Metawars - Fight for the Future by Jeff Norton

Metawars - Fight for the Future
by Jeff Norton

It's unfortunate that I read this one after Insignia because so many of the details are the same. Jonah lives in the real world but, like all the other people, he plugs himself into a virtual world where everything is nice and pleasant. That is, until a war starts brewing between the Guardians and the Millenials. The latter want to take over the virtual world and rule it with one governor, whereas the Guardians would rather have a notion of 'free rule' where everybody governs. Both Jonah's parents have been killed as a consequence of the war, so he teams up with his dad's best friend from RAF days, Axel, and his daughter, Sam, to help save the virtual world - the Metasphere - from the clutches of Matthew Granger and his cronies.

This is the first in a four-part Metawars saga.

Insignia by S.J. Kincaid

Insignia
by S.J. Kincaid

This has the makings of a good story, but it takes ages for anything of substance to actually happen, and the book was far too long - 400 pages. The blurb on the back of the book says it is about virtual reality wars in the sky, so I was expecting a lot of war action, but it was rather lacking. It basically follows the story of a teenager who is picked because of his skills on virtual reality games (he even attends a virtual reality school because he moves around so much with his dad), and he is recruited into a school where the pupils are trained to become fighters in the virtual war that is taking place. They all have implants put into their brains so they can be hooked up and programs downloaded into them to speed up the learning process. It seems this young boy has a very rare talent for accessing high security programs using his mind and brain, and can bypass firewalls to get to information. A lot of technical and computer speak abounds! Shame the book wasn't halved!

This is the first in a trilogy. The second, Vortex, is out July 2nd 2013.

Summertime of the Dead by Gregory Hughes

Summertime of the Dead
by Gregory Hughes


Very violent - at times gruesomely so - the story is set in Japan. Yukio's best friends - the twins Miko and Hiroshi - have committed suicide because they have brought dishonour upon their family by becoming involved (unwillingly) in a Mafia gang. Yukio vows to get revenge and trains hard in his Samurai sword fighting. What starts out as revenge turns into a mad frenzy of cold-blooded murder - of both goodies and baddies. Yukio is slowly being consumed by evil. His young cousin, who he calls the Lump, sees beauty in everything and can sense the badness building in him. She manages to calm him with her simplistic views of the world, and for a while he desists in his evil attacks. Soon the Lump has to return home though, and the evil returns to Yukio. Needless to say, he is soon caught and arrested and committed to a prison hospital for the insane.

I started out not liking the writing - the author has an annoying love of exclamation marks. But it is obvious he loves Japan, its people and its culture (especially Samurai sword fighting!) The last couple of chapters are very moving - everyone that Yukio has known in his life has died and he wonders whether if he had not done some things, they would still be alive now.

Gregory Hughes is also the author of Unhooking the Moon, which won the Booktrust Teenage Prize in 2010.

A World Between Us by Lydia Syson

A World Between Us
by Lydia Syson

This felt more like an easy-read adult novel than a teenage one. I'm not sure this would be a commercial success in the teenage market. (The cover is very old-fashioned and rather awful which may not help.) That said, I quite enjoyed the story. It is London 1936, and Felix is a trainee nurse living with her mum and brother Neville, whose best friend George is in love with Felix, of which she is at first totally unaware. Felix gets caught up in a march of supporters of the Spanish Republicans - it is the start of the Spanish Civil War. She bumps into Nat, who is off to Spain as a Brigader, planning to help fight against the Spanish rebels. They instantly fall for each other, and once he has left she decides to do the same, and escapes to Spain to help in the army hospitals. However, George finds out where she has gone, and he too follows her out there to serve. Felix has to decide whether to follow her head or her heart, and one near-death experience almost helps her decide.

At Yellow Lake by Jane McLoughlin

At Yellow Lake
by Jane McLoughlin


A good suspense thriller which peters out and disappoints slightly at the end.

Etta, Jonah and Peter are all brought together at Yellow Lake cabin via various means and ways. Etta has been kidnapped by her mum's drug-dealing boyfriend. She escapes from the car after nearly colliding with Peter, a British boy who's hitchhiking to Yellow Lake to bury a lock of his mother's hair who has died from cancer, and who actually owned the cabin he's headed for. They come across Jonah, a young lad who's trying to 'find' his Red Indian heritage, and who has built himself a wigwam, forages for food and for healing plants, dresses in a loin cloth, and prays to his American Indian predecessors. He is camping out in woods next to the cabin. The three find themselves barricaded in the cabin, with murderous drug dealers trying to get in. Will they get out alive?

Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher

Ketchup Clouds
by Annabel Pitcher

From the author of the very sad but great My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece, this is another tear-jerker - I loved it. It was moving, and true to life when describing teenage relationships. I just loved Aaron's character and, with everyone else who reads this, wished that 'Zoe'/Alice would confess her mistake and be with him from the beginning.

'Zoe' is telling her story in the format of letters to a prisoner on Death Row in Texas, partly because she feels the same guilt as him - he has murdered his wife and a neighbour in a fit of jealous rage, and she has caused a terrible accident due to her feelings for two brothers. It's about letting go of your guilt and moving on with your life.

Definitely teenage for bad language.

If you like this, you'll also like The Fault in our Stars by John Green, Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler, and Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

This book has recently won the Waterstones Childrens Book Prize 2013, and deservedly so!

Trash by Andy Mulligan

Trash
by Andy Mulligan

Raphael lives in a slum and works on a rubbish tip, rifling through daily trash to find anything worth keeping or selling. One day he and his friend Gardo find a bag, inside which is money, ID, a key, and a letter and map. The letter is addressed to someone in prison, and when googled, the photo ID belongs to a man who the police are after. The boys find themselves mixed up in a case of government fraud, murder and police pay-offs. Will they discover the truth before they are killed?

A great book detailing not just the adventure but also life for the boys living in boxes or underground with rats, and the inescapable work of rubbish rifling for the rest of their life. Makes you feel so lucky to be living in a civilised western society.

Andy Mulligan is also the author of the great Ribblestrop series for 9-12, set in a school for a colourful bunch of characters!