Looking for Alaska by John Green

2012  

 

Miles Halter is sent to a boarding tertiary college. He is a shy young man who is fascinated by the last words of famous people. His father attended the same college and Miles has much to live up to: his father gained top marks and was also a quitter a rebel and trouble maker. Pranks were the order of the day.   

He tries to fit in and is befriended by other teens who smoke, drink and are pretty good at pranks. He learns how to join in. This includes Alaska Young.

Alaska is a feisty young woman who lives on the edge and is also a huge fan of literature. She seems incredibly confident but she has the impression that she always messes up.

And then she really messes up big time. It takes her friends a while to realise that she left abruptly one evening because she had forgotten to put flowers on her mother’s grave. She always blames herself for her mother’s death, and believes that her father does too: as a young child she wasn’t able to call 911 when her mother collapsed at home. Other mistakes in life, she believes, stem from that one incident.

She is over the limit when she sets off and crashes her car into a stationery police car that is attending the site of an overturned lorry.

The head teacher of the school followed her and reported that she didn’t even swerve. It could have been suicide. That is never fully established.

Whatever has happened, the friends she’s left behind will never be the same again.  

John Green really gets into the minds of these young adult and in particular into Miles’s.  

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The Space In Between by Jen Minkman

2017 

upper secondary, tertiary, Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5, ages 14 -17, Minkman Jen, YA, New Adult, supernatural, time slip, relationships,      

This book is set in Bangor, a place I know well. Moira is studying fine art there as a part-time student.

She, her twin sister and her brother get on unusually well. 

Moira has a controlling boyfriend and the story is partly about this.

There is a strong relationship with the paranormal and this is quite appropriate for North Wales - a place of mystery, intrigue and old legends.  

Moira has to make some difficult choices and a time-slip element also kicks in. She is able to make the right choice and this saves a person she has begun to love. Ironically in choosing her course of action she has cut herself from any further romance.

The book is of an average length for new adult / young adult.    

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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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Note, this is an affiliate link and a small portion of what you pay, at no extra cost to you,  may go to Bridge House Publishing.