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Winterkill
Emmeline’s life in the settlement is pretty restricted under the rule of the Councillors, who enforce hefty punishments for anyone who’s seen making ‘wayward’ actions that might endanger the settlement – including death – for really rather petty behaviours. It soon becomes clear that there’s more than a little corruption at the top as they … Continue reading
All the Bright Places
I firmly believe the stories we tell are often cathartic processes that help us to deal with the intimacies of being human – and nothing is more intimate or human than loving and dying. Romeo and Juliet, Looking for Alaska, All the Bright Places. They will never get old because every generation struggles with not-living. … Continue reading
The Last Leaves Falling
You’ll remember the ‘ALS Ice Bucket Challenge’ that took social media by storm this summer; it was an unmissable and serendipitious collision of social sharing and charitable giving. In fact, you may have participated yourself, and you probably donated to a charity that helps those people with ALS (or Motor Neurone Disease in the UK), … Continue reading
Norwegian Wood
Norwegian Wood might be most famous as the song by the Beatles, but there’s also a Japanese book to which it lends its title. Considered the book that everyone in Japan has read, Norwegian Wood is what author MG Harris calls Murakami’s most Western novel, and I’m inclined to agree. It would be easy to … Continue reading
Prince of the Icemark
Stuart Hill returns to the Kingdom of the Icemark in Prince of the Icemark, a setting that first bought him many favourable reviews and engaged readers in 2005 with the release of The Cry of the Icemark. It’s chronological successor, though in terms of story it is its predecessor, Prince of the Icemark retains the … Continue reading
The Whispering Skull
Stroud’s second ghost-busting adventure shifts its focus from setting the scene to some exciting new (and dangerous…) tasks for Lockwood & Co, psychical investigators. A somewhat predictable ending is slightly bitter but the book remains an enjoyable read as it charts Lockwood, Lucy and George’s adventures to reclaim a stolen relic that possesses immense power. … Continue reading
Lobsters
If the American coming-of-age story is that of road trips, crazy house parties and bigot-induced tragedies then its British counterpart is surely the awkward fumbling and grumbling that make Lobsters such a hilarious tale of love at first sight. Tackling the rom-com genre by beating it with banality, both Ellen and Ivison manage to craft … Continue reading
Red Rising
We haven’t seen the end of dystopian fiction yet but, as Red Rising attests, the genre might be shifting its ground to new pastures: science fiction. Taking place on Mars in a universe where the solar system has been colonised for centuries, sci-fi elements remain rather subversive as Brown chooses instead to focus on the … Continue reading
Sand
Howey has quickly cemented himself as one of the best young adult fiction writers currently around thanks to the critical success of his Wool trilogy. Sand is his latest novel since then and marks him out as a truly talented author capable of crafting both great stories and wonderful characters. ‘This is the hiss of … Continue reading
We Were Liars
E. Lockhart’s much-anticipated, much-hyped We Were Liars is a bit like an Agatha Christie detective novel, in which the crime slowly gets recounted until, finally, everyone understands. Except, in this case, the crime is a tragedy that befalls the prodigious and in-fighting Sinclair family; and Cadence cannot remember what happened. The truth of the tragedy … Continue reading
I Predict a Riot
As part of her I Predict a Riot blogtour, Catherine Bruton talks to ThirstForFiction about “Killing Your Darlings” – ie. killing your own characters as an author! Catherine Bruton’s third novel moves its gaze to more serious situations than her previous novels We Can Be Heroes and Pop!, setting its story in the midst of … Continue reading
Winger
So I guess Winger is the second fantastic Andrew Smith novel to be published in the UK. It’s Ryan Dean’s story: the story of his first (and only) term at the euphemistically-named ‘Opportunity Hall’ at Pine Mountain, a boarding school in the States for rich American teenagers. At fourteen years old, he’s the youngest kid … Continue reading
Two Boys Kissing
It’s taken almost a year but David Levithan’s acclaimed and (not very) controversial Two Boys Kissing has finally landed in the UK, thanks to Egmont’s Electric Monkey imprint (who, as it happens, have recently published some cracking stuff). For some reason, Levithan just isn’t as widely read as in the States, or more to the … Continue reading
Raging Star
To celebrate the release of Raging Star we’ve got a great interview with Moira herself. The GIVEAWAY is at the bottom of the review. Moira Young’s Raging Star, the third and final novel in the Dustlands Trilogy, has finally hit the shelves and with that a final sigh of relief for all those who were … Continue reading
Trouble
When you know an author personally, it’s always a little scary to review their new book for fear that it’s a really terrible book or you just didn’t get on with it. Thankfully, this is not the case with Non Pratt’s Trouble, a story of sex, love and teenage pregnancy. (It’s about a whole lot … Continue reading
Half Bad
Publishers have been searching for “the next Harry Potter” for years but finally a worthy successor has been found in Sally Green’s Half Bad – and one that, whilst it shares themes with that Great British export, is also its own superb story. Some of the links between the two are easily made – from … Continue reading