Scythe, by Neal Shusterman.                  Young Adults.

 

     

       This is not a recent publication, but it is the first book of a trilogy that I absolutely HAVE to finish.  Dystopian fiction, especially for Young Adults, is now a popular genre, especially with the advent of ‘The Hunger Games’ and it is a fitting reflection of the current turmoil and uncertainty that rules our world.  In ‘Scythe’, Neal Shusterman takes us on an all-too-realistic journey into the near future, where mankind has evolved far enough to have eliminated war, disease, hunger and its attendant misery:  no-one dies any more because all the usual ways to die have been eliminated;  instead, on a percentage basis according to Old World statistics, people are visited by a Scythe, a person specifically selected to kill them – whether they want to die or not.  There is no argument.  It shall be done, regardless of the protests and sometimes rebellion from the chosen one’s family:  it is their time.  Whether they agree or not.

            Scythe Faraday has taken on two new apprentices, even though it is usual to train only one at a time, but he is impressed with both of them for differing reasons:  Rowan happened to be nearby when his high-school classmate was ‘called’ into the Principal’s Office.  He was shocked to witness the boy’s death (called Gleaning), even though he tried to intervene it wasn’t ‘his time’.  He was trying to compose something empathetic to tell the boy’s parents when he is horrified to find his parents have been visited by Scythe Faraday:  if they will apprentice Rowan to the Scythe, then they will have immunity from death too – for a year.  Bye, Rowan!

            Citra, a pupil at the same high school, has also been chosen for her fearlessness at standing up to Scythe Faraday when he visited her family’s apartment, requesting dinner as he waited for their neighbour to come home.  (Scythes customarily eat wherever and whenever they like, for free.  Who would be brave enough to charge them?)  She had so many scathing things to say to him that he admired her courage.  Now, look where that has got her!  And one thing that unites Rowan and Citra irrevocably:  neither of them want to kill anyone, much less learn the myriad ways of death that Scythe Faraday wants to teach them.  It’s great that they have earned immunity for their families (for one year), but at what cost to themselves?

            Neal Shusterman has constructed a chillingly real future world, cleverly combining the former glories of Old World History with a frightening shift in the moral compass of the New.  Let’s hope he’ll never be right!  FIVE STARS.       

 

           

 

Before the Rising, by Keryn Powell.                Young Adults.

 

 

           How many visitors to the beautiful New Zealand East Coast city of Napier have had their photos taken next to the lovely statue of Pania of the Reef, legendary sea-nymph who defied her people for love of Karitaki, a handsome human, only to have her love betrayed and tragedy ensue, but not before having a child.  In Maori legend the descendants of this union still exist, as Keryn Powell’s debut novel attests, and it is up to them to prevent their world from certain destruction.

            And that’s not so easy when you don’t even know you’re a descendant!

            Eighteen-year-old Rebecca lives with her adoptive mother Mary, a midwife at the local hospital.  She has just finished high school and is trying to decide what career options appeal the most – hopefully, something connected with the sea, for which she has a great love.  She is excited too, because her best friend Polly’s older Marine Biologist brother Martin is back in Napier trying to finish his thesis for his PhD;  he has asked her to be his assistant for a week as he studies pods of dolphins and other sea life on a chartered boat – how lucky is that?  What a great start to the holidays, and Rebecca cannot deny that Martin is even more interesting than the creatures of which he is so knowledgeable – until she realises that another ‘crew-member’ is Jessica, Perfect Jessica, she of the gorgeous looks and figure, and Rebecca’s long-time bully and tormentor. 

            It will obviously be another of those weeks.  Rebecca will just have to bite the bullet:  so much for her timid feelings of attraction – Jessica will be all over Martin – he doesn’t stand a chance!

            But the very opposite happens, and Rebecca finds that her natural swimming and diving skills in the water, especially near Pania’s reef, introduce her to a people she has never known before until they decided to reveal themselves:  her own Sea-people, relatives of whom she would never have been aware, had they not shown themselves.  And they revealed their identity because the world as we have always known it, is in mortal danger – from the Rising.  The implacable, unstoppable rising of the sea-level everywhere, resulting in terrible coastal destruction and huge loss of life, thanks to unscrupulous trickery and misinformation by WeatherTech, a huge international profit-driven firm now established in New Zealand:  only Rebecca as a direct descendant of Pania, holds the key (which she doesn’t even know she has) to averting tragedy.

            Ms Powell takes us on a wild but importantly credible ride with the Sea-people, Kaitiaki (guardians) of an environment the human race has so shamefully desecrated.  And her great affection for Napier and its still-beautiful coast and wondrous wild-life shines;  she has done her city proud.  Not every ‘t’ is crossed at the conclusion of this great story – can this mean there will be a sequel?  Hope so!  FOUR STARS.         

 

Violet Black, by Eileen Merriman.                   Young Adults.

 

            Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand:  the time is the foreseeable future, and a huge new Measles pandemic has swept the region, infecting children and teenagers with deadly accuracy.  Scientific modelling so far has revealed a shocking 95% fatality rate, leaving myriads of families grieving for those they have lost, and the 5% who survive find it a long, hard road back to recovery – until ….. until some of the few survivors realise that they are equipped with a frightening new knowledge:  they can read the thoughts of those who are speaking to them.  They know what those people are thinking – whether they want to know or not!

