The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

 

I didn’t realise this* was YA when I picked it up (not my usual go-to), but it hooked me straightaway.

One minute, Avery’s a normal (though financially disadvantaged) teen, the next she’s heir to a billionaire’s (Tobias Hawthorne) entire fortune and living in a mansion that’s basically a giant labyrinth—complete with four Hawthorne grandsons, who are less than impressed by her presence. (See About The Book below.) It’s fast, fun, and full of twisty riddles that make it very hard to put down.

My only real complaint is the cliff-hanger ending. I like a little pre-amble warning before I’m left dangling. However, the characters, plot and without doubt the writing, are intriguing enough to keep me going because I (along with the grandsons, their mother and anyone who was disinherited) need to know why Tobias Hawthorne chose Avery.

I’m looking forward to the sequel, but I would just say that while the author’s acknowledgements thanked everyone except the neighbour’s cat, the readers, without whom a book goes nowhere, didn’t get a mention. I hope that was just an oversight.

*Provided by NetGalley

The Taste of Blue Light by Lydia Ruffles

I didn’t really take to the main character, Lux, in this book*. One thing I can say, though, is that Ruffles is an extraordinary writer. She writes very intelligently and articulately. But that rather-too-adult intelligence and articulateness didn’t give credibility to eighteen/nineteen-year-old Lux, the narrator of the story. I would have been more comfortable with this in third person POV.

Lux, a (female) student at the Richdeane art school (for rich privileged teenagers), goes to a party and wakes up in hospital with an arm injury and no recollection at all of how she got there. As she spends most of her recreational time getting drunk and getting high, there's probably an obvious explanation for her blacking out and therefore not remembering how she got there. I never expected what actually landed Lux in hospital, and I enjoyed that element of surprise, but it still didn’t endear me to this character, who, despite her trauma, remained rude, ungrateful and simply not very nice at all. It was very hard to engage with her. If that was Ruffles' intention, then job done.  If not, it's a misfire.

The truth is revealed at about twenty-five percent from the end, and the story just goes a bit flat after that…three quarters of it seemed rather incongruous.

I liked the writing but the main character not so much.

*provided by Netgalley

 

 

Beware the Night by A. Kale

This wasn’t a very long book—a novella, in fact, so imagine my surprise when I got to about seventy-three percent and I’d reached the epilogue. Good grief, I thought. This is going to be a mighty long epilogue. It wasn’t, of course. It only took up about two percent. The remaining twenty-five percent was dedicated to excerpts from other books (the author's). So I felt a tad cheated, if not just a little disgruntled by this.

That said, it’s not a bad YA horror novel. Horror isn’t up there amongst my favourite genres, but I did actually find myself rather glued to the pages. Adam and his father, Dr Alfred Novello, lead a rather nomadic existence, never staying in one town for very long. Crofton is where they find themselves, after the death of Adam’s mother. Their new apartment, Adam’s new school, his new friend, Macs, and an unpleasant group of bullies called The Ghosts all combine to make Adam’s arrival eventful, frightening, revealing and dangerous.

A few editing errors, yes, but on the whole quite well written. My reservations centre mainly on the somewhat stilted dialogue between Adam and Macs (who became BFFs incredibly quickly, I thought), and their lack of character development. If I had to describe either of them, I’d be desperately short of words. 

It was a slightly skinny story. It needed more meat on its bones. However, if you like horror and a quick read of a decently written shortish story, it won’t disappoint.

So...I met an Alien by Paul McAvoy

This is the second of Paul’s books I have read (So…I met a Ghost). 

It’s a fun story about a young teenage schoolboy, Danny, who bunks off school to escape incessant bullying. Whilst playing truant, he bumps into an alien…as you do. Danny’s day of truancy turns out to be quite an extraordinary one. Spiro, the alien, turns out to be a decent sort of...well, alien, but he’s being pursued by some not-so-decent men in dark suits. Danny enlists the help of his best friend, Sean, and Sean's sister to ensure these men don’t catch up with Spiro and to make sure he gets back to his own people.

Danny’s unrequited love for Sean’s sister and a tragic family loss make for a sometimes poignant story with some topical and important issues: school bullying and single-parent families. And Danny is a decent character with the ability to see the best in people. But there’s action, too, as Spiro’s pursuers are never far behind.

