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Reviews

This is not an exhaustive list but contain many that I and others have enjoyed and recommend
Repossession of Genie Magee The Reposession of Genie Magee
by Sam Hawksmoor


Combining the elements of science fiction, mystery and supernatural, it is definitely one of the best, and most fascinating, debut novels I've ever read.
2021 edition
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Ruin Shadow & Bone + Siege & Storm + Ruin & Rising - The Grisha Trilogy
Now on Netflix
by Leigh Bardugo
Three books, and what a brilliant fantasy trio – that draws on Tolkien, Catherine Fisher, Tolstoy, Russian folktales, but makes it all her own and completely original more... *see her latest in the series King of Scars
The Hunting 0of Genie Magee

The Hunting of Genie Magee
by Sam Hawksmoor

Evie Seo review
2021 edition
Without a doubt, one of the best YA Sci Fi series out there. more


Girl with Cat Blue

Girl with Cat (Blue)
by Sam Hawksmoor

'It is a funny, bloody, colorful narrative that never fails to surprise the reader. Girl with Cat (Blue) provides great entertainment'.  Allen Cook more

Northern Lights
Part One: The Dark Materials Trilogy
by Philip Pullman
It isn’t a secret, for last time I looked a million or so copies of Northern Lights have been sold in paperback and I am sure there are similar figures for The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglasss. ...more info



witch

A Witch in Winter
by Ruth Warburton
Hodder Childrens Books

This is a fun read about discovering that Anna is becoming a witch and a caution about getting exactly what you crave... more info


Ship Breaker

Ship Breaker
Paulo Bacigalupi
Publisher: ATOM (7 July 2011)
Nailer is tough, like his name, wiry and small, which is lucky, it means Nailer gets to work on the lite crew that’s stripping the innards of a beached oil tanker on Bright Beach in the Gulf of Mexico.  He’s sweating in as he's stripping out copper wire because it’s so valuable and this is the ‘best’ job a kid can get if you are lucky enough to be malnurished and undersized. ...more info

The Undrowned Child

The Undrowned Child
by Michelle Lovric

Orion Children's Books
Take one adopted child call Teodora, add a cursed city under siege from vindictive ghosts seeking revenge, a huge monster slowly coming awake under the Venice lagoon, cannibal seagulls, anti-establishment mermaids, a vain friend and one handsome Venetian boy and you have all the ingredients for a spectacular adventure in real life Venice of 1899. ...more info

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
by David Wroblewski
An emotional roller coaster about a boy and some dogs and well deserved of its worldwide success ...more info

Gone

Gone
by Michael Grant
Egmont & HarperTeen
Set in Perdido Beach, California in the present day, it’s a pretty normal day in high school when first the teachers vanish and slowly all the kids under 15 realise that everyone over this age has gone. Completely. ...more info

The Ask and the Answer

The Ask and the Answer
by Patrick Ness
Walker Books Published May 2009
The Knife of Never Letting Go broke new boundaries in teen fiction, playing with powerful language and extraordinary characters, evoking a dramatic raw setting that pit young Todd, the illiterate but brave orphan and his dog against the mad men of Prentisstown ...more info

9

9
Directed by Shane Acker
Starring Elija Wood
Best dystopian sock puppet movie ever. ...more info

Delirium
by Lauren Oliver

In Delirium we live in a future United States where love is a disease in need of a cure – which sounds a lot like the Taliban took over and may yet happen of course. ...more info

The Magicians

The Magicians and the Magician King
Lev Grossman
Random House
Dark sequel trails Julia's extraordinary determination to discover 'magic' for herself despite the consequences. ...more info

The Adoration of Jenna Fox

The Adoration of Jenna Fox
by Mary E. Pearson
Publisher: Walker (5 April 2010)
The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a fast paced and thought provoking thriller set in the scientific future. ...more info

Revolver

Revolver
by Marcus Sedgwick
Publisher: Orion Childrens paperback
Revolver is an intensely atmospheric novel in a frozen landscape and this a desperate situation that keeps you gripped to the last murderous moment. Highly recommended ...more info