            Violet Black is such a survivor:  seventeen years old and thankful to be alive, she is nevertheless frightened of her new ability, especially when she learns that all is not above board with the people who are managing her recovery.  In her search for others who share her ‘gift’ she meets teenager Ethan Wright in hospital and, aside from the fact that they find each other irresistible, it becomes obvious that certain ‘authorities’ are very interested in their new-found talents and want to exploit them for their own mysterious purposes.

            This is the first book of an action-packed trilogy that Young Adult author Eileen Merriman has written, and international terrorism is the theme:  it eventually becomes clear – after hair-raising kidnappings and misunderstandings – that the shadowy ‘Foundation’ who, after snatching them from hospital has published false death notices for them, all supposedly suffering relapses of the dreaded M-fever – are the Good Guys:  they want to harness this new talent to monitor people’s thoughts by sending (with intensive training) the Thought recruits to infiltrate various worrisome Far-Right and Ultra-National Groups and Cults, thereby learning in advance of plans for violence and murder.

            All fine in theory, until the first mission:  Violet is sent to Germany – not with Ethan as she’d hoped, but with ex-soldier Phoenix:  they are to get as close as they can to a couple who have a handicapped child – a couple who are planning terrible violence.  Sure enough, everything turns pear-shaped, Violet is seriously wounded by someone not calculated for at all, and tragedy overtakes her in her efforts to stay alive.

            Ms Merriman has done herself and her readers proud here – I already have Book Two ‘Black Wolf’ lined up next. An extra treat, quite apart from the clever plotting and suspenseful action, is her view of Auckland in the not-so-distant future:  everyone gets around in Zubers – and they appear to be free.  That’s my kind of transport!  FOUR STARS.   

 

Falling into Rarohenga, by Steph Matuku.    Young Adults.

           

            Tui and Kae are twins, and contrary to all the stories we hear about the close bonds of twins, that happy state doesn’t apply in this case:  Tui is a school prefect at the small-town high school they attend;  she’s a swot and gets consistently high marks in everything, the object of which is to get away from this little nothing place, get to the big city and eventually cover herself with academic glory.  Kae is just the opposite – who cares about good results, as long as he has his mates – and his ukulele, the source of his biggest pleasure, for if there’s one thing Kae worships, it’s music, and composing his own songs:  music is the most important thing in his life, certainly not his snobby sister, who is Nigel No-Friends because she’s too smart.

            Until they arrive home from school (fighting all the way) one day, to discover that their beloved Mum, their mainstay through the divorce of their  jailed fraudster Dad and the death from cancer of their darling aunt Huia, has disappeared without a trace – but what follows next is so unbelievable it can’t be happening:  what they at first thought was one of the frequent earthquakes that plague Aotearoa New Zealand turns out to be a summons from Aunty Huia in Rarohenga, the Maori Underworld:  they have to fall through the portal to look for their mother, who has been abducted by their father, of all people!  Only the intervention of the twins will save her from dying before her time and staying in Rarohenga.  Neither of their parents are meant to be there, but their father learnt some pretty dreadful magic from one of his cellmates;  now, he has his prize, their mother, and who cares about the twins?  They were only distractions to divert their mother’s attention from him. 

            There begins a series of hair-raising adventures for the twins, including meeting Hinekoruru, Goddess of Shadows;  a fearsome taniwha with paua-shell eyes and many sad memories;  and an unbelievably handsome fairy called a túrehu.  They all provide assistance for the twins’ quest, but all demand payment – in the túrehu’s case, it’s Tui’s hand in marriage.  To which she agrees, fervently hoping that she will be able to get back to the real world before she has to honour her promise – which, perhaps, would not be that bad:  he’s pretty damned hot!

            Once again, the author of ‘Flight of the Fantail’ delivers the goods:  an exciting, topical meld of today’s New Zealand with Maoritanga and its ancient myths and legends - and she does it so well. Twins Tui and Kae are heroes for the ages! SIX STARS.  

 

The Sound of Stars, by Alechia Dow.              Young Adults

 

            The Aliens have landed!  In Alechia Dow’s hugely entertaining debut novel, the Ilori have taken over planet earth and enslaved the population – not in a bad way so far (and they wouldn’t have been forced to kill huge swathes of the world population if a certain power-crazy president hadn’t attacked them first, destroying a number of their space ships), but with a view to eventually feeding everyone a vaccine which will disable their minds, thus leaving their bodies ‘a perfect husk’ for rich, planet-hopping true Ilori to inhabit so that they can enjoy touring the world and its beauty in style and comfort.  All true Ilori are fabulously rich and continually looking for new places to amuse them;  earth is the latest planet to be added to their ‘to-do’ list.

            True Ilori have created minor versions of themselves, Labmade Ilori, to do the hard yards and unpleasant chores, like keeping humans in check, keeping them fed, housed and occupied until the mind-killing vaccine is perfected, and in New York City, 16 year old Janelle ‘Ellie’ Baker lives with her parents, neither of whom are handling the occupation well:  Mum has hit the booze and Dad has already been injected with a substance that has turned him into a stranger, a guard loyal only to the Ilori.  Ellie finds comfort and refuge in nothing but her forbidden, hidden library of books, wonderful stories of life as it used to be in all its imperfection – and freedom.  She lends these books secretly to others who need the succour and relief of escapism from their terrible situation;  she has a collection of music too (also forbidden, for the true Ilori don’t feel emotion.  They are neither happy nor sad.).  Music gladdens her heart;  she will survive with these treasures until the vaccine ends her life.

