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Featured Reviews

Peter Pan

You would struggle to think of a children’s classic more iconic than Peter Pan: since it’s publication in the second decade of the 20th century it has captured the hearts and minds of children (and adults!) and swept us all to the Neverland. So I thought it was time that I read the book, having spent my childhood with Peter and Wendy and the Lost Boys. It may sound odd to say that the novel surprised me with its slightly-old fashioned phrasing and language, since it is well regarded as a classic. And yet, it still sort of startled me; Peter Pan is such a character on the public conscious that even a century after the publication of the novel, he still hasn’t grown up and lives in the language Continue reading →

Geekhood

Alas- how girls beguile geeks. Their attractiveness is a promise of the unatainable- at least, that’s what Archie thinks. Stuck in a rut playing Dungeons and Dragons with his three mates, he wants to explore the subtler pleasures of life: womenkind… There are two ways in which to play a bildungsroman these days: either, it is touching, profound and conveys several of life’s truths, or it parodies teen life and becomes a comedy (the only person I have read who has managed both is John Green). Both are sucessful in their own right: but it’s very hard to strike a chord in between, and Geekhood doesn’t manage it either. Andy Robb chooses to briefly follow the life of fourteen year old Archie, professional geek and social outcast. Archie is the Continue reading →

A Confusion of Princes

Ten million Princes command the Empire’s reach of the universe, ruling colonial human settlements across time and space. Prince Khemri has just come from his conditioning to become a Prince, something he’s always dreamed of. But being a Prince is not what he expected it to be, and the Imperial Mind far less admirable than he was ever told…what will become of him when nine million, nine-hundredthousand nine-hundred and ninety-nine other Princes all want him dead? In the 17 years since Garth Nix’s first novel, Sabriel, was published, he has become somewhat of a household name when it comes to young adult fantasy writings. With good reason- The Old Kingdom series was critically acclaimed, and though his more recent series have been less focussed on young adults and more on Continue reading →

Insurgent (Divergent #2)

After the culling of Abnegation faction, there was only ever going to be one response: revolution. From all sides. And Tris is stuck in the middle. If you asked any blogger what their number one YA dystopian novel of twenty twelve is, I can guarantee that the majority would say “Insurgent“. And why not? The sequel to Divergent, which was published globally in spring 2011, has already garnered over 35,000 pre-orders in the US alone at the time of writing this review (two weeks before publication). This debut trilogy by author Veronica Roth has the potential to become the biggest commercial success of the young adult dystopian genre since The Hunger Games. It’s not really surprising that the Divergent trilogy has gotten this big: there are plenty enough readers looking Continue reading →

172 Hours on the Moon

Do you want to set foot on the moon? Are you between the ages of fourteen and eighteen? Then perhaps you are eligible to enter NASA’s moon return program, and if you’re lucky, you’ll be one of three to spend 172 hours on the moon… Sci-fi, it seems, isn’t too popular with young adult publishers right now. A shame really, as space operas feature some of the most intriguing ideas. 172 Hours on the Moon bucks this trend: translated from the original Norwegian 172 Timer Pa Manen, and though it is not a space opera, it is very much a sci-fi novel with heavy horror elements. The initial concept itself is a good one: send three teenagers to the moon as a PR stunt on NASA’s behalf, keep them there Continue reading →

Partials (Partials #1)

As part of the Hope Act, every woman aged eighteen and over is legally obliged to conceive. None of their children will survive. At a time when dystopia in YA is booming, Partials couldn’t have come at a worse time. Or could it? These days, readers really have to push to find the good dystopia amongst the mediocre, but it’s refreshing to see a novel that isn’t dystopian because it wants to be or because it’s cool but because it’s actually part of the story- vitally so. And it isn’t fully dystopian either- amongst the rubble are the glimmerings of sci-fi adventure, though admittedly not the space-trotting, star-bending sort. Yet. I’m probably not the only one who has been eagerly awaiting Dan Well’s next forage into the world of YA Continue reading →

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick

Perry Stormaire makes a lot of sacrifices to go to Columbia University. So when his mother asks him to sacrifice his band’s first gig in NYC to take his unsociable Lithuanian exchange student Gobi to Prom, he kicks a fuss. Quite understandable, really. Then Prom night turns into something very different when Gobi demands to be taken to NYC and Perry ends up on the heels of a trained assassin who he thought was his exchange sutdent… Any book that has the words “crazy”, “european” and “chick” in the title is sure to attract the attention of any teenage boy- and why not? Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick is, after all, a classic testosterone fueled joy ride of flashy clubs, grimy basements and thugs in large, anonymous black hummers: more Continue reading →

The Fire Ascending (The Last Dragon Chonicles #7)

Before the secrets of the tapestry of the battle of Isenfier can be discovered, first, we must tell of the legendary Agawin, a young boy in the prehistory of time, when dragons still roamed this earth in all their magnificence. He shall tell of the quest for the last dragon, Galen, and his guard high up the mountain peaks of Kasgerden, ready to shed his fire tear and return his auma to the eternal fire of Gaia. But before even that comes his battle with Voss, the evil, Ix-infested premen…not all shall be well. The Last Dragon Chonicles have come a long way from the innocent, mundane tales of The Fire Within, when we first meet David Rain and the Pennykettle family. Perhaps more than any other series, d’Lacey’s creativity Continue reading →

