Jennie
Jennie Blake is a native Californian who moved to Manchester in 2008 after getting married. The biggest part of the move was bringing over 1,000 books across the pond with her – luckily, she doesn’t own much else!
The Disappeared by C.J. Harper
Reviewed on January 18, 2013
C.J. Harper’s The Disappeared throws its readers right into the action. We begin with a boy, part of an elite group at a special school, part of the generation destined to rule the society that has labelled him as one of the clever and special children, one of the few, destined to rule the many [...]
Paper Valentine,by Brenna Yovanoff
Reviewed on January 4, 2013
Brenna Yovanoff writes tightly plotted and thrilling young adult books. They are also sprinkled with some of the most eccentric (and interesting) characters anywhere. Paper Valentine is no different, and her third novel is the best one yet, a brilliant combination of humour, suspense and quick-witted insight into the reality of being a teen-aged girl [...]
Katya’s World by Jonathan L. Howard
Reviewed on November 8, 2012
Jonathan L. Howard has already created the fascinating (and hilarious) Johannes Cabal, but his foray into young adult literature, with Katya’s World, introduces his readers to a whole host of memorable characters and a setting that sparks the imagination. Katya’s world is cold, and dark, and dangerous. Dangerous not merely because it is a harsh [...]
The Assassin’s Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke
Reviewed on October 24, 2012
The Assassin’s Curse, the first in a series by Cassandra Rose Clarke and one of the first books from the new imprint Strange Chemistry, has it all: pirates, magic, humour, adventure, and just the right amount of possibly starry eyed romance. All of this (plus a gorgeous cover) makes it just the sort of book [...]
Unspoken, by Sarah Rees Brennan
Reviewed on September 13, 2012
Unspoken, Sarah Ress Brennan’s newest book (and the first of the “Lynburn Legacy” series) is sharp, funny and endearing all at once. Brennan’s “Demon’s Lexicon” series showcased her ability to create the sort of characters that immediately felt like the-friends-you’d-always-wanted and throw them into a whirlwind of a plot that kept readers guessing (and gasping) [...]
Blackwood, by Gwenda Bond
Reviewed on September 6, 2012
The Roanoke Colony’s fate, whether lost, moved to the wilds of America, or victims of something not-yet-understood, is one of American history’s most enduring mysteries. Gwenda Bond has taken the story and woven it into a modern day tale of a young girl growing up in a small town, a small town and a growing [...]
Changeling by Philippa Gregory
Reviewed on August 24, 2012
Phillipa Gregory’s historical fiction credentials are second to none, and her foray into young adult literature meets the high standard set by her adult novels. Changeling is tightly plotted and filled with characters that will draw young readers to the series for book after book. We begin with a mystery and a betrayal: a young [...]
The Hunt, by Andrew Fukuda
Reviewed on May 8, 2012
The Hunt is full of monsters, the sort that run and hunt and terrorize, and these monsters are human-hunting machines. By now, the humans of the world are nearly extinct, kept carefully in “heper” colonies, protected from those who cannot help but hunt and kill them. Well, nearly all of the humans are kept in [...]
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin
Reviewed on March 2, 2012
This is a good time to be a young adult reader (or any kind of reader, really), and after the flood of vampires and zombies, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer takes its readers in a different direction, without losing any of the tension and terror that have proved so popular. Mara Dyer begins with a [...]
Everneath, by Brodi Ashton
Reviewed on February 16, 2012
Nikki Beckett is an unusual heroine; she has already fallen farther than she had ever imagined possible, down beneath the earth, in a place called Everneath. She has been there for a hundred years, trapped in the Feed, losing her emotions to feed someone else’s immortality. Nikki is unusual in another way as well, for [...]
Smoulder by Brenna Yovanoff
Reviewed on January 5, 2012
Smoulder is Brenna Yovanoff’s newest standalone novel, and it introduces one of the more…unique… demons in literature, Daphne. Daphne, it must be said, has two metal teeth. If this doesn’t immediately clue the readers in to her unusual life (and parentage), her home quickly will. She lives in Pandemonium, you see, between the fiery pits [...]
Goliath, by Scott Westerfeld
Reviewed on September 30, 2011
Goliath, like Leviathan and Behemoth before it, is an example of Scott Westerfeld, steampunk, and young adult literature at their best. Set in an alternate history where World War One is fought between the Clankers, machine making industrialists, and the Darwinists, who breed genetically engineered animals that serve as their messengers, healers, and weapons of [...]
The Monstrumologist: The Isle of Blood, by Rick Yancey
Reviewed on September 28, 2011
“We are the sons of Adam. It is in our nature to turn and face the faceless, to name the nameless thing. It drives us to greatness; it brings us to ruin.” To name something is to open it up to exploration and understanding, to mark, characterise, and comprehend. Pellinore Warthrop has devoted his life [...]
Fury, by Elizabeth Miles
Reviewed on September 1, 2011
Fury is a surprise. A story where there are very few “good guys” and where mistakes, understandable, human, or terrible, weave through the plot and push the story towards a cliff-hanger of a conclusion. Fury’s world is full of the sort of justice that proves just how difficult it can be to even the score [...]
Reviews by kids and teens
Bookbitz likes to hear from young people as much as possible - where you see this symbol on a review, it means it's by one of our young reviewers :)