            Until an Ilori finds one of her books and reads it, makes contact and blackmails her into giving him some music to enjoy:  HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN???  Ilori don’t care for human pursuits, but M0Rr1S does – he has been programmed by his powerful mother to be a labmade Ilori with a difference:  he has feelings, and his secret mission is to instigate a rebellion against the true Ilori.  But he never expected to feel the overwhelming happiness of falling in love, or the terrible heartache of loss:  M0Rr1S and Ellie are truly star-crossed lovers.

Ms Dow tackles many age-old questions here:  racism (Ellie is black) greed, apathy, NIMBYism – all the usual human failings, versus trust, loyalty, love – and music and stories.  Her story is mighty!  SIX STARS.          

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins.

Young Adults.

          The acclaimed author of ‘The Hunger Games’ Suzanne Collins has done it again:  created another heart-stopping episode in her Dystopian fantasy series of America ‘After the War’, this time giving her millions of fans (including me!) a forerunner to Katniss Everdeen’s heroic exploits for her people in the first trilogy.

            In this prequel we follow the teenage life of President Snow – hard to believe such a man was ever a young man with normal hopes and dreams, but as a teenager, Coriolanus Snow (Ms Collins has a lot of fun with Latin names for her characters here) is no different from his other classmates at the Academy, an elite school in the Capitol, famed for producing future leaders – and he has a shameful secret:  despite living in a penthouse in one of the most desirable apartment buildings in the city, he, his Grandmother and cousin Tigris are struggling to put food on the table;  their family’s former rich holdings were all destroyed in the war, and Tigris has had to work long hours at menial work to keep the household afloat.  The Snows could not bear the humiliation and shame of their neighbours learning of their dire straits, so try to keep up appearances, and Coriolanus is very accomplished at presenting himself as that which he is not – rich.

            A prize-winning opportunity arises with the introduction of ‘mentoring’ tributes for the latest Hunger Games, providing back-up and support for whomever is chosen for Mentors to sponsor.  Initially Coriolanus is hugely disappointed in Lucy Gray Baird, his tribute from District Twelve – she doesn’t look like she’d last five minutes up against all the other desperate youngsters, though most of them do look half-starved and ill.  Oh well, time will tell, and it does:  readers are treated to another horrific, hair-raising and tragic account of the Hunger Games, resulting in victory for Lucy Gray, and humiliating disgrace for Coriolanus who, instead of realising his ambition of going to university, is shipped off to District Twelve as a lowly PeaceKeeper.

            And his rich, would-be friend Sejanus goes too, but for entirely different reasons:  he wants to escape from the Capitol, that hotbed of privilege and corruption, and join rebels that surely hide in District Twelve.  He wants to live a peaceful, honourable life some day. 

            Ms Collins brilliantly conducts us all yet again through a tightly plotted and suspenseful adventure that juggles ambitions, excuses and rationalisation with morals, principles and ideals:  guess who comes out on top?  SIX STARS  

A Heart so Fierce and Broken, by Brigid Kemmerer.  Young Adults

            This is the sequel to ‘A Curse so Dark and Lonely’, Ms Kemmerer’s epic retelling of the Sleeping Beauty legend (search drop box), but with a great contemporary twist – that of introducing protagonists from our modern world into the parallel kingdom of Emberfall, there to break the curse set by evil enchantress Lilith that turns Crown Prince Rhen into a murdering monster:  well, in  the best of fairytale traditions, true love in the shape of Harper rescues him from the curse, his kingdom is freed, and everyone should live happily ever after.  Except that they don’t.

            Rhen has inherited a kingdom in ruins after constant warfare;  his subjects are starving, and there are rumours that he is not the rightful Heir:  there is an older half-brother whose mother could practice magic, and no matter how hard Rhen’s troops try to quell the gossip it still persists.  The only high point in his life is his love for Harper, so-called Princess of Disi, who has supposedly promised thousands of troops from her country:  Washington, DC?  If his subjects find out about that, it will be the end of his reign – and of him.

            Enter Commander Grey, formerly his most loyal and trusted servant:  Grey has discovered that he and Prince Rhen are indeed brothers, but he decides the best thing to do is to leave Emberfall and take up another identity;  he doesn’t want the crown under any circumstances and the less people know about him, the better.  Naturally, life is not like that, particularly in fairy tales:  he is captured, cruelly flogged by Rhen’s men, eventually escapes thanks to trusted friends, but is forced into an alliance with Karis Luran, queen of Syhl Shallow, Rhen’s sworn enemy:  she will back him with troops and weapons, everything he needs for military success, if he will vanquish Rhen’s army with his nascent magical powers – powers he wasn’t aware that he had until he was flogged by Rhen’s order.  Grey is in between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.  And to complicate life even further, he begins to fall in love with Lia Mara, Karis Luran’s daughter, a girl as good as her mother is evil:  his life is starting to slip beyond his famous discipline and control.