The Killables (The Killables #1)

Evil is a destructive force that must not be allowed to fester the human brain and drive it to madness and corruption. Anyone perceived to display such negative qualities will not be allowed to mix with the general population. Thankfully, a cure has been discovered. By removing the amygdala part of your brain, your evil inhibitions are removed and you are free to live a good and pure life. Sometimes, the cure fails to work- and for those people there is only one solution: to be labelled a “K” and taken away. Only a select few know what that really means. The last few years have seen YA dystopian novels really kick off as a genre, but none more so than this coming year: in which, arguably, the climax of Continue reading →

News Roundup #11

So it’s been a while since the last post, but at least there’s been a lot of news! Enough to say that there’s something for everyone here, I hope. First off, you can read the first three chapters of THE RISING, the sequel to Will Hill’s nasty-vampire series DEPARTMENT 19. The series is well worth reading, and as I said in my review, THE RISING takes things to a whole new level. Readers of this blog will know that I was a huge fan of Moira Young’s BLOOD RED ROAD. It was recently announced that the sequel (to be published in October this year) would be entitled REBEL HEART, and the cover was recently posted on MTV (I’ve included a small version on the left, click for a larger version). Continue reading →

Department 19: The Rising (Department 19 #2)

After the terrible events of Lindisfarne, in which Jamie’s friend and mentor, Frankenstein, topples over a cliff, new, greater, more terrible things are beginning to happen. The remains of the first vampire Dracula have been uncovered by Valeri Rusmanov, and he has been resurrected. It will not take long for him to recover to his full and terrifing strength- when even Department 19, with all their weapons and intelligence, would struggle to destroy him. The clock is ticking. After the taming of vampires in Twilight and other paranormal romances, there has been the hint of a backlash in the YA world. Will Hill’s debut novel, Department 19, is at the forefront of this wave of neo-horror and vampirism, dealing deadly blows of blood, guts and, of course, some very nasty Continue reading →

Nineteen Eighty-four

The year is nineteen eighty-four and Winston Smith lives in the shadow of Big Brother, whose face covers every spare surface of Oceania. Everyone must love Big Brother, everyone must love the Party. Everyone must hate the enemy. But Winston does not: at least not whole-heartedly. It can only be a matter of time. There are two ways in which to judge Orwell’s 1984: as a novel and as an exploration or extended/narrative essay. As the former, it invariably fails- offering little more than a linear plot and relatively un-inviting characters. As the latter, it is a great sucess: exploring freedom, justice and control through the totalitarian rule of Big Brother and the government of Oceania. 1984 is often considered as the father to all modern/contemporary dystopian writing; but in Continue reading →

Julianna Baggot, author of Pure, speaks to ThirstforFiction!

Today, I’m happy to welcome Julianna Baggott, author of the astonishing new post-apocalyptic tale Pure, to ThirstForFiction. She’s the author of several books and Pure is her first YA novel. Follow her on Twitter: @jcbaggot ThirstforFiction: For those who haven’t read Pure, tell us a little about it. Julianna Baggott: Pressia is a 16-year-old living with her grandfather in the back of a demolished barber shop, having survived the detonations and existing in a post-apocalyptic world that’s scarcely populated with those scarred, burned, fused and warped — a strange, ashen, otherworldly world. Pressia is a girl who has to hid in a cabinet — a girl with a doll-head fused to her fist. Partridge is a Pure. He lives in the Dome with his powerful father. He finds out that Continue reading →

BZRK (BZRK #1)

There’s a war going on, right under our noses. In our noses, perhaps- because it’s a war of nanotechnology, a war of brain infiltration. Sadie and Noah are caught right in the middle of the battle- plucked from their lives and plunged into the murky underworld where BZRK operates. They have been inducted to help with the battle. They may lose their lives or their sanity but one thing is for certain: BZRK will change their lives. For the worse. Michael Grant, of course, is the author of the critically acclaimed Gone series, and with a little embarassment I must admit that I have never touched any of his books. Something I regret, having raced through BZRK with the speed of a needy heroin addict looking for his next fix. Continue reading →

Hollow Pike

Lis London is haunted by terrifying dreams at night. She dreams of a wood and a blood filled stream- and she dreams of her death. Every night. She gets little sleep. Then she moves to Hollow Pike- a small village in rural Yorkshire, and things change. Things start to happen: Lis’ best friend-come-worst enemy is the victim of a ritualistic killing. Lis is next- “NOT LONG NOW”. Books shouldn’t be judged by their covers, but invariably, they are. Expectations are reached, opinions are formed and a reading plan-of-action is developed. The evocative and frankly beautiful cover of Hollow Pike had me thinking of a dark, inspired urban fantasy. It oozed originality and quality and inspiration and had a certain secretive feel to it. I’m not sure it fared up to Continue reading →