Strange Energy

The Bad Tuesdays - Strange Energy
by Benjamin J Meyers
Reviews of books 2/3/5
Orion Books
Strange Energy is the second book in the Bad Tuesdays horror series and it grips from the first page. ...more info

Revolver

Mean Tide
by Sam North

Lulu Press
Quirky, wonderfully spooky house filled with strange people, a young boy begins to suspect he is psychic after finding a dead dog on the mud at Greenwich. ...more info

Cora Parry

The Double Life of Cora Parry
by Angela McAllister
Orion Children’s Books (Paperback Feb 2011)
The Double Life of Cora Parry does not paint the past as a cosy place where warm fires will toast your toes and cream buns delight your tummy.  This is a harsh, very hungry past ...more info

Candle Man

Candle Man
Publisher: Egmont Books Ltd (1 Mar 2010)
Terrific gothic tale set in London's sewers. ...more info

Bonechiller

Bonechiller
by Graham McNamee
Hodderchildrens (March 2009)
Bonechiller is an exciting thriller that is pretty damn scary and all too real. Small town Canada is pretty terrifying most times, what with the extreme weather, everyone going crazy on account of boredom. ...more info

The Droughtlanders

The Droughtlanders
by Carrie Mac
The great YA fiction is quite often about young kids who for one reason or another rate their ability to make a difference, - if only they are given a chance. ...more info


The Gryphon Project

The Gryphon Project
by Carrie Mac
No child ever need die for long, no old person need waste away, you have three chances at life and if you have an accident or fatal disease they will take your original DNA and regenerate you. ...more info

The Girl Who Could Fly

The Girl Who Could Fly
Victoria Forester

Square Fish Books
'Seems like our child ain't normal,' said Betty McCloud. ...more info

Pastworld

Pastworld
by Ian Beck
Published: Bloomsbury
Lose Yourself in Old London - delight in the antics of adorable urchins begging for change. ...more info

Pastworld

The Black Lung Captain
by Chris Wooding
Gollanz Books
Take the cynical qualities of Indian Jones mix it with the movie Serenity and an eclectic gun-toting crew and you have the thrilling mix of Captain Frey and his oddball crew aboard the Ketty Jay . ...more info

Pastworld

Scat
by Carl Hiaasen

Orion Books
Following closely in the footsteps of his environmental kids' thriller Hoot, Carl Hiaasen plunges once again into the murky waters of the Everglades and a species under threat. This time in SCAT it’s an endangered panther and the only evidence it is exists is some panther poop in the glades. ...more info

Pastworld

The Last Free Cat
by Jon Blake
It's future without cats - most are dead of the deadly HN51 virus. Only the very rich can afford cats now and they are strictly controlled - ordinary people live in fear of catching a deadly flu from untagged cats . ...more info

snow child

The Snow Child
by Eowyn Ivey
In a moment of brief happiness in the first snowfall of winter they make a little snowgirl in the yard, dress it up and give it mittens and a scarf.

Headline/Review
. ...more info

D4RK

D4RK Inside
by Jeyn Roberts

The Big One finally strikes the West Coast of North America devastating cities from LA all the way to Canada. Most likely millions are dead, communications are down
...more info

Brocket B

The terrible thing that happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyne
Barnaby is born to parents so desperate to be normal, so mortified by a child they can't keep down, the mother in particular resents and eventually hates the kid enough to 'let him go' knowing that he will float off and never be seen again. The only person to miss him is his dog called Captain W. E. Johns.


Oblivion Oblivion
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Sam Hawksmoor

a thinking persons sci-fi movie, stylish, beautiful to look at channeling Tarkovskiy

If You Find Me If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

This is a remarkable debut novel about abducted kids more

Rule of Wolves
Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

Stunning conclusion to the King of Scars

Inside every man and woman it seems lurks a monster waiting to escape ...


coldest

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
by Holly Black
Indigo  (UK)  September 2013


Waking up from a raucous party and finding everyone you know has been sucked dry by vampires is bad
Super fast paced ultra cool vampire
thriller

GhostKnight Ghost Knight by Cornelia Funke
Orion Books - October 2013
Sam Hawksmoor review

Gosh here’s a real lesson in how to write a perfect scary ghost story for kids ... an English ghost story that is bound to thrill any child who believes in ghosts and that’s a lot of kids!


