We’ve all heard of Jamie Oliver’s battle with the British Education system to give the kids healthy school meals… right? Well if you haven’t then know that they travelled to some pretty grim-looking schools in the poorer areas of the UK.

These schools are the kind I imagined for the setting of Siege by Sarrah Mussi.

Here’s the Goodreads blurb.

“Leah Jackson – in detention. Then armed Year 9s burst in, shooting. She escapes, just. But the new Lock Down system for keeping intruders out is now locking everyone in. She takes to the ceilings and air vents with another student, Anton, and manages to use her mobile to call out to the world.

First: survive the gang – the so-called ‘Eternal Knights’.
Second: rescue other kids taken hostage, and one urgently needing medical help.

Outside, parents gather, the army want intelligence, television cameras roll, psychologists give opinions, sociologists rationalize, doctors advise – and they all want a piece of Leah. Soon her phone battery is running out; the SAS want her to reconnoiter the hostage area … But she is guarding a terrifying conviction. Her brother, Connor, is at the center of this horror. Is he with the Eternal Knights or just a pawn?

She remembers. All those times Connor reached out for help … If she’d listened, voiced her fears about him earlier, would things be different now? Should she give up her brother?

With only Anton for company, surviving by wits alone, Leah wrestles with the terrible choices …“

This is a relatively small book visually, however the horrors bound between the covers are anything but. There is an adapted Harry Knowles quote from Ain’t It Cool News directly before the title page that reads

‘If you leave this story feeling unsettled, disturbed, alarmed that this could happen – good. You should be alarmed. That is the point: to scare you, to make you not want to be another mindless, thoughtless, follower.’

When I was in school, we didn’t even know what a ‘lock down’ was. Sure you had fire drills and practising for a bomb scare, but these things all included leaving the school behind and fleeing to safety. It wasn’t until my daughter started school that I ever knew anything of a ‘lock down’. It describes a situation where you are a prisoner in your classroom until the all clear is given. What scares me the most is that they’ve had a few real ones to go with the drills. And we’re in a ‘safe’ suburb of Brisbane!

The thought of something like the occurrences in Siege happening isn’t a far-fetched stretch of the imagination. It scares the goobers out of me. So you can imagine the nightmares I had while reading about the amazing heroine named Leah Jackson. The girl who really is just a normal student who behaves heroically in a frightful set of circumstances.

I did happen to begin reading this book during a thunderstorm and the first character to be shot in front of Leah coincided with a rather close thunder clap. I had one of those cartoon-cat-on-the-ceiling moments and from there I was well and truly on the edge of my seat.

This is not a pretty book to look at, or to read. The subject matter is gritty and disturbing. However I think it is a story that is relevant and shows how things may turn, if we don’t take notice of the way society as a whole disenfranchises disadvantaged young people.

A modern day Lord of the Flies, with a far better hero.

http://sarahmussi.wordpress.com/

301 pages
Published March 7th 2013 by Hodder Children’s Books (first published March 1st 2013)
ISBN13: 9781444910087

I reviewed Night School #1 back in early 2012. So to receive book #2, Legacy, to review made me smile.

Goodreads blurb reads …

“In the last year, Allie’s survived three arrests, two breakups and one family breakdown. The only bright point has been her new life at Cimmeria Academy. It’s the one place she’s felt she belongs. And the fact that it’s brought dark-eyed Carter West into her life hasn’t hurt either. But far from being a safe haven, the cloistered walls of Cimmeria are proving more dangerous than Allie could have imagined. The students and faculty are under threat, and Allie’s family – from her mysterious grandmother to her runaway brother – are at the centre of the storm. Allie is going to have to choose between protecting her family and trusting her friends. But secrets have a way of ripping even the strongest relationships apart…”

Allie has done a little growing up since the dramas at the end of book 1. There are fewer secrets and her relationships are becoming more complex and strained. She is inducted into the mysterious ‘Night School’, and things progress from there. The conspiracy theory feel of Legacy was something I found quite appealing.

Daugherty’s writing style has hit it’s stride. Between character story arcs and the intensity of the suspense, the thought that this series will most likely only run on for 1 or 2 more books makes me pout a little.

I’m not entirely a fan of books set in a boarding school, however I do have a few exceptions. This series would be one of the few.

Fracture, book 3 of Night School is due out some time in 2013. Looks like it’ll be one not to miss.

http://www.cjdaugherty.com/

Paperback, 385 pages

Published January 3rd 2013 by Atom

ISBN: 1907411224 (Isbn13: 9781907411229)

For those who don’t know, I have an hereditary eye condition with a name as long as your arm. The short version is I can’t see out of my left eye and the shape of my eyes sets me apart from ‘normality’. I am used to questions about my nationality that hurt my feelings, and until this year I had been passed over for paying jobs for almost half my life. All because I don’t look ‘normal’.

This book made me think about how would I feel if I looked completely normal and the issues were inside my mind instead? The stigmas surrounding mental illness and social anxieties.

Blurb from goodreads.com

“‘You’re just a freak. You’re just a stupid freak. Freaks don’t
speak. Freaks shouldn’t speak. Don’t talk out of your head or the swirly clouds will eat you because sometimes clouds have teeth.’

Jason’s best friend, Sunshine, has vanished. If only Jason could push through all the voices in his head, he’d know what happened; he’d tell everyone; he’d find her. But then people don’t always listen to kids like Jason…”

I will not pretend to know what it’s like to have schizophrenia, or ADD or ADHD or any of the other ‘alphabets’ mentioned in this tell-it-how-it-is novel. I can however relate to society not taking me seriously. Pushing me aside to get what they think they can’t get from me. Things like ethics, courage, and a sense of responsibility.

