Circle of Liars by Kate Francis

 

Kate Francis gives us gives us multiple points of view in this novel, but more often than not we are with Ana, whose twin brother, Danny, was killed in a fire at their school.

Seven school friends are invited to go on a luxury holiday on the anniversary of the fire. However, they end up ay at a motel that has seen better days. The rooms are in need of refurbishment, the swimming pool is empty and there is no food available.  Not long after they arrive the bus explodes and the bus driver crosses the line that surrounds them and is shot.

They are invited to participate in a Balloon Game. At the end of each hour they have to vote for who should cross the line and get killed.

As we slip into each point of view we realise that all seven are partly to blame for what happened. Ana teases us and hangs on to her secret the longest.

The young people do fight back and Ana is able to crack the code to the bunker form which the antagonist works.  It is the father of Karl Hunt.  Karl is believed to have started the fire. Mr Hunt is collecting evidence to show that Karl alone is not guilty. Ana manages to destroy his evidence.

Even here all is not what it seems. And there are more surprises for the guilty seven.

They do manage to come to terms with what they’ve done. Should they be forgiven and can they forgive themselves?   

 

The paperback edition is 351 pages in a standard font and with standard formatting. Chapters are short and the pace sis fast. Tension is high.  It is not difficult to keep reading.     

 

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Der Libellenflüsterer by Monika Feth

  

2015 

This is the seventh book in this crime series.

Monika Feth gives us multiple points  of view in this novel: friends Jette and Merle, both victims of the perpetrator, the perpetrator himself, a young and highly competent forester (and also the dragon fly whisperer of the title), the foresters’ wife, his mute five-year-old daughter, her doll(!) and of one of the police officers involved in the case.

Feth uses a narrative technique that keeps the reader involved throughout. This is achieved through a balance of description, action, dialogue and inner thoughts. Jette, possibly the main character, uses a first person narrative.

It is a long book but the reader’s attention is held by a lot of pace and tension and relatively short scenes though some of the chapters are quite long.   

This is a standard book that resembles an adult novel. The paperback has 528 pages including acknowledgments. It is for the upper end of YA and could also be described as a New Adult book.      

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Silverwood Rising by Jeanette Greaves,

 

 

The pack continues to grow . Alpha Diana has gone public and parliament has brought in legislation to protect the packs.

New packs are being formed throughout the UK.  But they are still threatened by the White pack. They must bring all of their resources together to fight this threat.  

The younger members of the pack have learnt new tricks: they can change their human appearance and  even, cosmetically, their gender.

They do confront the White pack and they do overcome but they do it in a sympathetic and caring way.  

Usefully the author provides a character list and a summary of child / parent relationships in a glossary at the end of the novel.

This is a standard book that resembles an adult novel. The paperback has 411 pages including glossaries and acknowledgments. It is for the upper end of YA and could also be described as a New Adult book.  

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Hearts' Home by Jeanette Greaves

 

2024 

Werewolf cousins Mark and John are now bringing up their own pack with Andy, whom they have ‘infected’ and two females, Diana and Zoe.   

Relationships within the band and with outsiders are complex and polyamorous. Rock band Ransomed hearts continues to be successful and Mark and Andy have the added tension of having a family outside the pack.  John is also a wolf-dad but doesn’t have a second family. The pack grows and the children are growing up.

The novel ends on a dramatic high note as Diana shares her research into the physiology of werewolves with the world.

The pack has already been attacked by the White wolves and they are now exposed to more danger.  This leaves plenty of scope for novel four.     

Usefully the author provides a character list and a summary of child / parent relationships in glossaries at the end of the novel.

This is a standard book that resembles an adult novel. The paperback has 421 pages including glossaries and acknowledgments. It is for the upper end of YA and could also be described as a New Adult book.   

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Ransomed Hearts by Jeanette Greaves

 2022 

Cousins Mark and John are brought up by their mothers.  Their fathers have abandoned them in order to keep the family safe. They and their fathers are werewolves.

With some other friends, the boys form a rock groups Ransomed Hearts, which in time enjoys great success.  Relationships within the band and with outsiders are complex and polyamorous. However, Mark saves himself for a wolf woman who fails to appear – until after he has met the woman he considers to be the love of his life, Katie. Then Diana appears and he forms an addictive relationship with her; she is the wolf woman he had been seeking for years. Their love-making results in the birth of twins.  Another two werewolves for the pack?     

There is a slightly down-beat ending but the novel leaves room for the next story.  There are in fact at the time of writing two more books in the series in print.

This is a standard book that resembles an adult novel. The paperback has 241 pages. It is for the upper end of YA and could also be described as a New Adult book.      

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The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

 

2017

This tackles many themes that interest the target reader.  John Green presents us with death, cancer, depression, grief, family relationships, peer relationships and some mild peer pressure. Green also explores the notion of fiction, both in his notes within the book and in the character of Peter Van Houten, a drunk and an egoist who has at one time been a writer. 

Importantly, Green encourages us to look at those who suffer from cancer as whole people, not just as victims of a disease.  These need not necessarily be nice people. 

Nice or not, the characters are richly drawn. As we have come to expect from Green, the characters are rounded and believable. Hazel narrates the story and has been given a convincing and consistent voice.      