The writing is a little raw and unrefined and the dialogue sometimes stilted, but it’s a heart-warming story, which has a well-earned place in the YA category.

Sia by Josh Grayson

This YA novel was Josh Grayson’s debut, and it delivers on all fronts: it’s well written, compelling, well conceived and structured, and…immaculately edited. Well done, Josh.

Seventeen-year-old Sia wakes up on a park bench with absolutely no idea how she got there, but worse still, with no idea who she is. After a week ‘on the streets’, she finds herself back in the bosom of her family, diagnosed with ‘fugue amnesia’. Whilst she waits for her memory to return, she discovers her family is extraordinarily wealthy and she was part of a group of girls who tormented those less well endowed with money or looks. She also had the best-looking boy in the school as a boyfriend. Her amnesia makes her a different person. A rather amiable, considerate, compassionate one: the complete antithesis of her ‘former’ self. She finds she likes this person, but fears once her memory returns she will be the arrogant, unfeeling, shallow Sia.

This is a voyage of self-discovery and along the way Sia finds that wealth and looks aren’t everything. 

The plot was simple and uncomplicated, but the message was meaningful: sometimes you are forced to look at your life and priorities, and adjustments are often for the better. I cared for Sia from the start: her fate was by no means predictable. The person she used to be was not a likeable one, but she was almost a victim of circumstance, pathetic even. The post-amnesia person is who you root for, and Grayson keeps the story sharp and focussed till the end. An extremely promising debut novel.

Aymaran Shadow by Hemanth Gorur

An intriguing paranormal thriller I really enjoyed: a genre which I’ve barely explored, and in this instance I was pleasantly surprised.

We get transported to three corners of the world, starting with eighteenth-century Bolivia. When we move to present-day India, our interest focuses on a young psychology student, Sanya. Like most young people, she spends the requisite amount of time on social networking. But two very unusual friend requests, some very disturbing dreams and scenes of a deja-vu nature suddenly rock her ordinary university life to the core: a past life is catching up with her and fast. Said ‘friends’ are not at all they seem to be: they trick and deceive her. She has to decide, drawing wisely on her psychology studies, which one is her friend and which is her enemy: for, if the wrong one—the one hellbent on revenge—finds her, the fate which met her in her former life will be the inevitable outcome.

I was immediately impressed by this author’s colourful writing style: he’s descriptive without being overly flowery and manages to paint a vivid and detailed picture, whether it’s the character or the setting. I think I particularly liked the balance of the normal and the paranormal which was spot on. Sanya leads a typical undergraduate life, socialising either on the internet or with her prank-playing friends and spending time with her best friend. You could almost say it was…boring, even. The paranormal aspects of the story are indeed a stark contrast, but therein lies the reason I enjoyed this relatively new experience of the genre: one foot was firmly planted in day-to-day mundanity. The other was in a world of danger, obscurity, and retribution. They all combine to a thrilling, heart-in-your-mouth, suspenseful climax.

My only ‘buts’ are that it was hard to distinguish between those characters who didn’t have proper names as such and the dialogue between Sanya and her friends and family is very ‘Indian’. Whilst probably quite normal in that culture, it translates just a little awkwardly. That said, it’s also quite charming.

At only 54k words, this is a shortish book, but it hides a huge story.

Love Letters by Jane Larry

This was a YA short story. Unfortunately, the immaturity of the writing, the poor editing (it couldn’t seem to make up its mind whether it was third-person or first-person POV, or if was in the past or present tense) were a bit of stumbling block to the enjoyment. 

The concept was reasonable enough; whilst her school friends are off enjoying their spring break, Lisa knuckles down to complete her English assignment: to compose a short story. She gets her inspiration from some love letters she finds in a library book. They only provide her with half a story, though, and not wanting to invent her own ending, with the help of John, she tries to find the author and subject of the letters for closure of the little romance and her own assignment. Her romantic notions, however, turn out to be very different from the actual outcome of the sweet love portrayed in the letters; and what’s more, her opinion of John, whom she thought to be a little shallow and cocky, undergoes quite a transformation.