This is how Freak (Jason), and Drip (Derrick) spend most of the book – proving to the adults that they are capable of making decisions, and helping to find Sunshine. They do have functioning brains and ideas of their own. But nobody listens to an alphabet, right?

I believe strongly that this book should be compulsory reading for kids 13 and up. An age bracket where society believes empathy doesn’t exist. It does, though I think books like this would help trigger a generation of socially aware, de stigmatised adults who realise letters are just that, letters. Who you are should be taken more on how you contribute to the lives around you, rather than the label you’ve been given.

Susan Vaught, has an undeniable talent for in-your-face realism and an unflinching view of how society should step up and be accountable.

Thank you for the chance to read Freaks Like Us. The world will never look the same to me again.

http://susanvaught.com/

Paperback, UK, 240 pages

Published January 3rd 2013 by Bloomsbury UK (first published September 4th 2012)

ISBN: 1408836165 (ISBN13: 9781408836163)

“Turning sixteen isn’t what Nick Gautier thought it would be. While other boys his age are worried about prom dates and applying for college, Nick is neck deep in enemies out to stop him from living another day. No longer sure if he can trust anyone, his only ally seems to be the one person he’s been told will ultimately kill him. Those out to get him have summoned an ancient force so powerful even the gods fear it. As Nick learns to command and control the elements, the one he must master in order to combat his latest foe is the one most likely to destroy him. If he is to survive this latest round, he will ultimately have to sacrifice a part of himself.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon is a seasoned professional when it comes to writing her multiple series and intertwined plots. Inferno is the fourth book in the Chronicles of Nick and she’s done it again. This one is a winner.

I have been pondering if hearing book 3, Infamous, on audio book has helped me get the voices straight in my head or if they muddy my opinion from books one and two. Whichever it is, the character voices are loud and clear. Nick has had to grow up really quickly and is making it work in his own disastrous way.

The story arc is peaking and I am beginning to wonder if the outcome of Nick’s books will end up rewriting some of the Dark Hunter series. And so as to not give spoilers, I won’t go into too much detail. Simi is the only thing I have to say on the matter. Hmm.

Every time I read another of Kenyon’s books, I ache to see if New Orleans is really as magnificent as she makes it feel to me. Stinking hot summers and cold winters. Crazy people and danger… and good food, she can not be telling lies about the food.

I found the pacing to be quick enough to keep me reading and I had it done and dusted within two days.

There was the signature self-deprecating humour we’ve gotten to know and love from Nick and his fellow cast mates. I think I actually managed to get this one read over a weekend so I didn’t snort-giggle on the bus and make anyone look at me weirdly.

If you haven’t read it yet, I’d put it on the TBR for somewhere a little later in the year to prevent you aching and yearning for the next instalment, Illusion, which isn’t due out until March 2014, and is looking to be gearing up to be pretty intense.

Can not wait!

http://www.sherrilynkenyon.com/

Paperback, 441 pages

Published April 9th 2013 by Little, Brown Book Group

Goodreads has practically been screaming at me to pick this book up through their recommendations page since some time last year. I saw it in a discount book shop in January and now I have an extra space on my YA recommendation list as well as a humorous, sweet book.

The goodreads blurb reads…

“Lily Sanderson has a secret, and it’s not that she has a huge crush on gorgeous swimming god Brody Bennett, who makes her heart beat flipper-fast. Unrequited love is hard enough when you’re a normal teenage girl, but when you’re half human, half mermaid like Lily, there’s no such thing as a simple crush.

Lily’s mermaid identity is a secret that can’t get out, since she’s not just any mermaid – she’s a Thalassinian princess. When Lily found out three years ago that her mother was actually a human, she finally realized why she didn’t feel quite at home in Thalassinia, and she’s been living on land and going to Seaview high school ever since, hoping to find where she truly belongs. Sure, land has its problems – like her obnoxious, biker boy neighbor Quince Fletcher – but it has that one major perk – Brody. The problem is, mermaids aren’t really the casual dating type – when they “bond,” it’s for life.

When Lily’s attempt to win Brody’s love leads to a tsunami-sized case of mistaken identity, she is in for a tidal wave of relationship drama, and she finds out, quick as a tailfin flick, that happily-ever-after never sails quite as smoothly as you planned.”

As you can imagine there are plenty of snort-giggle worthy moments. Classic one liners, words that would be swearing in regular language being switched out for sea-themed words.. ie: Crap being switched out for carp… and that’s all before the disaster strikes. Love, love, love it.

I’m sure we can all relate to the feeling of being like a fish out of water at some stage in our lives. Lilly just does it with class.

Tera Lynn Childs has done a nice job of making her characters endearing. Quince would have to be my favourite. Added bonus is there’s a recipe in the back of the book, for Mermaid Cupcakes. My daughter is hitting me up to make them over the Easter holidays. I’m sure they’ll be delish.

Book 2, Fins are Forever, will certainly be on my must have list for this year.

http://teralynnchilds.com/

Paperback, 336 pages

Published June 28th 2011 by Katherine Tegen Books (first published May 19th 2010)

ISBN 0061914673 (ISBN13: 9780061914676)

Cora from Vintage or Tacky does a whimsical mermaid Queen tutorial