A Good Read
The Lie by C L Taylor
Jane Hughes is 30, lives in rural Wales with her boyfriend, and works for a local animal sanctuary. Reliable and dependable she seems to have a perfect life. Until one day a letter arrives at work and suddenly the secret she has been hiding for the last 5 years threatens everything.
Jane Hughes does not exist.
This is a gripping thriller. It’s a little slow to get going, but as it gathers pace it is almost guaranteed you will not want to put it down. Taylor manages to capture in great detail the excitement of a holiday with your friends to exotic places where time stands still and you have the freedom to relax: the novelty of travelling without your parents. In this case Emma and her friends travel to Nepal to a yoga and meditation retreat: a girlie trip to help one of them get over a break-up. But the idyll is soon revealed to be anything but, and before the end of the novel two of the party will be dead.
Exactly how and why is ‘the lie’ of the title. Or is it? Is ‘the lie’ instead referring to the need to convince ourselves that life is good, and normal? Emma is living ‘the lie’, through her assumed identity of Jane. No one would ever guess what had happened to her which means the letter can only have come from one person.
Beast Quest: Arcta the mountain giant by Adam Blade This is a short novel, aimed at readers aged 7 and upwards.
It belongs to the hugely successful ‘Beast Quest’ series. It follows a somewhat formulaic construction but bear with me.
In this particular story (the third book in a series which numbers over 100) returns to the mythical kingdom of Avantia where an evil spell has been cast by Malvel the Dark Wizard on six beasts. An ancient prophecy tells of a young boy, an unlikely hero, who will rise up and defeat the beasts, freeing Avantia from the threat it faces.
Has that hero been found? A good wizard Aduro believes so, and he is a boy called Tom. And so Tom is sent out to try to destroy the beasts. We meet him at the start of this book, having already destroyed Ferno the Fire Dragon and Sepron the Sea Serpent, as he continues on his travels with his horse, Storm. He is joined by his best friend Elenna and her wolf, Silver. As the story opens a strange rock avalanche breaks up a convoy of caravans. Tom encounters Jack, a young child out with his father who is a trader and is told that the avalanche was not cause by any natural source, but by a Giant who lives in the mountain.
Can Tom and Elenna complete their quest or will Avantia remain doomed and cursed?
I recommend this novel as it only 112 pages long, and is perfect for encouraging reluctant readers, (it is aimed particularly at boys) to read. The setting is typical of older boys’ books, with set pieces which will be familiar to readers of Tolkien and other fantasy adventure stories. Short chapters and a certain poetic style of language make this an easy read for young children. It’s a great introduction to this extensive genre of novels. So if you have a boy who could be described as a ‘reluctant reader’ then this could be the perfect book series for him.
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