Messenger of Fear by Michael Grant

A teenage girl wakes up in a desolate and unfamiliar place where she's met by a boy her age, he explains that he is The Messenger of Fear and she is his apprentice. He won't answer her questions or help her remember who she is, he only shows her the deeds of the wicked and demands her help to punish them. Messenger of Fear is exactly the sort of twisted psycho-horror we expect from Michael Grant. It's disturbing and oddly satisfying with some really inventive plot twists. For ages 12+ with strong stomachs.

Published by Harper Collins, September 23, 2015

There will be lies by Nick Lake

Even though she's almost 18, Shelby Cooper lives a really sheltered life, she's homeschooled by her mother and only briefly allowed out on her own to visit the library. But she's extremely clever and questioningly sarcastic and it's these strengths that will see her through the extraordinary changes to come. The real world thriller in this story flows beautifully, the dialogue is so real, the writing is so good and the plot has perfect pacing. Then there are the dream sequences, that will blow your mind. For ages 12+.

Published by Bloomsbury USA January 6, 2015

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

The village of Fairfold exists partly in the modern world and partly in the fairy realm. The villagers have found many ways to live with the terrifying "fair folk", placating them with gifts, making bargains and even taking in a changeling child. But when the sleeping fairy prince escapes from his casket in the darkest part of the forest, the boundary lines are redrawn, especially for those who walk in both worlds. Holly Black is a master storyteller and this modern fairytale does not disappoint. For ages 12+.

Published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers

January 13, 2015

This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Jubilee Chase is a soldier on the war torn planet of Avon, her job is to keep the rebels from destabilizing the terraforming process. Flynn is one of those rebels, he just wants to stay alive while his people dream of self determination. Thrown together and deeply mistrustful of one another, these two uncover an unbelievable secret that could kill everyone on the planet. 

In this follow up to These Broken Stars, we find ourselves on a different planet, with different characters, until the Laroux corporation rears it's ugly head again. Sexy, military sci-fi (yes, those can go together). For ages 12+.

Published by Disney Hyperion December 23rd, 2014

Egg & Spoon by Gregory Maguire

Egg & Spoon, is like The Prince and the Pauper on a train, but with girls, in Tsarist Russia. 

It's a reinvention of Baba Yaga as a wisecracking time traveler bound by her own peculiar set of social conventions. (Doctor Who much?)

It's a very Russian tale of tortured intellectuals, hunger and fear.

It's a very Russian tale of imperial pomp and courtly excess in which a Faberge egg can be lost in a treasure room and life sized Matryoshka Dolls can be discarded to float down the Volga and find lives of their own.

It's a cavalcade of Russian myth from Baba Yaga's chicken legged house to the Ice Dragon of the North via The Firebird.

It might also be a parable about global warming and positive action and the redemptive power of kindness.

In short, it is epic in scope, rich in everything, funny, clever and thought provoking.

Just read it, it's extraordinary.

Egg & Spoon is being marketed as a teen book, but there's not much here that an advanced middle grade reader couldn't handle. Although be advised it may put them on the road to Dostoyevsky.

Published by Candlewick September 2014

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Twin siblings, one boy and one girl, each have half the story of a family tragedy which has left them emotionally distant from one another. We hear this story at different times in their lives. Noah is 13 years old, but Jude is 16. Their voices are authentic and raw with loss and fear. Noah and Jude are both artist's and it's their development as artists that leads to their eventual reconnection and redemption. In the meantime, their artistic sensibilities allow us to see things with their strangely altered perceptions.

This book is an incredible work of magical realism with a strong emphasis on nascent sexuality and a plot that you will never fully foresee.

A truly beautiful book for teenagers.

Published by Penguin September 16, 2014

Into the Grey by Celine Kiernan

Pat and Dom are 16 year old twins in Ireland in 1974. When their senile grandmother burns down the family home they are forced to relocate to the seaside holiday cottage they used to rent for a week every summer. But the house is not the same as they remember, it's rundown, creepy and the boys and their young sister suffer from horrific nightmares. Then one night their nightmares become hideously real and one of the twins is lost in the grey. His brother must unravel family history and supernatural mysteries to bring his brother back.

Into the Grey is a literary ghost story which is extremely creepy without being sensationalist. The characters are well rounded and believable. I particularly loved that the elderly grandmother's dementia is an important plot device.

This is not an easy book, it's really scary and the historical context may require some additional research. But it is absolutely worth it.

