The Host - Stephenie Meyer

The earth has been invaded by aliens. Not little green men firing lasers or blowing up famous monumnets but Souls who take over your body and live your life. Melanie was a rebel, fighting to survive but captured and taken over by Wanderer. However nobody, not the Souls nor Mel's nearest and dearest ever predicted what will happen next.

This story is an interesting take on the invasion story - the point of view is from the alien and just as she is swept up by human emotions, we are swept up and swept along by the story. Wanda is a likable character and her dilemnas are dealt with with and there is something very appealing about a story where it is the human spirit that wins. (hey, I'm human it's bound to appeal to me!) However, my one real complaint is the the tinge of teenage melodrama that hangs over this; the idea that love conquers all is a bit naff to a cynic like me and I did find myself snorting at certain lines! (but like I said I am a cynic!)

Despite that it is a thought-provoking enjoyable read!

"Though there was no sound, there was a change. The atmosphere, which had gone tense at my accusation, relaxed. I wondered how I knew this. I had a strange sensation that I was somehow receiving more that my five senses were giving me - almost a feeling that there was another sense, on the fringes, not quite harnessed. Intuition? That was almost the right word. As if any creature needed more than five senses."

Read more;

+ http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/thehost.html

+ http://www.thehostnovel.com/

The Hunger Games; Catching Fire - Stephanie Meyer

Set in a harsh and unforgiving future The Hunger Games (this is the second in a trilogy) tells the story of Katniss and how she becomes a symbol for the revolution against the brutal regime at the capital. In Catching Fire Katniss has survived The Hunger Games but is she able to survive the more subtle danger of revolution?
Suzanne Collins writes thrilling fiction, the true definition of a unputdownable book - like Katniss and the other player in The Hunger Games you are never quite sure what is happening next. The central character is well rounded and believable, with human flaws that make you like her even when you are annoyed with her. It is a depressing read, because it depicts the negative aspects of human beings so well but also the hope that one human being can inspire in others.

"All I was doing was trying to keep Peeta and myself alive. Any act of rebellion was purely coincidental. But when the Capitol decrees that only one tribute can live and you have the audacity to challenge it, I guess that's a rebellion in itself. My only defence was pretending that I was driven insane by a passionate love for Peeta. So we were both allowed to live. To be crowned victors. To go home and celebrate and wave goodbye to the cameras and be left alone. Until now."

Read more;
+ http://www.thehungergames.co.uk
+ http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com

The Bride's Farewell

It is the night before Pell's wedding and unable to face the life of babies and drudgery she runs away from her home and everything she has ever known. In that one decision Pell changes her life forever and the life for everyone around her, including the mysterious hunter.
More than anything; the well-written simplicity of the plot, the believable and likable characters, the believable depicts of a past time, this novel shows exactly things have changed for women and what freedom meant in past times. Pell is remarkable because she chooses life over marriage and without sounding too preachy, should be read by every teen girl - particularly those who judge their worth by how much fake tan they use.
"The open road. What a trio of words. What a vision of blue sky and untouched hills and narrow trails heading God knew where and being free - free and hungry, free and cold, free and wet, free and lost - who could mourn such conditions, faced with the alternative"


Read more;
+ http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/video/2009/oct/22/meg-rosoff-brides-farewell
+ http://www.spinebreakers.co.uk/books/thebridesfarewell/Pages/BookDetail.aspx
+ http://www.megrosoff.co.uk

The Enemy

It is true that at one point in everybody's life they wish that their parents were dead; in The Enemy, however, you better hope they are or they are coming after you. A strange disease has affected everybody over the age of eighteen, leaving the kids to cope with survival; finding food and shelter and oh, yeah coping with the unlucky adults who have now turned into flesh eating zombies.

This book is the very definition of the term "unputdownable" I started the book about five o'clock last night and finished about eleven the same night. It is like a rabid dog, grabbing you by the neck and shaking you repeatedly till it drops you, leaving you an odd mix of bewildered and exhilarated. Yes, this book follows the classic post-apocalypse formula but a) this is for kids and they won't know the formula and b) with writing this good and fast-paced who cares if as a seasoned reader you can kinda guess what happens next.

I am jealous that I am not under fourteen - partly because I would be a mindless zombie if I was a character in this story but mainly because this would be a GREAT book to read as a teenager!

The grown-ups took one look at each other, then turned and bolted, leaving their dinner behind.

