Embers: The Wings of War by Karen Ann Hopkins

 

2014 

Ember’s parents die in a tragic car accident. She lives with her aunt and her aunt’s partner, who starts to abuse her. Her brother finds that an old will of their mother says that Ember should go and live with her Aunt Ila.

It had always puzzled Ember that she had not died in the accident with her parents, that wounds healed quickly and that she always felt as if she was running a temperature. Aunt Ila reveals that both she and Ember are Watchers, the children of a love match between a human and an angel. 

Near to Aunt Ila’s cabin is a compound where Growlers and Demons live.  Growlers are creatures such as were-wolves who spend some of their time in human form and some of their time in animal form. Demons feed on the human souls.

A complex situation arises. Ember falls in love with Demon Sawyer. He becomes her Guardian. They become bonded in a way that makes them even closer than if they were married.   

She also befriends Growler Ivan whose creature is wolf.

Ila is an effective mentor and Ember can soon use her powers well.  But she makes mistakes. The story ends on an optimistic note and leaves room for more story;  there are several books in the series.      

Sadly, Aunt Ila has to die as she has exhausted her powers in saving Ember and Sawyer. Watchers do die though they live much longer than humans.

This is a standard book that resembles an adult novel. The paperback has 432 pages.     

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Afterwards by K M Kendrick

 

2024 

upper secondary  Key Stage 4, ages 14 -17, Kendrick Karen,  afterlife, dystopia, teen pregnancy,     

Girl is dead.

She knows she is dead because she remembers dying. The afterlife is not what she had expected – she has awoken into a nightmare, in which everything seems hell-bent on killing her all over again. She is the only one who remembers what life was like before death and she has no idea why.

Also, Girl is pregnant and that shouldn’t be in this setting. The birth of the baby will change everything about this world. It may end it. 

The only way to beat the game is to keep moving forwards, even if it means the end of the world.

We get to the end of the novel. The baby is born. The world changes but doesn’t end. There may be a sequel.

Boy is ordered to kill her but in the end he doesn’t want to. Ali becomes at once her friend and her protégé. His presence in the novel shows a softer side of Girl.      

Grim in places, Karen Kendrick’s Afterwards is also fast-paced and emotionally challenging. It is a larger font novel with 296 pages.  

 

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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.      
               

Secrets by Jacqueline Wilson

2014

In Secrets we have the stories of Treasure and India via their diary entries.

Secrets opens violently with Terry, Treasure’s step-father, taking off his belt to her and thrashing her. Just before he starts hitting her, he has torn pages from her diary; she had invented all sorts of elaborate torture methods for him. Terry’s violence has been ongoing for some time and not just towards Treasure.

Even before Terry came on to the scene life with just Mum had not been good. Treasure’s mother had no time for her when she was little. Treasure generally has low self-esteem.        

India’s father is different form Terry. He isn’t violent but is constantly under stress because of his work. He has little time for India. He also has affairs with the string of au pairs that come to look after India. He is plagued by constant money worries. Eventually he embezzles the company he works for. Her mum isn’t all that much of a mother, either. She is obsessed with dieting and puts pressure on India to lose weight. Perhaps the ultimate problem in the relationship between India and her children’s clothes designer mother is that she hates the clothes her mother designs. They are too small, bright and sparkly. Similarly, a friend of her mother’s has written a book about diets for intelligent children.  Her own intelligent son remains fat and refuses to go on the diet described in the book. It is likely also that India’s mum is anorexic.

India is desperately lonely and has difficulty making friends. She envies Anne Frank who had a lot of friends before she went into hiding. India hides within the house for two hours and no one notices.       

Wilson takes a risk in being explicit about the Holocaust. In an outburst when other class members are not taking a reading of “Anne Frank’s Diary” seriously India gives us a graphic description of what the concentration camps were like.

The two girls live on separate estates. Treasure is on the very bleak and tough Latimer estate. India lives on the luxury complex of Parkfield Manor. The two groups of residents gaze at each other xenophobically. We have the beginnings of a dystopia. The girls’ first meeting is tentative.                

There is some mitigation in that Treasure’s grandmother cares for her and even step-sister Bethany is kind when Treasure has to leave; she gives her a designer T-shirt that she had previously guarded jealously. Treasure finds a good family situation with her grandmother, child-aunt Patsy and her cousin Loretta’s baby, Britney. Life is comfortable with Nan, but she cannot quite forget the horrors of her life with Terry. However, her mother is adamant she should return; she needs help with the younger children. Eventually her mother and stepfather threaten them with social services; Nan’s partner Pete will be coming out of prison soon. However, Treasure eventually gets her wish and is allowed to live with her grandmother. But she is torn; she still loves her mother and will miss her.        

When India and Treasure first meet, they are initially wary of each other but they have the courage to talk it out. They speak and listen to each other. Wilson thus gives her readers some hope that conflict can be resolved. In the end, India manages to stand up to her mother.   

There is an ironic twist in this story that makes it even darker. “Mumbly Michael”, Nan’s neighbour with special needs is accused of murdering Treasure.

As ever, Wilson skillfully gets rid of the grown-ups. 

Maximum Ride by James Patterson

Maximum Ride by James Patterson

   
2007, Key Stage 3,  Key Stage 4, ages 10-13, lower secondary,

This is a fast-paced adventure.  The flock is a group of young people who have been genetically modified to have some characteristics of birds. They can and do fly. There are other manipulated part-human species and all of these hybrids have an expiry date.  Meanwhile certain scientists and politicians are aiming to create a perfect world where only the fittest are allowed to survive.

Max must keep her flock safe and together they must save the world.

Most of the time we are in Max’s first person point of view though she does leave the stage occasionally and then we have a third person narrative from the point of view of another significant character. James Patterson has captured Max’s voice very well.  She is an extraordinarily feisty female and also very natural and believable.  

There is some romance but it is not at all slushy.

The pace and the readers’ interest are maintained by delightfully short chapters.