Published by Candlewick August 26, 2014

The Young World by Chris Weitz

A mysterious sickness has wiped out anyone not in the midst of puberty and it continues to kill people as they reach the age of 18. A tribe of teens living in Washington Square think they may have found a clue to the cause of the sickness and five key members set out from the safety of the square to investigate.

Of course, this is just to set the scene for a roadtrip through post-apocalyptic New York. It's all here, the tech cult who live in the library, the hippy kids ominous neverending drum circle, a gang of misogynistic jocks who seem to run the town and the smart black kids who actually do. It's like all the cliques of high school went truly tribal.

This is not a new plot, there are references to Lord of the Flies throughout and there are many parts that remind me of Gone by Michael Grant. But what I love about The Young World is that it is so simple. Weitz has limited himself to the least possible number of survivors (there are no adults, but also no little kids), each tribe has a really simple set of rules and the journey of discovery allows us to see all of them. It's pure and simple. 

Of course if you're looking for some deep truths or a satisfying end, you're looking in the wrong place. This is fast, violent, a little disturbing and strangely fun. 

Published by Little Brown Books July 27, 2014

Hexed by Michelle Krys

A teenage cheerleader, suffering from falling popularity discovers that she's a witch. Not only that, but her family has been charged with protecting an essential magical book, which was recently stolen. Add in a hot young bad boy warlock who's not as helpful as he thinks he is and some seriously creepy bad guys. The result is a really fun book with great dialogue and a truly bizarre prom.

I enjoyed this mostly (I think) because it reminds me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, although thankfully, there are no vampires.

For ages 12+

Published by Doubleday Canada, June 10, 2014

Review first published in Meet YA@DIESEL newsletter June, 2014

Pills and Starships by Lydia Millet

 It's the near future, past the "Tipping Point" when global warming can no longer be reversed. Seventeen year old Nat's parents have elected to die to ease the carbon footprint of mankind. They've bought a contract which allows a corporation to manage their death during one Final Week of luxury in Hawaii. Nat takes the mood altering pharmaceuticals on offer and mocks the meaningless language used by their resident therapist. But her hacker brother Sam has been doing some research and he has a different plan.

Gorgeous, literary sci-fi, in which our decaying world is fully realized and not too far from reality. It is a very bleak vision, but one with a hopeful ending. Definitely a book for independent thinkers. 

For ages 12+

Published by Akashic Books June 10, 2014

Review first published in Meet YA@DIESEL newsletter, July 2014

The Art of Secrets by James Klise

Saba Khan is a good student, a fierce tennis player and a creature of habit, but her life is destroyed when her family's home is the target of an arson attack. The family are unharmed, but the fire leaves them with nothing. The community at Saba's exclusive Chicago school pull together to help her family by organizing a fundraising auction. Events take a turn for the truly strange when a highly valued work of outsider art is found, donated and stolen in the run up to the auction.


The Art of Secrets is told in the voices of the main protagonists, so we read diary excerpts, emails, text messages and press interviews as we put the story together and assemble the clues. And there are plenty of mysteries to solve here; who burned down the Khan's home. Where did the paintings go? Why is the class president suddenly so interested in Saba? And what is the Principal up to?



A clever young adult mystery from the award winning author of Love Drugged. The story is fun with plenty of surprises and an emphasis on the theme of the Outsider, in art, in school and in life.

Published April 22, 2014 by Algonquin Books

The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy by Kate Hattemer

Selwyn Academy is an Arts School, where the pupils excel in dance, drama, art and music. Some of those pupils are stars of a reality tv show called "For Art's Sake" which is filmed at the school.

Our hero Ethan is a mediocre trumpet player and has no confidence in himself or his ability to draw. He is not one of the reality tv stars and neither are any of his small group of friends.

An English class on Ezra Pound incites Ethan and his friends to a secret rebellion against the administration and the tv production company who may or may not be controlling them.

This all seems like an unlikely set of circumstances and yet the characters really hold it together. There's a great mix of different outlooks from this group of friends which underpins the theme of the perceptions of reality. A theme which works so well, in fact, that the three different beginnings and three different endings all make perfect sense.

I really enjoyed this book, a youthful stirring of dissent makes a refreshing change from kids trying to survive in alternate worlds or kids battling apathy in this one. 