       

The growth in protagonist Hazel is mild and somewhat negative though we also have plenty of positives:  love, romance, gentle sex and for some, survival.   

The book is some 316 pages long so has a respectable spine. The text s blocked and a serif font, with difficult  ‘a’s and ‘g’s is used.  A bordering on adult readership is further confirmed by quit demanding language and much abstract, philosophical thought.  This edition was published in 2017. The novel was first published in 2012.        
      

This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada

 

 

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2017 

This is a fast-paced novel where the stakes and the tension remain high. The young people, and in particular protagonist Catarina Agatta, take huge risks. They face pain and violence. Certainly here we come across Christopher Vogler’s ‘trials, allies and enemies’ or Joseph Campbell’s ‘road of ‘trials’ in their respective story theories.   

Emily Suvada presents us with a thoughtfully conceived world.  The story takes place as the planet is swept by a dangerous virus. Some people are secured in bunkers but this comes at a cost. 

People are coded and programmed like computers. Even DNA can be altered by the cleverest of the programmers such as Catarina’s father Lachlan Agatta. It’s difficult to understand this technology but Suvada herself has checked out her facts and indeed I’ve also run them past a scientist. A world like this can exist and probably will in the future. We’re heading that way already. That alone makes this book very readable. 

There is some sexual tension as well as Cat operates with three young men. This is not the main thrust of the story, however.

We can read this book on two levels. It can be taken at face value as a dystopian thriller or we can see the plague itself, its side effects and the way it is tackled as symbolic of society, even of our current society.  

A riddle is solved by the end of the book but we are straight away presented with another. Suvada leaves the way nicely open for the sequel.      
               

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

 

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

2017

 Aza has some mental health issues. She has what she and her therapist describe as intrusive thoughts.  Voices tell her to avoid situations that can introduce germs into her body. This leads at one point to her drinking hand sanitizer. It makes kissing problematic. She also has a festering wound on her finger where she has picked off a callous. She constantly changes the plaster on this and obsesses about keeping it clean. 

Alongside all of this she is a normal adolescent, struggling with relationships, with her mum, her best friend and almost boyfriend,   Davis.

In addition we have a mystery story.  Where has Davis’s father disappeared to?  Billionaire Russell Pickett has gone into hiding as the law is onto him.  Davis has to care for younger brother Noah.

As ever, John Green offers us a character with whom we can empathise. 

At the end of the book is a list of organisations that can help those who suffer from mental health problems.    

    

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

 

2015 

The monster in the title takes many forms. It is an ancient spirit in a Yew tree, a nightmare, cancer, death, illness, humanity, a caring grandmother, an almost always absent father, a group of bullies and the protagonist himself, Conor.

The concept was created by Siobhan Dowd, but sadly she died of breast cancer before she could start writing. The task was taken on by Patrick Ness but he made no attempt to replicate Dowd's voice.   

    

This is a brave novel. It tackles many young adult themes – peer pressure, family relationships, bullying and school. There is a touch of the paranormal too in the story. It also brings us face-to-face with death and illness; some of the descriptions of Conor's mother's illness are quite graphic. 

Conor is not altogether likeable yet Ness manages to make us empathise with him. 

In the end, it is up to the reader to decide exactly who or what the monster is.  For sure, it brings some wisdom and poses many questions.                     

The Hit by Melvin Burgess

                                                    

 

 

2013

Melvin Burgess as he often does here offers a serious of challenges. In this story we have drug-taking, sex, death, risk-taking, social unrest and extreme violence.  Burgess pushes boundaries again:  much of the violence is premeditated and calculated.  

This suits the YA reader well:  my own research establishes that this genre, if you can call it a genre, is often multi-themed. 

The novel is also what publishers might call "high concept". The story centres around Death, a drug that gives users a week-long high. At the end of the week the user dies.  The young adults who take the drug also create a bucket-list of many risk-taking activities they want to enjoy.

Again as we might expect from a YA text, this novel is in effect a bildungsroman. Protagonist Adam learns to value life. The ending is upbeat but uncertain.  There is hope for Adam and his friends.  

Burgess has also created believable characters with whom we can easily empathize. 

This is a book with a thick spin and some 304 pages. It has the narrative balance we would expect in  a novel written for an adult.                       

Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty

2001, first published 1991  

   

Helen writes letters to her unborn baby – hence the “Dear Nobody” of the title.  The novel begins  on the day Chris is about to start university when he receives a parcel.  It contains all of the letters that 

Helen has written to the baby.  Chris reads through them and realises that their child has been born. He rushes to visit mother and child.   The story ends as Chris write s from his student room to his daughter Amy.

This is a story of an unplanned teen pregnancy.  We have little detail of how Chris and Helen become parents but there is a hint of a romantic scene and unplanned love-making.  We do get a few reality checks as Helen faces some of the physical realities about pregnancy. There is no happy ending.  We do not find out what happens to Helen and Amy after the birth. Chris decides he is not yet ready for fatherhood.

The story is told through the letters to the unborn baby and the flash backs they cause for Chris.  Thus the voice alternates between the two main characters.

It is a little dated: they use landlines and talk about cassette tapes. The chapters are quite long compared with a 21^st century book.    

The book is 234 pages long, in blocked text and in an adult font.   

 

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