BfK 10 – 14 Middle/Secondary continued


plucky character and her situation well described. There are notes about young carers at the end of the story. JF


If You Were Me HHHHH


Sam Hepburn, Chicken House, 352pp, 978-1-90948-980-6, £6.99 pbk


Sam Hepburn established a reputation for taut, tightly plotted thrillers for young readers with Chasing the Dark. If You Were Me, Hepburn’s latest novel, is another truly thrilling read and will reinforce that reputation.


The action begins in Afghanistan. Aliya, her mother and little sister are forced to flee their home in the middle of the


night to escape the Taliban, who are after Aliya’s brother Behrouz, a translator for the British army. Vividly described, it’s a nail-biting opening chapter. Life as refugees in England is not easy, and no safer for the family either: they’ve only been there a few weeks when Behrouz is badly injured in an explosion and accused by the authorities of terrorist activity. Aliya knows that her brother would never do such a thing and is determined to prove his innocence. Plumber’s son Dan feels compelled to help Aliya: he has evidence that could clear Behrouz’s name but is too ashamed to share it with her, and unable to go to the police either, because it implicates his own father in a very serious criminal operation.


Together these two very different young people work to uncover the truth, untangling a web of deceit and corruption, and putting both their lives in danger in the process. The plot unfolds through dual first person narratives from Aliya and Dan in alternating chapters. It is credit to Hepburn’s skill as a thriller writer that no matter how complex the plot becomes, all remains clear and readers will be kept right on the edge of their seats from beginning to end. Her two central characters ring very true as intelligent, determined and courageous young people, and their various escapades as they track down some decidedly nasty and frightening villains are always credible.


This is a very well-plotted, intriguing and involving contemporary thriller that gives equal respect to its central characters and its readers. MMa


14+ Secondary/Adult What Was Never Said HHHH


Emma Craigie, Short Books, 208pp, 978-1-78072-179-8, £7.99 pbk


Two girls are dancing outside their grandmother’s house in Somalia. They go into the house and find a young woman, Ramah, dead as a result of a failed operation for


female


circumcision (FGM). Years later the action moves to Bristol, where the Somali family now live. Zarah is fifteen and Samsam is six.


Some women come to the house of Zarah’s mother. Zarah recognises one of them as ‘the cutter’, the same woman who performed the fatal FGM on the deceased Ramah. She decides that she and her sister will run away to London to escape the deadly operation. Fortunately their cousin Yasmin is studying in London so they have some support in the capital.


The book narrates the story of the sisters’ flight and their struggle to reconcile their aspirations in a modern multi-cultural state with the traditions of their homeland.


It is a brave and worthy endeavour on the part of Craigie to tackle this subject. She does her best to explain why some people favour FGM: women are considered purer if they are incapable of experiencing sexual pleasure. For contemporary readers in a modern society, irrespective of age, explaining this phenomenon is a tricky and thankless task.


However my main criticism of this otherwise praiseworthy novel is that it employs a nakedly obvious narrative device. Zarah is resolved whatever the cost not to return to her family home: the reader can see exactly why. Her father goes to seek guidance from an Imam in a mosque. While there he suffers serious injuries in a fire. Loyalty to her father induces Zarah to go home, taking her younger sister with her. The profound conflict of values is thus resolved not by a rational or emotional process, but by a


chance accident. The book ends with a revelation about the identity of the young woman who died in Somalia. RB


Conversion HHHHH


Katherine Howe, Oneworld Publications, 402pp, 978-1-78074-773-6, £8.99 pbk


Colleen Rowley is a high school senior student at an elite Catholic girls’ school in Danvers, Massachusetts. She is a gifted student who believes she has a chance of being appointed the Valedictorian, the departing student chosen to give a farewell address at the graduation ceremony, a huge honour. On top of this competition to be recognised, the girls are striving to win a place at prestigious Ivy League colleges. The competitive aura is potent. Another student, Fabiana, has a slender lead over Colleen in her academic ratings. Colleen knows she must overtake Fabiana if she is to achieve her goal. One day, in the middle of a tutorial, the school’s glamour girl Clara Rutherford has an unexplained seizure. Hers is the first case in a mysterious epidemic. Dozens of girls start to experience the same severe symptoms: hair loss, seizures and inability to walk. The rest of Howe’s book describes the search for the reasons underlying this strange phenomenon and its causes, alongside the reactions of the sufferers and those around them.


Without revealing too much about this compelling narrative, Howe ties the mysterious trials of


these


contemporary teenagers to famous but alarming events in American history. The author achieves a notable success because she manages so deftly and convincingly to place herself in the shoes of these teenage girls experiencing ordeals with which they are poorly equipped to cope.


As the story advances, it rings bell after bell with any reader who can


30 Books for Keeps No.212 May 2015


recall her high-school days. The story depicts ambitious middle class parents who sincerely believe that by exerting pressure on their children to perform at all costs they are actually rendering those children a service, ignoring the penalties that such pressure also demands of the child. Teenage fiction is full of characters whose indifference to material and social advancement is dramatized. Here we have girls at the opposite end of the spectrum of ambition. It is the terror of failure that paralyses them.


It is hard to say whether the author is more to be praised for the technical expertise of her presentation or for her naked courage in daring to tackle this theme. Five stars from this reviewer. RB


Remix HHH


Non Pratt, Walker Books, 304pp, 978-1-40634-770-8, £7.99 pbk


Ruby and Kaz are sixteen-year-old girls who have just finished their GCSE exams. They are fervent fans of a band named Goldentone, and dedicated admirers of the band’s lead singer, Adam Wexler. The band is to perform at a festival called Remix. Ruby and Kaz are granted permission to attend, only because Ruby’s elder brother Lee promises to accompany the girls. Along with them is Owen, Lee’s boyfriend, in whose van they will all travel.


Kaz is excited because at the festival she hopes to run into her ex-boyfriend Tom Selkirk, for whom she is still hankering. Ruby also has an ex, Stuart Garside, who is also (to Ruby’s displeasure) likely to put in an appearance at Remix.


Two questions now pose themselves: which teenager will end up with whom, and whether fame is always a blessing or sometimes a curse?


Up to a point Pratt’s book is a very typical – one might almost say stereotypical – novel of teenage


entanglement. The world of children’s literature probably has enough of such works. However the issue raised alongside the main theme, whether celebrity breeds indifference to human values, narrowly saves the book from an otherwise inevitable fate.


RB Playlist for the Dead HHH


Michelle Falkoff, HarperCollins Children’s Books, 356pp, 978-0-00811-066-6, £7.99 pbk


Sam has only ever had one friend, Hayden; he doesn't need anyone else. Then Hayden kills himself and leaves Sam a playlist instead of a note. Sam cannot make sense of the playlist and its meaning and the strangeness escalates when he starts getting messages from his dead friend’s avatar on the gaming site they both played.


Gradually the story begins to unfold and Sam finds that he wasn’t enough for his friend and Hayden had secrets of his own. As he begins to take in the world around him he sees things differently, and challenges his perceptions of people and his relationships.


This is an engrossing story that peels back layers to reveal the complexity of Hayden’s life. It also reveals the different levels of guilt the people around him feel, including Sam. Everywhere there are secrets and lies that give people motives for their behaviour and guilt surrounding Hayden’s death.


The book neatly sidesteps cliché at many points, and the revelation of who is the voice from beyond is a surprise, but I was a little disappointed at times that the plot didn’t always hold together. Each chapter was headed by the title and artist of songs from the playlist. I guess the combination of my age and the American setting meant I didn’t get the relevance and that annoyed me a bit, but I still enjoyed most of the journey.


CD


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