            Ms Kemmerer has us all by the scruff of the neck, and won’t let go:  I was turning pages at a furious rate, and was even more frustrated when I reached the end and found that an arch-villain, thought dead, is still stirring up lethal trouble.  It’s going to take aaaaages for the next instalment to appear, and in Trump’s  America, anything could happen in that time.  I hope it doesn’t!  FIVE STARS.

             

A Curse so Dark and Lonely, by Brigid Kemmerer.  Young Adults

            Seventeen-year-old Cerebral Palsy sufferer Harper and her older brother Jake are in trouble in Washington DC:  their father has abandoned the family with huge debts;  their mother is a terminal cancer patient, and the people from whom their dad borrowed want their money back yesterday – with interest, the interest being Jake as enforcer and standover man to extort money out of other unfortunate debtors.  Harper is Jake’s reluctant look-out when he works as a heavy, until one night she sees a woman being attacked by a man not far from where she is hiding.  Without thinking she grabs an old tire-iron and gives the attacker a good swipe – and finds herself hoisted up and dragged away, away into an alarming parallel world that bears no relation to her own in real life, for she is transported by her abductor Commander Grey to a fairy-tale castle inhabited by a handsome prince, and no, she wasn’t dropped on her head on the way:  she is now a captive in the realm of Emberfall, and is part of a curse that lays upon the land, a curse so dark and lonely that it seems no-one can break it.

The curse has been imposed by an enchantress called Lilith, and can only be broken by true love (truly!  Sound familiar?) between the handsome Prince Rhen and whichever young woman Commander Grey manages to purloin from the other side:  so far, results have been very sketchy, especially as Rhen turns into a monster every month and lays waste to anything that moves, including most of his subjects and all of the castle inhabitants, including the royal family.  Commander Grey is still alive because he’s a fast mover.  Believe it or not.

 And, needless to say, the arrival of Harper with her palsied leg does not inspire Prince Rhen toward any affectionate feelings – until Harper (after she has accepted her impossible circumstances) shows an aptitude for strategy, planning and tactics that are an unexpected and refreshing change from the norm:  handicapped Harper from DC becomes Princess Harper of Disi, a powerful and entirely fictitious ally of Emberfall, and there to promise Disi’s thousands of fictional troops to save the country’s inhabitants from a hostile Queen’s border attacks, the evil enchantress, and the monster, who is scheduled to make his dreaded appearance soon.

This is a great blend of fantasy, fairy tale and hard lessons in the Big City, and Ms Kemmerer leaves so many questions hanging that she must have Book Two underway.  Well, I hope so:  - what about Commander Grey, eh?  What’s happening with him?!  FOUR STARS.  

           

               

Air Born, by J. L. Pawley.                        Teen Fiction

           Tyler Owen is seventeen years old and he is an ace flight cadet.  Intent on following his Air Force Colonel father’s footsteps into the military at the earliest opportunity,  he is about to make his first solo sky-dive above the California landscape:  to say that he is nervous is an understatement;  he is also elated at the realisation of his dreams – but he is worried, too.  Worried about his back, which is super-painful, not to mention the recent weird swellings that are making his jumpsuit very tight!  Well, never mind – don’t sweat it, worry about the changes after the jump.

            Except that the jump becomes a nightmare:  his parachute is beyond his reach because something explodes from one side of his back, and all he can think of is that his parents will watch him fall to his death – when another explosion occurs on his opposite shoulder:  suddenly his fall is arrested and he realises the lumps he feared are actually wings, they are clumsily working, and he’s not going to die after all.

            The trouble is that his fall and miraculous recovery have been captured by phones galore, and within hours he is a YouTube sensation – not to mention a freak who is imprisoned inside a hospital, waiting to be examined.  Well, that is not going to happen:  Tyler’s life on the run begins whether he likes it or not, but it is hugely preferable to being a guinea pig in a hospital.  One positive thing that he didn’t expect, however, was that he is not the only one who has sprouted wings:  it has happened to six others, all of whom try to make contact, for they all face the same problems of freakdom, and once they are together, find that they are of unhealthy interest not only to the authorities, but to The Angelists, a Hippy Dippy group of misfits led by a by-the-Good-Book preacher man, and a very shady, well-financed group called the Evolutionary Corporation:  the Evos are intent on capturing all of the winged friends, but to what purpose?

            ‘Air Born’ is the start of a great series by Jess Pawley, a young Kiwi author who is a master story-teller;  her characters are top-notch, including Tui, a young Maori/Samoan who used all her savings to fly to California to try to track Tyler down – because she had started to sprout wings, too, and is not happy about it – but the major question is WHY.  Why is this happening to these Seventeen year-olds, and are there more out there?  Book Two coming up!  FIVE STARS.

             

Flight of the Fantail, by Steph Matuku.          Teen Fiction.

  

          In a remote New Zealand National Park, a bus crashes off the gravel road into a steep gorge:  inside are seniors from Kotuku High School, all set for camping until they hit the bottom of the gorge and the front of the bus is swept away by the deep, fast-moving river.  Very few survive the trauma, but some are washed up along the banks and manage to find each other:  Rocky Reweti, class babe who harbours ambitions to be an All Black, but with a leg so badly injured the dream must surely be no longer possible;  Devin, class loser, ‘Duh-Devin’, Devin who lives with her dad in a skanky old place and never, ever talks or even looks at anyone;  Eva, class lesbian and proud of it to the extent that she took over the school PA system to announce just that, to the fury of the gay principal, who had been locked out of his office;  Jahmin, class clown and long-time detention-companion of Eva – his parents are rich as, and work for the Seddon Corporation which has mining land somewhere around here;  surely they will be rescued soon.  Search and Rescue should be sending helicopters anytime now.

