that made death look attractive. Young readers        RB


Madeline Whittier is seventeen years old. She is allergic to everything. She has SCID – severe combined       Maddy can never go outside. She cannot meet anybody. It could kill her. However, Maddy is also a curious and adventurous teenager, and her lack of choices frustrates her. Then one day,  boy, dresses in black and likes free running. They start to communicate       bedroom windows and then by email. A friendship begins. This friendship gradually grows into something else. But how can you love someone when you can’t even be in the same room as them and can never touch them? Maddy wants to be with Olly, but how can she do this when she can’t see people or go outside? Maddy is willing  love. For her you are not living at all


This is a really scary story,


when you are trapped inside a bubble. 


growing up, growing away and falling         brilliantly describes the awakening of  a teenager moves from childhood into adulthood. In some respects, Maddy’s illness acts as a metaphor for the boundaries that must be broken down in order to reach maturity, and it cleverly documents the changing relationship between Maddy and her mother. At the heart of the narrative is a


clever secret designed to surprise the reader. This works incredibly well. Hints at this secret not only keep the reader engaged and involved but they also keep the reader guessing. The narrative is constructed in a


frequency. Marks not only has an uncanny ability for the chilling, but also     of the horror trope in this broodingly  of ethics.


JH Dangerous Lies 


Becca Fitzpatrick, Simon & Schuster, 978-1-4711-2511-9, £10.00 hbk


      narrative, emails, diary entries and other written media. It is an ingenious novel that is very well written and skilfully constructed, and it will appeal greatly to female teenage readers.


ARa Rock War: Boot Camp 


Robert Muchamore, Hodder Children’s Books, 352pp, 978-1-4449-1456-6, £12.99 hbk


Fuelled by a popular interest in fame and celebrity,


programmes such as X Factor, The Voice and Britain’s Got Talent. Boot Camp, the second book in the series sees Jay, lead guitarist for band Jet, battling for a place in Rock War after the band won ‘Rock the Lock’. Erin his cousin, a guitarist and vocalist, is also competing with her band. The competitive aspect provides pace and drama for the book and the twenty-four-  the mansion where the competition takes place provides a means for showing and satirising the impact that life under the lens has upon the developing psyche of the participants. This, wrapped in Muchamore’s usual  for a highly engaging, accessible, yet thought-provoking insight into a modern phenomenon, and leaves readers   JH


War series draws inspiration from the often mawkish and ghoulish interest generated by


Muchamore’s Rock contestant based Bad Bones 


Graham Marks, Stripes Publishing, 336pp, 978-1-8471-5454-5, £6.99 pbk


Gabe and his family are impoverished. As a consequence, layers of responsibility build themselves upon and burden Gabe, who feels he must try to improve their lot. Gabe becomes an accomplice to the school bully carrying out a variety of errant errands.  however, when Gabe stumbles upon a shallow grave with skeletal remains and a gold bracelet, jutting from the earth. Greed and a desire to change his personal circumstances lead Gabe to steal this. So begins a terrifying set of consequences as supernatural powers are awoken that want the item returned to its rightful home. These manifest     


throughout the book as we learn about her problematic background, and she shows her more sensitive side. I particularly liked the cowboy setting, full of Bible study groups, church fairs, rodeos and diners. It’s as much a love story as a thriller, but there are plenty of mysteries to keep the reader gripped: Why does Carmina dislike Chet when he’s quite clearly a wholesome good guy? What has happened to Carmina’s family? Why isn’t Reed replying to Stella through their secret email address? The main mysteries, however, are only revealed at the very end: What really happened the night of the murder, and why has Stella been lying?


MMa Books for Keeps No.215 November 2015 31 Stella grows in appeal as a character


Becca Fitzpatrick’s new book is full of suspense, secrets, romance and dramatic twists. Seventeen-year-old Estella Goodwinn is a witness to a violent murder; her testimony will keep Danny Balado behind bars for a long time. But Danny is a member of a drugs cartel and Danny’s men are after her. Estella is forced to enter a Witness Protection Programme and it’s goodbye to her previous life in Philadelphia, including boyfriend Reed. She becomes Stella Gordon and is taken to live in the sleepy mid-West  foster mother Carmina. Stella is not impressed, and makes sure everyone knows it. In spite of herself, though, she gradually gets sucked into Thunder Basin life – she starts work in a diner,  Chet Falconer and joins a softball team. She also stands up to local bad boy Trigger McLure, whose baseball-hero  up till now he’s committed crimes with impunity. But just as Stella is beginning to enjoy herself, getting on well with Carmina and falling in love with Chet, she is recognised; her life is once more in danger.


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