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Title: The New World / The Wide, Wide Sea / Snowscape (Chaos Walking series)Author: Patrick NessEdition: KindleRating: 4/5 – 5/5 Three short stories, designed to be read alongside the Chaos Walking books. They all contain spoilers, so it is really hard to review them properly, but each one adds an extra dimension to the Chaos …
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Title: The Queen of NothingAuthor: Holly BlackEdition: HardbackRating: 5/5 I really don’t know what to say about this book! I’d been waiting for the resolution to the particularly painful cliffhanger since I read The Wicked King in January, and I was thrilled when the publishers decided to launch The Queen of Nothing ahead of schedule. …
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Title: The TollAuthor: Neal ShustermanEdition: PaperbackRating: 3.5/5 I’ve been waiting for the third and final book in the Arc of a Scythe series for twelve months, so when I heard there were copies in Waterstones I threw on my coat and went out in the rain to buy one! Thunderhead, book two in the series, …
Title: Meat MarketAuthor: Juno DawsonEdition: PaperbackRating: 4/5 When sixteen-year-old Jana Novak is scouted by a modelling agency, she thinks she’s going into her new career with her eyes open. She doesn’t think of herself as beautiful, and she accepts that her recruitment is based on her height (5’11”) and her on-trend androgynous looks. Her parents, …
Title: Noughts and CrossesAuthor: Malorie BlackmanEdition: PaperbackRating: 5/5 Wow. I’m all for hard-hitting, challenging stories, but this takes the prize for leaving me breathless and traumatised – and it is brilliantly done. In her introduction, the author describes her ‘desire to tackle the subject of racism head on’ by putting her characters through humiliating situations …
Title: Children of Blood and BoneAuthor: Tomi AdeyemiEdition: PaperbackRating: 4/5 I’ve been looking forward to reading this. ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ is a West-African-inspired fantasy story about Orisha, a kingdom where magic has disappeared, and the Maji who used to practice magic have been wiped out to prevent its return. The story is told …
Title: TraditionAuthor: Brendan KielyEdition: PaperbackRating: 4/5 This is a story about sexual assault at a prestigious US boarding school, and the barriers to reporting and consequences when the abusers are protected by money and reputation. The author could have chosen to sensationalise the subject, or give us a dramatic, terrifying event to examine, but instead …
Title: The Gilded KingAuthor: Josie JaffreyEdition: PaperbackRating: 4/5 Post-apocalyptic vampires! Zombies! Myths and legends of the fall of civilisation, and the origins of the vampire-based society. Book one of Josie Jaffrey’s Sovereign series is an inventive, original, and exciting read. The world (post-apocalyptic Europe) and the scenario (a virus turning people into zombies, and a …
Title: The KingdomAuthor: Jess RothenbergEdition: PaperbackRating: 3/5 The blurb on the back of this book sounded amazing – a YA Westworld-style thriller set in a futuristic theme park. The characters the visitors come to see are robotic ‘fantasists’, assumed by their creators to have no inner lives, thoughts, or feelings. Older models are retired as …
Title: A Curse So Dark and Lonely (Cursebreakers #1)Author: Brigid KemmererEdition: PaperbackRating: 3/5 I wasn’t sure that a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast would be my kind of book, but several people recommended it, so I grabbed a bargain copy and started reading. And to begin with, I still wasn’t sure. Nothing much …
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