            But when?  Two of the number manage to get back to the remains of the bus, finding that new kid, Theo, on the way, lying dead with a cell phone smashed into his face.  WHAAAAAT????  Their search for food, clothes and equipment takes a worrying turn – who killed Theo?  And why?

            As they establish a very rough, makeshift camp, it seems that Duh-Devin is’nt stupid after all, for her loser dad taught her all sorts of practical skills which actually improve their situation, like lighting a fire, constructing a shelter to keep the rain off, catching an eel (she was amazed that she could!), and finding some edible plants which, whilst not exactly broccoli, plugged the gnawing hunger gap for a time. 

            But what about the strange pulsing they all feel – the headaches they  experience, and the dark fantasies that threaten to overcome them unless they physically hurt themselves to banish the nastiness:  there’s something badly amiss in this part of the forest, and it doesn’t take them long to find it.

            Ms Matuku has done a fine job here of combining fact, fantasy and Maori myths to weave a great story of friendship through adversity and heartache:  the terrible situation in which her characters find themselves is hardly real, but Rocky, Devin, Eva and Jahmin are great examples of today’s generation - resourceful, staunch, loving and brave.  Great stuff!  FIVE STARS.

           

             

The Survival Game, by Nicky Singer.                        Young Adults

            Teen fiction today  seems to centre on stories with a Dystopian theme;  young people battling to survive as best they can in an alien, futuristic and brutal society:  Nicky Singer’s novel is no different – except that it reflects  a world situation that is all too real for us all:  global warming and its terrible consequences.

            Mhairi Anne Bain is fourteen years old.  She is walking in the North of England, hoping to reach the Scottish border, where she will seek shelter with her grandmother who lives on the Isle of Arran.  Mhairi has undergone unimaginable suffering to have reached this stage of the journey:  her parents had spent seven years working in the Sudan before they were both murdered by trigger-happy border guards;  she was lucky enough to escape. She was not pursued by the border guards – why bother?  The desert would kill her anyway.  Except that it didn’t:  she has survived so far – but is infuriated to find herself being followed by an old man and a little boy.  She doesn’t need company:  she moves very quickly by herself, but when the old man falls dead at her feet and the little boy stubbornly follows her regardless of all her clever attempts to shake him off, she accepts the inevitable:  he has become her responsibility, whether she likes it or not.

            The little boy is brown-skinned and from somewhere on the African continent;  he is also mute – but not deaf, or so traumatised that he is an impossible burden, but it is obvious that he has suffered terribly, as Mhairi finds when they reach Glasgow, which is full of refugees just like him. He searches all those half-starved faces for a familiar one, only to be heartbreakingly disappointed.  And the tragedy of all those waves of people heading north is that their own countries are no longer habitable:  global warming has turned their lush tropical lands into sand and dust.  They must all move to the colder regions or die.

            Mhairi finds too that, after seven years away from her beloved Scotland savage new laws are now in place to conserve and protect the scarce remaining resources – and to protect the rights of the white celtic indigenous population against the ‘predations’ and sheer numbers of desperate migrants.  Compassion has flown out the window, especially from her grandmother, so happy to see her initially – until she arrived with the little brown mute.

            Nicky Singer has written a story that is beautiful and terrible, a story that fills us equally with hope and despair, for no-one can deny the frightening existence of climate change  or be afraid of its consequences, portrayed so ably in this unforgettable book.  Everyone should read this.  SIX STARS.   

           

The Goose Road, by Rowena House.

         In Northern France in 1916, Angelique Lacroix receives the dread news that her father, who was one of the first to enlist in the French army, has been killed in the battle of Verdun.  Her mother is stunned with grief;  Angelique is not.  She hated her father, who beat her and her adored brother Pascal often, especially when he had been drinking;  she is just glad that it wasn’t Pascal who died:  now the family farm will belong to him and he will come home from war victorious, and marry Angelique’s very best friend.  She hopes.  Such are the dreams of a 14 year old.  In the meantime she and her mother must carry on and save what they have for him, even though the French army keeps passing through their district ‘requisitioning’ any livestock to feed their troops – and thanks to the troops’ rampant and brutal theft of every farm’s animals and poultry, people are beginning to starve;  Angelique hopes that the army doesn’t discover their farm, remote as it is.

            But they do, and remove their cow and pig.  Nothing is left except Pascal’s flock of magnificent Toulouse geese, hidden in the woods when the army scouts arrive.  And as if that were not enough tragedy, their father’s gambling debts surface in the shape of angry creditors demanding what is owed:  they will lose the farm and very soon be homeless unless Angelique and her mother can think of a solution, and the only solution is for Angelique and her Uncle Gustav to herd her beautiful geese across France to find the highest bidder in a country that is desperate for food, a country full of liars and profiteers, good people who are starving – and English and French Officers who will pay astronomical prices for a Christmas Goose, especially those Officers who are expecting to die in battle soon.