Maxie laughed, Achilleus joined her. Blue put his arm around her waist. The other kids joined in and soon their laughter was bouncing round the square and echoing off the empty houses, filling the night, chasing away the demons.

Everything was going to be alright"

Read more;

• http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article6812377.ece


• http://the-enemy.co.uk/site/teHome.php5

The Graveyard Book

As Bod grows up he begins to realise that perhaps his life is not like other boys; that is maybe not normal to live in a graveyard and have two ghosts as your adopted parents. However he soon realises that it is the strange life that saved his life as a baby and may save his life again...
There is something magical about a children's book that gets it right, something that transports to you to another world. It is impossible to describe the feeling I get when I read a beautifully crafted book so I suppose I should just suggest that you read this one and find out for yourself what the magic is!
"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife. The knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor. If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately.
The knife had done almost everything it was brought to that house to do, and both the blade and the handle were wet."

Find out more;

• http://www.thegraveyardbook.com/
• http://www.neilgaiman.com/
• http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx

Hush Hush

When her Biology teacher decides to mix things up a little Nora had no idea exactly what the consequences would be when she is partnered with the mysterious, dark Patch. As she draws him deeper and deeper into his world, the dangers for Nora gets bigger and bigger.
Sigh. I made a promise to myself never again to read a book that I didn't enjoy, life is too short and there are too many good books in the world to waste time on rubbish writing. So there must be something in this book that I enjoyed - or maybe it is my masochistic streak coming out because looking back on it, I really didn't like this book.
I think it is maybe an age thing, I didn't really get the whole forbidden love thing and there were points in the plot that I just wanted to scream "Get on with it" There is a lot of interesting stuff here but nothing is really developed in any interesting way.
"I reached to turn up the radio. Of all things, there had to be something better to do than ruin our evening by inviting Patch, albeit abstractly, into it. Sitting beside him for one hour every day, five days a week, was plenty more than I could take. I wasn't giving him my evenings too"

Find out more;

• http://beccafitzpatrick.com/
• http://bec-fitzpatrick.livejournal.com/
• http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=13844

Everlost

We all know that when you die you see a bright light and head towards it, but what if something happens and you get knocked off course? When Nick and Allie die and get stuck in a strange, shadowy world called Everlost they have no idea that their desire to get home will have such a huge impact on those who reside in Everlost.
Having previously read Unwind by Neal Shusterman I was looking forward to reading this book; looking forward to a fast-paced, character based quirky thought provoking read. I wasn't disappointed - this book is a thriller at its heart and you race to find out what is going to happen, but like all good books, the ideas within the book keep popping into your head. The twists in the story are believable but breathtaking - at a few I even chuckled at the way he takes the story and twists and pulls it, like someone wringing out a dishcloth. Like the poor children who sink down to the core of the earth, this book has sunk into my brain and even now, over a week after I finished it, the characters and story keep popping into my head.

"Snow felt different than rain or sleet as it passed through Allie. It tickled. As for the wind, she felt it, and it was indeed cold. But like all other weather conditions, feeling it and being affected by it were two different things. The cold did not, could not, make her shiver. And yet as unpleasant as it seemed for the living people fighting the snowstorm, Allie wished she could be one of them."

Read More;

• http://www.storyman.com/books/index.html

The Knife of Never Letting Go

Todd is the last boy in Prentistown and in a month, he will become a man. However while exploring the swamp that surrounds his town with his annoying dog, he stumbles across something that changes his life forever and he has to run from everything and everyone he knows.


I have a confession to make...I wasn't looking forward to reading this book - there was so much hype and recommendations around it that I thought it would be one of those earnest books that misguided adults thinks teenagers will enjoy but I was wrong, so so wrong. The Knife of Never Letting Go is a fantastic novel that grabs you from the start and never lets go - it is the first book in ages that I couldn't out down and read well past my bedtime! Like Philip Pullman's Northern Lights, it is a careful blend of wow-inducing ideas, believable and likeable novel and a plot that never loses it momentum. Like all good novels; it made me laugh, it made me cry and most important of all it made me think.

"I don't know how I feel about any of this.

Doing what's right should be easy.

It shouldn't be just another big mess like everything else"

Find out more;

• http://www.patrickness.com/


• http://www.yareads.com/author-interview-with-patrick-ness/author-interviews/1673