There’s mileage in this short story, but it needs structure. The ending is rather rushed and garbled. The writing is a little disjointed and stilted (some not-quite-there phrases) and just a little juvenile. However, the main character(s) are quite convincing and likeable—I did like the fact that Lisa, perhaps not your normal run-of-the-mill teenager, was proud to be who and what she was—and the development of their relationship is touching. 

The author’s style is just a little rough around the edges, but she shows great promise.

House on Bo-Kay Lane by Greta Burroughs

This is the sequel to Gerald and the Wee People, a story about Gerald and his friend, Vernon's, adventure in an imagined-cum-real village. During their time on their ‘adventure’ they make good 'wee' friends and wonder, when they return to reality, if they will ever see them again. 

And so House on Bo-Kay Lane marks a second adventure for Gerald and Vernon, when a derelict house near to where they live provides the stage for some strange occurrences. Surely it isn’t their ‘wee’ friends they can see in the windows? Hard to resist their curiosity, they of course investigate. A very special mirror and the telepathic skills of their wee friends draw Gerald and co back into the wee people’s world. Their delight in reuniting with their old friends is peppered with a not-so-favourable welcome from the more suspicious members of the wee village, but what’s more, the discovery that the mirror is a portal between Gerald’s and the wee people’s worlds provides not only a glimpse into the future, but answers to some questions of the latter’s origins. 

My apprehension that I would be disadvantaged by not having read the first book was soon allayed. Greta skilfully incorporates explanatory snippets along the way, so that the characters settle comfortably in your mind. I haven’t read many YA books , and this was very enjoyable. The sharp contrast of the wee people’s world to Gerald and Vernon’s electronic one is sometimes comically portrayed…have you ever tried explaining what yogurt is to someone who doesn’t know? 

Entertaining, imaginative, well written, and lots of fun.

Nolichuck-TJ's Wild Frontier Adventure by Jackson Keene

Nolichuck is a YA novel aimed at 11-16-year-olds, but it’s one that adults can enjoy too. At least, this adult did. It's more than just a story about a bullied 14-year-old—it's also a bit of a history lesson about nineteenth-century Tennessee frontier life.

TJ is a rather unhappy teenager: his parents are divorced, and his younger sister, Natalie, of whom he’s so very fond,  lives with his mother, while he lives with his successful historian father. He’s lonely, hates everything about school, has few close friends, doesn’t have much luck with girls, and the school bully just about tops off his misery. One day he stumbles across an unlocked drawer (usually firmly locked) in his father’s desk.  Curiosity gets the better of him: a locked drawer means there’s something important in it.  He finds a green book. A very plain, very ordinary little book: ordinary that is, until he opens it up and finds himself transported into the past in frontier-land, where he spends four days. In that time, he not only makes friends, but his adventure brings him into contact with robbers, killers, and beasts he would normally see in a zoo. Most importantly, TJ finds himself gaining confidence and maturity. The sharpened mental reflexes and survival instincts he is gaining from his extraordinary experiences will, he knows, help him cope with the unhappy twenty-first-century existence when he returns…if he returns. How on earth is he going to get back?

The author is obviously interested in and knowledgeable about the era; the authentic dialogue of frontier-living folk was a nice touch. The historical aspect was interesting and aptly woven into the story. It was easy to feel desperately sorry for TJ—bullying in schools is an unpleasant, sometimes tragic feature of modern life—but it was also satisfying to accompany him on his journey to an improved strength of character and assertiveness.

An entertaining and fun story.

DNA - Nothing Would Ever Be the Same by Ey Wade

Truculent and defiant teenagers are not unusual, but ones that have to face one tragedy after another and deal with the consequences of their reaction to them are not.  In this story, Ey Wade expertly portrays a young girl, Debney, whose mother fails desperately in the parental love department.  When tragedy strikes, she makes one wrong turn that changes her life dramatically.  An 18-year-old could go down one of two paths in these circumstances – the road to self-destruction or the road to self-fulfilment.  Debney has to find an inner strength to choose the right one.

This was thoughtfully written by Ey, mostly in flashbacks.  Debney is a well-conceived character with spunk and intelligence, and despite the disinterest and lack of love from her mother, or maybe because of it, she is a warm and selfless character.  Her closest friends, although diverse in character are likeable and their mixed ethnicity bonds them tightly.  All the characters in this book were well-drawn, the story is nicely paced and the result is a delightful YA novel.