Brother and sister Aidan and Vee are travelling alone on the EV Aidan, a Spaceship, when they receive a distress signal from a group of settlers under attack from a species known as the Mazon. They welcome aboard a group of refugees – the son of their leader, Nathan, immediately falls in love with Vee. As they travel through space, they begin to question who they can trust…
The Ask and the Answer follows straight on from The Knife of Never Letting Go, the first book in the trilogy. Todd and Viola have just arrived at Haven to find that the Mayor of Prentisstown has taken over and given himself the title of President Prentiss. Todd is made to work for the enemy, the President, but when bombs begin to explode around the city, he is forced to choose sides…
It’s never quiet in Prentisstown – the 146 men and one boy, Todd, who live there can constantly hear each other thoughts in what’s known as the Noise, a germ that has affected everyone in the town and supposedly killed all the women. One day, with only a month to go until he becomes a man, he finds a place where it is completely silent, which is unheard of in Prentisstown. He soon finds out that the men of Prentisstown aren’t telling him the truth when it comes to the past of the town…
Just like the other Patrick Ness books that I’ve read, More Than This and The Rest of Us Just Live Here, I really liked the concept. It makes you think about what it would be like if you could hear the thoughts of the people around you constantly and whether you would try to hide your thoughts from others.
I really liked the characters – especially Todd and his dog, Manchee. Animals are also affected by the Noise, so Todd can communicate with Manchee. They had such a strong bond which was tested to the limits as the story progressed. I am currently reading The Ask and the Answer, the next book in the trilogy. I’m enjoying it and I hope to post the review next week.
Checkmate is the penultimate book in the Noughts and Crosses series. Callie is the daughter of Sephy, a Cross, and Callum a Nought. She soon learns that life in this divided society isn’t going to be easy…
In the second book in the Noughts and Crosses series, the story is told by Sephy, a Cross, and Jude, a Nought. Jude blames Sephy for what happened to his family, and now he wants revenge, but with Jude’s life resting on a knife edge, that’s not going to be easy…
In Callum and Sephy’s society, Noughts, the white citizens, are ruled by Crosses, the black citizens. Callum, a Nought, and Sephy, a Cross, who have been friends since childhood, soon learn that Noughts and Crosses simply don’t mix when Callum goes to a mainly Crosses school for the first time. As they get closer, they find it harder and harder to be together. Then, everything changes when the bomb goes off…
Bree is the opposite of what is defined as “popular” at her school. While most of her year are partying, Bree prefers to write. As her pile of rejection letters for the book she has written grows, Bree is told she needs to live a life worth writing about. She sets up a blog and begins to write The Manifesto on How to be Interesting, but she soon finds out that being popular is not all that it seems…
Zoe did something terrible, and somehow, she managed to get away with it. Ever since the incident she has kept what really happened a secret, until one day when she decides to write to a stranger to try and come to terms with what she has done. It’s no ordinary stranger though. It’s someone who knows about secrets – a murderer on death row in Texas, America. Zoe picks up a pen and begins to write…
One night, a group of friends decides to try and summon the ghost of Bloody Mary, just for a laugh. Anyway, what’s the worst that could happen? With a camera ready, they chant Bloody Mary five times into their bathroom mirror. Strange things begin to happen when one of the friends, Bobbie, discovers a message in the mirror – “five days,” it says. As they try to unravel the mystery, they learn that while many have tried to say her name for a dare, all Mary wants is the world to know the truth…
Say Her Name is based on a version of the legend of Bloody Mary. Piece by piece, the story is uncovered and it is not until the very end that there is an explanation of some of the scary goings-on in the book.
Even then, there are some things that are left open for you to interpret yourself. It was so gripping that I didn’t want to put it down over the two days during which I read it. The dialogue between the teenagers was so realistic that it really made the characters come to life and made it even more believable.
The book was scary in parts, mainly because as the story went on, there were many plot twists and details added that meant that you couldn’t predict how the story would work as the story progressed.
Overall, I loved this book – when I thought it couldn’t get any scarier, I really struggled to construct any theories about what was really going on. There was always something around the corner that would make me want to read on!
Twins Cath and Wren both share a love for Fanfiction: their Simon Snow stories are a global hit. Growing up without a mother, they find themselves relying on each other as they go through their teenage years. When they both head to university, Wren reveals that she doesn’t want to share a room with Cath. Without the support of her sister, Cath is forced to deal with her anxiety and adapt to life as a freshman at college.
Fiction for Teens 