Ages 12+

Published April 8, 2014 by Knopf

We Were Liars by E Lockhart

Normally, a book review would begin with a summary of the plot. But I can't offer you that for We Were Liars, because each reader will come to understand this book at different times in its narrative. I must be careful.

Here's what I can tell you. We Were Liars is about three highly privileged wealthy teenagers and their one less wealthy (and less Aryan) friend. Every Summer they holiday, with their parents and younger siblings on a private island owned by their Grandfather. The four friends are The Liars. They are not likable people and their families are occasionally revolting. But we have some sympathy for our narrator Cadence, who suffers from crippling headaches. She had an accident at the island in the Summer before her fifteenth birthday, but she doesn't remember anything about it and her memory of that whole Summer is fragile.

We Were Liars contains some of the most heart crushingly beautiful prose I've ever read in a Young Adult novel. Some lines are poetic and float free of the standard constraints of the page. Other parts are told as short fairy tales. Sometimes there is circling repetition. Sometimes it reads like a teenager's diary. Incredibly, it all comes together perfectly. I was continually astonished by the technical genius of E Lockhart's writing.

This is a book I would recommend to anyone over the age of 15 and I do mean teens and adults alike. We Were Liars is a sophisticated novel that deserves to find its audience.


Published May 13, 2014 by Delacourt Press

Half Bad by Sally Green

Nathan is a half blood, the son of a White Witch mother and a Black Witch father and he doesn't belong in either of their worlds. Barely literate and unable to sleep indoors, he also cannot pass as human among the Fain, those who don't even realize that witchcraft is under their noses.

He has been abandoned by his father and blames himself for his mother's suicide, he is loathed by his half sister and beaten and bullied by Whites his own age. Meanwhile the Council of White Witches is determined to control his fate, by force. It doesn't take Nathan long to understand that he must make his own way, be his own moral compass and his own best chance of survival.

There is a lot of hype about this book, but to my mind, that hype is justified. There is so much to love in Half Bad. The language, effortless pacing, contemporary setting and tantalizing hints of the story yet to come are all marks of quality this book carries with ease. Nathan's voice is street smart and tough as hell, but he has a strong moral code, (I suspect this is the source of the Hunger Games comparisons).

My favorite thing about this book is the treatment of magic. Magic is something subtle in this world, no flying cars or magical dragons. Instead, magic is described as a gift, different from witch to witch in type and strength, there are healers, potion makers, shape shifters and some with less common gifts. It makes magic seem more believable and is an obvious limit to the extent of any one character's power.

A teen book with guts and heart, plenty of action and some touching moments. Bring on Book Two!

Age 14+

Published March 4th, 2014 by Penguin

The Tyrant's Daughter by J C Carleson

Until recently, Laila and her family lived in a palace in an unnamed a middle eastern country. Her father was king and although they lived under threat from violent rebel factions, Laila believed her father was a good man in a difficult situation. A few weeks ago he was shot dead in a coup and Laila was removed to America by the CIA. Now she lives in a small apartment in Washington DC, with her hysterical mother and younger brother, "the king of nowhere".

Laila has to make adjustments to her world view, not just to fit in at the local high school, but also to make sense of the father she loved and the tyrant she now knows he was.

Her mother is intent on taking back the country, making deals with the CIA and rebel factions back home. But this all occurs in the background as Laila recreates herself as a Western teenager. She learns to drive, makes out with a boy and goes to a school dance. But Laila knows she wants to go home and after spying on her mother, she thinks she may know how.

This is a taut and clever story about the innocent and not so innocent families behind the news reports. Laila's perspective not only shifts, but actually stretches to accommodate all the different people she needs to be. The ending is very satisfying and surprisingly hopeful.

An interesting and different coming of age novel, with fascinating insights into international relations.

Ages 12+

Published February 11, 2014 by Knopf Books for Young Readers

Review first published in Diesel, a bookstore's Newsletter March 2014

Jungle of Bones by Ben Mikaelsen

Dylan is, by his own admission “a screw up”. He switched off after his Dad died reporting on some foreign war and it's easier for Dylan to stay angry. 

He steals a car and drives donuts through a local farmer's field, then ends up in a jail cell overnight. It seems as though his Mom has given up on him and he's packed off to Uncle Todd's house. Todd is an ex-Marine, so Dylan's Summer becomes a series of training regimens and bad cooking. But Uncle Todd has big plans, he's taking Dylan to the jungles of Papua New Guinea to search for the crash site of Dylan's grandfather's WWII fighter plane. Dylan is a tough kid, he thinks he can handle the jungle, but what he can't handle is being told what to do and that just might kill him.