            Ms House recounts Angelique’s journey with her beloved Uncle as suspensefully as any good thriller writer;  her characters are rock-solid and she captures all too well the desperation and despair that makes good people do terrible things – and those like Angelique’s childhood friend René, who enlists in the army despite having a withered leg from a bout of Polio:  he couldn’t bear to be called a coward.  This is a truly great book for all teen readers.  FIVE STARS

Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi       Young Adults

           On a scale of one to ten for the Fantasy genre hit for this year, ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ has to be an eleven.  Ms Adeyemi’s tale has it all:  heart-stopping action, almost unbearable suspense, and characters that, despite their magical skills, we can all identify with – especially lead protagonist Zelie Adebola.

            Zelie lives with her father and brother in a fishing village on the coast of a mythical African country called Orisha.  She is always getting into trouble thanks to her short temper, and her older brotherTzain is always there to rescue her – whether he wants to or not.  Their small family is still suffering from the loss of their mother, a Maji cruelly murdered eleven years before by the ruling family of Orisha – for her mother was part of one of the ten magic Clans that used to rule Orisha until they were overthrown in one terrible night of bloodshed:  magic is now outlawed throughout the country and those who survived who are gifted with the control of Healing, Air, Wind, Fire, Spirit, Water, Darkness and Light, Animals, time, and Life and Death, are now oppressed and enslaved, their powers weakened or non-existent – unless …..

Unless someone is brave enough to make a hazardous journey into the unknown and still sacred parts of the country to regenerate the power of the Clans, to bring back the Magic that will free them all from oppression.

            And that person is Zelie;  impetuous, rash, prickly and bad-tempered – but blessed (or cursed) with the gift inherited from her mother of Life and Death.  She is a Reaper and her power is so great she is frightened of it, but the mission she has been given is vital:  she MUST succeed, or her people will never be free.  She will die for them if she has to.  Failure is unthinkable.

            Accompanied as always by the furious but loyal Tzain and a naïve escapee from the Royal Palace, the princess Amari, Zelie sets off on the adventure of a lifetime, intent on bringing Magic back to Orisha – but pursuing them with deadly efficiency is Crown Prince Inan, charged by his ruthless father the King to bring back his silly little sister, and to eradicate like vermin any Maji in his path. 

            WHAT A STORY!  Ms Adyemi herself has magic powers, the power over words and how to transform them into a story so gripping that it is impossible to put the book down until it is finished – the very best kind of story.  And it’s being made into a movie as I write:  Magic!  FIVE STARS

            And once again I thank my darling granddaughter Ava for recommending this book:  she knows what’s good!       

Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard            Young Adult reading

Glass Sword, by Victoria Aveyard

            A lot of dystopian fiction has been written for young people since ‘The Hunger Games’, that superb trilogy by Suzanne Collins.  The genre has not always been well-served by writers hoping to leap on to the bandwagon as they churn out pale imitations of a very successful formula – until Victoria Aveyard restores the faith in what was becoming a tired old theme, i.e. impoverished but fearless (and beautiful) girl fights evil (and disgustingly wealthy) enemies to free the world of tyranny and (after numerous death-defying, shocking and nail-biting misadventures) vanquishes the Bad Guys and everyone lives happily ever after.

           While it is true that the above could be a much-abridged summation of Ms Aveyard’s quartet of novels (I’m galloping through the second one), her protagonist Mare Barrow is hugely appealing, and carries the story effortlessly – she is feisty (of course!), sassy and downright rude (you go girl!) whenever she can’t help herself, and that’s often – and she has a secret power unknown to her until she falls onto some electrified wires:  she wasn’t fried as she expected, instead she found that she could harness the electricity and use it to zap those who would do her harm – and they are many, for Mare has Red Blood.  Don’t we all?  I hear you say, but in this Dystopian future, a thousand years after a huge nuclear war razed cities and countries, those with red blood are servants and underdogs;  the Silver Bloods are the rich and dominant leaders, and they are cruel masters.

            So far, so familiar, except that Mare is a thief by trade, until she picks the pocket of a Silver Prince out slumming;  fortunately for her, he listens as she rants at him about having no choice in her occupation;  it’s the stranglehold the Silvers have on the Reds, keeping them downtrodden and oppressed that forces her to steal so that her family won’t starve.  His solution, instead of having her executed for theft, is to give her a job as a servant in his family’s summer palace.  Mare has just dodged death, but why?  Not that she isn’t grateful, but her new duties combined with her new-found talent for controlling electricity – she is now known as little lightning girl – complicate and endanger her life more than she ever dreamed.  It is clear too, that the ruling Silver family is not as secure on the throne as they appear.  They have enemies within as well as the seething rebelling Red masses without:  can the little lightning girl conquer them and become a Red Queen?

            Not in the first book:  Mare ends up on the run, a fugitive with a loyal little band of followers, searching for more gifted ‘Newbloods’ like herself, part red, part silver, but each with an extraordinary gift that, if enough are found, could be moulded into an elite army, capable of defeating the most powerful of enemies.  Ms Aveyard has given great new life to a genre that has been flogged almost to a standstill and her characters are full of life and exuberance – in Mare’s case, electricity! – and, as should be the case in fantasy sagas of Good and Evil, strong questioning of moral standpoints and values.

