Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs
This is marketed as a horror book, but in our bookshop it has proved very popular with the teenagers.
Jacob gets on well with his Grandpa, even if he is a bit strange, talking of monsters and children with strange abilities, and an orphanage in Wales. Then Grandpa is savagely killed and Jacob goes to Wales to track down the orphanage and find out the truth of Grandpa's strange life. He uncovers time loops, peculiar children with abilities straight out of old-fashioned circuses, monsters, violent murders - and the truth.
The story starts out well, then loses its appeal slightly at the talk of time loops, and from there slight confusion begins. The author seems very rushed at the end to tie all the loose ends together. A slightly disappointing end to a promising start, but still worth a read.
Department 19 - The Rising
by Will Hill
Part 2 of the vampire-hunting saga. Dracula is on the rise. There is yet another spy within Department 19 feeding back scret ops information to the vampire community, especially Valeri Rusmanov. Two people who Jamie thought he'd never see again are resurfacing. Jamie, Kate, Larissa, Shaun and Admiral Seward all return for more emotional, mental and physical shocks. More gore, more adventure, more terror - more cliffhangers. Brilliant.
Mortal Chaos
by Matt Dickinson
A chain of horrific events is sparked by the flap of a butterfly's wings, the events occurring all over the world. How can such huge devastation be caused by such a minor event?
A brilliant page-turner, helped by short chapters and the author's great descriptive writing.
Fever
by Dee Shulman
Quite a long story - I skimmed through quite a lot of it as I thought it was too long and was taking a while getting to the main story. Sethos is a Roman gladiator in AD152. He loves Livia, but she is betrothed to a powerful man, one not willing to let her go. Eva is a student in 2012. She is super intelligent and loves the sciences. A lecture and show by an American scientist goes drastically wrong, and Eva is unknowingly infected with a deadly virus which kills her but then immediately brings her to life again. Meanwhile, Livia and Sethos are discovered by the betrothed and both murdered, but Sethos wakes uninjured in a parallel world. He finds he can time travel, and journeys to 2012 to find the cause of a fever which killed him in the end and ended the life of many others. He bumps into Eva who looks uncannily like Livia - in fact, is her. She starts to have flashbacks of her previous life as Livia, and realises she and Sethos are destined to be together. Complicated, eh?
The Haunting of Tabitha Grey
by Vanessa Curtis
Tabitha's dad has a new job as Keeper of Weston Manor, so Tabitha, her brother Ben, her mum and dad move into the flat in one of the manor's wings. It seems this move should be a 'fresh start' for the family, but we are not immediately told what has happened. Tabitha's mum is on medication and sleeping pills, Ben never speaks (he is five, Tabs is 15), and the Dad is easily distracted by the pretty young receptionist at the manor, Dawn. However, the manor is haunted, but only Tabitha sees the ghosts, and her dad doesn't believe her. Tabitha is all alone in her nightmare until the security guard, Sid, tells her a bit more about the manor and its past inhabitants. He says he too has seen the ghosts. The lady ghost is after something that Tabitha has and she must let it go. We are then told of the tragedy that occurred a year ago in Tabitha's life, and who she must finally set free.
Edgy, keeps you reading, not too scary.
Ben Kingdom - The Claws of Evil
by Andrew Beasley
Victorian London - but not quite as you might have learnt it in school! Ben's mother died during childbirth, and he, his father and his brother all live in a tiny room in a shared house, with no heating. But what Ben doesn't know yet is that he is the chosen one of a prophecy, and many of the characters around him are actually 'Watchers' looking after him making sure he is not recruited by the evil underground people. Ben comes into possession of an ancient Roman coin which the evil people would also like to have. So begins a cat and mouse chase game, followed by a tug-of-war between the do-gooders and the claws of evil to see who can keep Ben.
The second in The Battles of Ben Kingdom series is out in September 2013.
Dear Dylan
by Siobhan Curham
The story is told through the format of e-mail. Georgie is a fan of Dylan, a teen actor in a soap. She e-mails him a few times and tells him of her love for him and also a little bit about her life. At first, the response e-mail seems automated and generic, but slowly they are addressed to her personally and contain words of wisdom and advice. She is then told that 'Dylan's' e-mails are actually written by his mum Nancy. After the initial shock and anger Georgie and Nancy become e-mates and Nancy is a constant source of comfort for Georgie while she is going through a very traumatic personal life - bad friendships, boyfriends, an abusive step-dad and the loss of her dad in a motorbike accident.
Humorous but melancholic.