It is difficult to write a review of this book without giving away the plot and there is so much more to this plot than just a screw up kid finding himself in the jungle. Ben Mikaelsen is also the author of Touching Spirit Bear, so it's not surprising to find some mystical content, what is surprising is the direction it comes from. Jungle of Bones is also about war and how life and death circumstances change all perspectives. 

The writing is breathtaking, there are incredible descriptions of the jungle, the complex character of Uncle Todd is written in the negative spaces of what is left unsaid and Dylan is utterly believable in his knowing stupidity.

An adventure story, a travelogue, a work of anthropology, history and humanity. Stunning.

Ages 12+

Published January 28, 2014 by Scholastic

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

It's 1986 and although the technology is different all the other High School nightmares are just the same. 

Park is a half Korean boy trying to stay out of trouble and unnoticed at a white suburban school. He's found that the best way to do this is to plug himself into his Walkman. Eleanor is already in trouble in a house which will never feel like home and a town she doesn't know. Eventually they will become champions for one another. But first, they will fall in love.

The book is told alternately in the voices of Eleanor or Park. It's immediately apparent that there are key differences between these two people's perceptions of the same thing. A reoccurring theme in young adult novels, perhaps because it is such a fundamental lesson for us all.

Using two narrative voices also gives us access to both our protagonists' home lives. And that's where it gets darker, because although Park has an unconventional family, Eleanor's circumstances are downright ugly and getting worse every day.

Happily, the story is redemptive, but not because teen love saves the day, because these young people save themselves, together.

This is a truly extraordinary book, written so true to life, that all the humor, fear, anger and confusion make perfect sense. I love the music references, I love the characters and I love the author's blog.

If you are a teenager or have ever been a teenager, read this book. If you have ever been in love, read this book. If you have ever been afraid, read this book. 

I hope I'm making my point strongly enough.

Age 13 +

Published February 26, 2013 by St Martin's Griffin

More Than This by Patrick Ness

More Than This begins with the death of its teenage protagonist and gets stranger from there. The book is set in a seemingly abandoned and desperately creepy landscape, as detailed as it is desolate. But this is so much more than just another dystopian adventure. Excellent pacing and realistic relationships counterweight the inherent paranoia in this perception jolting and genre busting novel. 

Hands down my favorite young adult book of 2013, not just for the writing, but also for the no holds barred approach to content.

Great for teens and grown-ups who enjoy psychological thrillers and sci-fi.

Published September 10, 2013 by Candlewick

Doctor Who: The Vault: Treasures from the First 50 Years By Marcus Hearn

(I'm probably going to pick up some criticism for including this book in a children's book review blog. After all, there are plenty of adult Doctor Who fans and this is an expensive coffee table book. However, the more middle grade and young adult fiction I read, the more Doctor Who references I find. From The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider to The Hocus Pocus Hotel by Michael Dahl it seems that authors can't help slipping in a reference to the weeping angels or how bow ties are cool. I can only add to the weight of my argument with my own experiences. When I was 11 years old, I started to write a book just like this. I didn't get far and my picture of K9 didn't look quite right. If I had seen this book then, I would have begged for it until I was TARDIS blue in the face.)

I first saw this book across a crowded trade floor, the TARDIS blue caught my eye and the large square padded format guided me in. Then I opened the book and fell in love.

The BBC is currently celebrating the 50 years since the first episode of Doctor Who was aired. There are many introductory books out there now for those of you who have seen a few episodes and want to know a bit more, but this is not one of them. Doctor Who: The Vault is an official guide, making full use of the BBC archives and most importantly, it's a book for Doctor Who fans.

The book is arranged year by year, with hundreds of high quality color production photographs, concept drawings, design sketches, models and close ups of props and memorabilia. I have been watching Doctor Who for 30 years and there was plenty in this book I'd never seen before. There is also plenty to read, lots of interviews and stories that span even the years when no tv episodes were made.

I'm not saying you need to have seen all the episodes (actually you can't watch all of them, many of the original recordings are lost or badly degraded), but if you get excited when there's a new episode, you know your Zygons from your Autons and you have a healthy respect for the show's incredible history, then this is what you want for your Birthday.

Published October 1, 2013 by Harper Design

Review first published in Stalks from DIESEL, a bookstore December 2013