            This is a great series, action-packed to the last page, and once again I thank my granddaughter Ava, reader extraordinaire, for telling me about it.  FIVE STARS        

The Book of Dust, by Philip Pullman               Young Adults

Volume One, La Belle Sauvage

Philip Pullman is justly recognised as one of the great contemporary Fantasy writers for children of all ages.  He made his considerable reputation many years ago with ‘His Dark Materials’, adventures in a dark, parallel world still recognisable as ours but with many differences;  now, he reintroduces us to that world in a Prequel, the first adventure in a trilogy, once again with Lyra and her daemon and alter ego Pantalaimon as two of the protagonists – baby Lyra, for she is six months old, and is being hidden by kindly nuns just outside the university city of Oxford.  Someone wants to kill her.

            And others will protect her with their very lives, for it has been foretold that Lyra’s existence is of vital importance to the World Order – which is suffering under repressive religious rulers who enforce their beliefs with unholy enthusiasm.  (Sound familiar?)  Those who believe in Lyra see her as their talisman, their beacon of hope in their efforts to overthrow the current regime.  A group of powerful men meet at The Trout, the local tavern which has a view of the convent, to consolidate plans for Lyra’s protection.  They are served by Malcolm, the 11 year old son of the proprietor, and he can tell from the many questions they ask that they are not just taking a casual interest – which worries him:  what can these strangers want with the nuns?  Why are they asking questions about a baby?

            The situation does not become any clearer when another stranger arrives and asks Malcolm to take him to the convent ‘to see his little daughter’ and, despite Malcolm’s initial misgivings he ferries him across the fast-moving river in his beloved canoe ‘La Belle Sauvage’ to the convent so that he may meet with his baby, Malcolm all the while hoping that he has not made a fatal mistake:  surely this man who calls himself Lord Azriel would not harm Malcolm’s beloved Lyra – surely he is her real father?  And Malcolm is so relieved to find that his worries are groundless that he lends Lord Azriel his canoe to journey down the river unobserved by those who were following him – which was a wise move, for ‘La Belle Sauvage’ is returned in sparkling, almost new condition – how great is that!!

            And thank heaven for the canoe’s new seaworthiness, for the worst rains in years pour from the skies, flooding everything;  nobody can remember worse weather or higher, more destructive floodwaters;  people are starting to fear for their lives – and Malcolm fears for Lyra, especially as a man called Bonneville has turned up at the tavern stating that he is the child’s father and he wants to claim his daughter from the convent -  Malcolm must rescue her and try to take her to her real father in London – if they can ever find their way on the great inland sea that the Thames has become.  His companion on the nightmare journey is Alice the kitchen maid, perpetually grumpy but devoted, as he is, to Lyra and her safety.

            Which is endangered every day as they are pursued relentlessly by Bonneville and others who would do them harm – and I have to say that I have never read anything more suspenseful than Malcolm and Alice’s action-packed trip through a drowned landscape, full of drowned people and animals.  They endure much before they reach London in their faithful little craft, and so did I (reading into the small hours makes Julia really crabby the next day!) but this is writing of the highest quality, the kind that makes us question our own world order, and what we are prepared to do about it.  SIX STARS.

Dear Martin, by Nic Stone                       Young Adults

           This is Ms Stone’s debut novel.  She is angry, and rightly so, at the spreading rash of fatalities perpetrated by police on unarmed black teenagers throughout the United States.  She wants her readers to consider these killings from every angle, including the main standpoint:  they were shot because they were young and black, which automatically branded them as ‘suspicious’.  They were definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time.

            17 year old Justyce McAllister discovers what it feels like to be just that when he  tries to help his girlfriend – who does not deserve his assistance;  she’s drunk off her head and is trying to drive home, and strictly speaking, she’s not his girlfriend because they broke up for the 50^th time.  Still, he comes running to help just the same, because he’s kind and decent and doesn’t want to see her wrapped round a lamp-post – and can’t believe what happens to him next:  a passing police car stops, the officer slams Justyce against the car and handcuffs him ‘for trying to hijack the young woman’s car’, then takes him to the station to spend the night in the cells.  No amount of pleading can change the officer’s mind, Justyce looks too menacing -  in his prep-school hoodie.

            For Justyce is on a boarding scholarship at an exclusive school preparatory to entering Yale, for which he has been accepted for the very high grades that he worked extremely hard to earn:  this nightmare should not be happening!  But he is not released until his classmate’s Attorney mother exerts her considerable influence to have all ‘charges’ dropped.  He has been taught a lesson:  a lesson in racial profiling and humiliation, and he has no idea how to process this unfamiliar and bitter new knowledge.

            Until he decides to write to Martin – Doctor Martin Luther King, great, martyred upholder of the dreams and aspirations of equality that all black people long for;  if Justyce starts a long-running letter/diary to Martin, perhaps it will help him to make sense of what has happened to him, and not become embittered and discouraged, as so many of his friends are.  And this solution works for a time, until he comes up against more racial walls in class – ‘how come Justyce has been accepted into Yale, when my grades are the same, but because I’m white I’ve been deferred!’ and reverse racism from his Mum, who is furious he has a white girlfriend.  She has not raised him to Love the Enemy!