Shadows

Shadows & Haze
Books 1 & 2 by Paula Weston

Angels seem to get themselves into a lot of trouble when they walk the earth ...


Invisible She is Not Invisble by Marcus Sedgwick
Hardcover: 354 pages
Orion Childrens (3 Oct 2013)
This is the Marcus Sedgwick we like.  Strange, mystical, pacy, with vivid characters who leap off the page.  Reminiscent of the wonderful ‘Revolver’ that was also short but perfectly formed, Sedgwick creates a world and people who emerge complete and totally real from the very first page


RED QUEEN Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Orion Paperback Feb 2015
ISBN: 978 1 4091 51173
• Sam Hawksmoor review
Someone had to do it.  This is Cinderella re-invented for the 21st Century
more

Uglies Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Simon & Schuster
I came late to the Scott Westerfeld party. Uglies is the first in a sci-fi trilogy closely followed by Pretties and Specials. Set in the future in a post-oil world (oil having being destroyed by a bacteria weapon that ate it all up) the world now seems to be divided between Uglies and Pretties. ... more
Walled city The Walled City by Ryan Graudin
Sam Hawksmoo
r
A brilliant debut. Ryan Graudin explodes on the scene with a fast paced gritty thriller set in the decaying seething walled city of Kowloon, days before it was raised to the ground.




Ghosts The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick
... fascinating, tragic, and utterly compelling. Four stories in one around a similar theme of Spirals
The Book of Dust 2

The Book of Dust Vol.2: The Secret Commonwealth
By Philip Pullman

David Fickling Books
An extraordinary tale of sadness and heroics and uniquely in fiction, the main protagonist being a pine-marten desperate to restore happiness and imagination to his mistress.

King of Scars
King of Scars
by Leigh Bardugo
Given our Covid times it is a huge relief to sink into the mass of troubles that face the people of Ravka rather than our own. To tumble headlong into Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse is a wonderful, comforting experience.

The Hollow People
The Promises of Dr Sigmundus
The Hollow People by Brian Keaney
Sam Hawksmoor review

If you haven’t met Dante, the poor downtrodden kitchen boy working in a mental institution akin to the terrifying Shutter Island, you are missing something important from your library


Water Knife The Water Knife by Paulo Bacigalupi
Orbit Books
Sam Hawksmoor review

Brilliant, frighteningly real scenario for the doomed 'Sunshine' States. A Chinatown for this generation.

Rebel Rebel Heart
by Moira Young (MLB)
This is the sequel to Blood Red Road and it was always going to be a hard act to follow.  Saba, the tough cage fighter, the Angel of Death, born at the midwintermoon has killed so many other girls in her journey to find her brother Lugh; it was bound to catch up with her.  You can’t kill so many and not be haunted by them ... more

Blood Red Road Blood Red Road
by Moira Young
Marion Lloyd Books (June 2011) UK

There is something quite calculating about Blood Red Road and the story of Saba from the Dustlands.. ...more info
Sweet Tooth
Sweet Tooth
Netflix – 16 Episodes 2021/22
Created by Jim Mickle, Beth Schwartz
Starring:  Christian Convery, Nonso Anozie,  Stefania LaVie Owen +

The Best Post-Apocalypse Series on TV


The Earth Transformed The Earth Transformed
by Peter Francopan (An Untold Story)
ISBN: 978-1-5266-2256-3
Bloomsbury - Hardback 2023
this monumental work by Peter Francopan should be read by all who seek greater enlightenment.

The Future
The Future by Naomi Alderman
4th Estate
Pub: 7 November UK
ISBN: 978-0-00-864706-3
Survival fiction when the world ends very suddenly.


Navola Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi
ISBN: 9-781035-908639
Head of Zeus – 2024
An intriqued filled coming of age story in a mythical Italy


 
So thanks very much to Kooky Toons, Bookbag, YaYeahYeah, My Cup of Tea , A Dream of Books and A Cupcake and a latte. Evie Seo and many more for positive reviews of The Repossession


 
 
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