            Much worse things have to happen before Justyce realises some essential home truths:  there will ALWAYS be discrimination because of his colour.  He will always have to work twice as hard as everyone else to prove that he deserves the goals he aims for;  the trick is not to be defeated by that knowledge, but determined.  Determined to carry on.  FOUR STARS 

             

Finding Audrey, by Sophie Kinsella

Audrey Turner is making a slow and painful recovery from a bullying incident at her previous school. Three girls have been excluded for their part in the affair and Audrey spent several weeks in hospital before coming home to her family who have been affected as badly as she, but are still able to give her the love and comfort she needs.

Now she stays at home, waiting to start at another school when the new term begins – the mere thought of which brings her out in a sweat, but her psychologist Dr Sarah is confident that she will make that goal, and many more besides. Audrey wishes she felt the same way!

But all is not doom and gloom and darkened rooms: Audrey’s sixteen year old brother Frank wants to be a Gamer, specifically on LOC (that’s Land of Conquerors to you) and he has a team that includes Linus, his totally cool schoolmate, who comes round often to practice: they want to get onto the next levels and compete in the Regionals – then after that the Finals, then After That ….. well, who knows? The sky’s the limit! And miracles do happen in Audrey’s pathetically uncool little life, for it appears that Linus thinks she’s pretty! Even though she hides behind dark glasses ALL THE TIME because she can’t bear people to look her in the eye. He actually comes to sit with her when she’s watching TV in her darkened room, and one magic day he even holds her hand, something she hasn’t allowed anyone to do since The Incident.

Then Audrey’s mum spoils everything: Frank is spending FAR TOO MUCH TIME IN FRONT OF A SCREEN! ( The clarion cry of all 21st Century Mums). If he doesn’t change his ways, young man (another sure sign of Mum Rage) then she will throw his PC out the window. And eventually, she does! Well, she told him she would. She is a woman of her word. Linus is despatched just as speedily – he and Frank can hardly practice if Frank has nothing to practice on, and without Linus’s visits to look forward to, Audrey’s world shrinks again. Until Linus thinks up a solution: Would Audrey feel up for a visit to Starbucks? With him?

And so begins Audrey’s reintroduction to streets, people, noise, traffic – all the things she wasn’t able to face in the preceding months. Maybe she’s not such a loser after all, especially with someone like Linus to support her and help her to feel normal. As Doctor Sarah says, life is an upward graph, full of peaks and troughs, but as long as it keeps aiming upward from the troughs everything is normal – and that is what’s happening, finally, for Audrey: she’s moving upwards.

Ms Kinsella has captured with sharp accuracy 21st century family life with all its pitfalls and dangers; the bullying incident is never detailed and that is all to the good; what happened to fictional Audrey is tragically common and it takes a brave and clever writer to put it on paper without revealing awful detail. And an added bonus: Ms Kinsella’s humour. This is one of the funniest books ever about a serious subject, because it’s the story of a loving family; how tragedy affects them, and how they deal with it. Totally cool!

FIVE STARS

(And I'm proud to say that my granddaughter Ava recommended that I read this book: she is indeed a great reader! Thanks heaps, darling. xx)

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Berserker, by Emmy Laybourne

Our library has a great selection of Teen fiction; sadly, there are not enough hours in my day to devote time to reading everything that looks great – just the same, I have flown through two titles over the weekend, and no, I didn’t skim-read because they were weak; I just couldn’t put them down until I’d finished, so there!

‘Berserker’ merges a tale of the Old West in 1883 with Norse Mythology. In Ancient Times Odin, King of the Gods bestowed on his three favourite kings the Nytte, a mighty gift of six super powers to continue through their lineage: in Norway 1883, the Nytte resides in three of the children of Amund, himself a wonderful Shipwright who has lost his Gift and has turned to drink. Three of his four children have the Nytte: Stieg, the eldest is a Storm-Rend. He can control the wind. Knut, the second son is an Oar-Breaker, endowed with superhuman strength and a gentle heart, but Hanne – Hanne the third daughter is a Berserker, compelled to kill anyone who threatens the life of those she loves. Sissel, the youngest girl has no gift at all.

It has long been Stieg’s dream to emigrate to America; he wants to start a new life in a new country; he wants to be a schoolteacher and to live as far from the strictures and constraints of the Old Country as he can; when he is established, he will send for his siblings. They shouldn’t have to spend the rest of their young lives in poverty while an old drunk takes whatever they earn to swill down his throat.

Tragically, Amund is threatened by men who want the money he owes them, and Hanne feels the danger to a loved one: she answers the call and slaughters them with joyful efficiency – until the bloodbath is over and her normal self prevails: she must give herself up – she has butchered three men – God will never forgive her! But in this case, the Old Gods are present and ready to look after those with the power of the Nytte: Stieg and his siblings manage to find enough money for them all to take ship to America, there to try to contact their Uncle Hakon in Wolf Creek, Montana: he is a Berserker and will be able to teach Hanne how to control her terrible gift.

Ms Laybourne has melded hardscrabble pioneer existence with old Norse legend very successfully, especially when the family is pursued by those who would try to harness their talents for cruel and crooked motives. The suspense is always kept at a satisfyingly high level and, while the ending is satisfying, it’s not REALLY the end; I believe ( I HOPE!) a sequel’s on the way.

FIVE STARS

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