REVIEW: The Mime Order - Samantha Shannon

GENRE: Adult Fantasy
PAGES: 528
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury
FORMAT: Paperback
BUY IT: Waterstones
RATING: 5 Stars

SUMMARY

Paige Mahoney has escaped the brutal prison camp of Sheol I, but her problems have only just begun: many of the survivors are missing and she is the most wanted person in London...As Scion turns its all-seeing eye on the dreamwalker, the mime-lords and mime-queens of the city's gangs are invited to a rare meeting of the Unnatural Assembly. Jaxon Hall and his Seven Seals prepare to take centre stage, but there are bitter fault lines running through the clairvoyant community and dark secrets around every corner. Then the Rephaim begin crawling out from the shadows. But where is Warden? Paige must keep moving, from Seven Dials to Grub Street to the secret catacombs of Camden, until the fate of the underworld can be decided.

 

REVIEW

The Bone Season was one of my favourite books of 2013 and I was impatiently waiting for the next instalment. Samantha Shannon has created such an intricate alternative world, complete with a whole host of mind-blowing characters. Paige is still in terrible danger as she is now the most wanted person in London, and the fugitives from Sheol I are all being hunted by the Rephaim.

 

The language and words that have been created really add to the originality of the story, and the way that the plot races forward with action and excitement on each page kept me so gripped I was fully submerged in Paige's world. Everything is described so well that despite it being so fantastical you can really see it. I'm not saying anything about the story because it's so much more fun to be shocked by all the incredible action! If you haven't read The Bone Season yet you really must, and be sure to make use of the glossary at the back (but ensure you don't read the last page or you'll spoil it!).

 

I cannot wait for the film of TBS and I am so excited to see what happens next for Paige.

 

- Gem.

REVIEW: Flirty Dancing - Jenny McLachlan

PAGES: 256
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury
FORMAT: Paperback
BUY IT: Waterstones
RATING: 4 Stars

This book publishes July 2014.

SUMMARY

Bea Hogg is shy but fiery inside. When national dance competition Starwars comes to her school looking for talent, she wants to sign up. It's just a shame her best friend agreed to enter with school super-cow Pearl Harris. Bea will fight back! But when school hottie, Ollie Matthews, who also happens to be Pearl's boyfriend, decides to enter the competition with Bea, she will have more than a fight on her hands. This warm, nuanced, hilarious story about friendship, fortitude ...and dancing is impossible not to fall in love with. Jenny's voice is fresh and convincing, and she handles both darker and lighter elements of the story with equal panache.

REVIEW

I found this book really enjoyable and incredibly funny! Bea is a wonderful character; It's really easy to relate to her fun loving home character and quiet at school character. Having been paired with the schools best looking guy and her ex-best friends love interest for a televised national dance competition is enough the terrify anyone, but when Bea is forced to put up with snide remarks and bullying from Mean Girl Pearl (Ha!)

It's interesting to see that as the story progresses she really develops as a person and she realises that "Though she be but little, she is fierce!" just like her nan always says! This is the kind of book you sit down and read all in one go (as I have done today!) and it will make you laugh out loud and smile throughout.

Perfect for fans of Holly Smale, Jacqueline Wilson and Louise Rennison.

- Gem.

REVIEW: The Bone Season - Samantha Shannon

GENRE: Adult fantasy
PAGES: 496

PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury
FORMAT: Paperback
BUY IT: Waterstones
RATING: 5 Stars

This review refers to an uncorrected advance edition.

SUMMARY

The year is 2059. Nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of Scion London, based at Seven Dials, employed by a man named Jaxon Hall. Her job: to scout for information by breaking into people's minds. For Paige is a dreamwalker, a clairvoyant and, in the world of Scion, she commits treason simply by breathing. It is raining the day her life changes for ever. Attacked, drugged and kidnapped, Paige is transported to Oxford - a city kept secret for two hundred years, controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. Paige is assigned to Warden, a Rephaite with mysterious motives. He is her master. Her trainer. Her natural enemy. But if Paige wants to regain her freedom she must allow herself to be nurtured in this prison where she is meant to die. The Bone Season introduces a compelling heroine and also introduces an extraordinary young writer, with huge ambition and a teeming imagination. Samantha Shannon has created a bold new reality in this riveting debut.

REVIEW

Paige's world is so exciting; it's full of magic, mystery and danger!

It's a very refreshing take on a dystopian genre with the beautiful writing, the language which is used and the imagery that has been created. It's more literary, and more *clever* than The Hunger Games and Divergent etc., but by no means does that mean it's more boring; I was completely enthralled by the plot, I loved Paige and Warden! The relationship that builds between them is not what I expected, and as the plot progresses and we learn more of Sheol 1 and the Rephaim, this adds an extra element of intensity. To me it's one of those books that you just want other people to read so you can talk to them about it - there are plot elements that aren't resolved (as you'd expect for what is projected to be a 7 book series) so I want to know if other people think the same things as me!

What I will say is that I hadn't realised there was a glossary as if I turn to the back I have a naughty tendancy to read the last few lines, so make use of that, it will help you get to grips with the different characters much quicker than I did. 

I cannot wait for The Mime Order. So excited!

Look out for The Bone Season coming soon to the Waterstones Book Club!

- Gem.

REVIEW: The Dead Of Winter - Chris Priestley

GENRE: Children's

PAGES: 240

PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury

FORMAT: HB

BUY IT: Waterstones

RATING: 4 Stars

SUMMARY

Michael Vyner recalls a terrible story, one that happened to him. One that would be unbelievable if it weren't true! Michael's parents are dead and he imagines that he will stay with the kindly lawyer, executor of his parents' will ...Until he is invited to spend Christmas with his guardian in a large and desolate country house. His arrival on the first night suggests something is not quite right when he sees a woman out in the frozen mists, standing alone in the marshes. But little can prepare him for the solitude of the house itself as he is kept from his guardian and finds himself spending the Christmas holiday wandering the silent corridors of the house seeking distraction. But lonely doesn't mean alone, as Michael soon realises that the house and its grounds harbour many secrets, dead and alive, and Michael is set the task of unravelling some of the darkest secrets of all.

REVIEW

It is no secret that I am a massive fan of Halloween, so when it comes to this point in the year I like to give myself a fright with some spooky stories. Christ Priestley is a chiller writer for children around the ages of 9-12, or big kids around 24... ahem. I have been meaning to pick up some of his books for a while so when I spotted this in the library I thought it would be the perfect opportunity.

The Dead of Winter follows traditions set by the wonderful Poe and the underestimatedly Gothic Charles Dickens. After the death of his mother, Michael Vyner is sent to live with a guardian in his creepy old mansion, Hawton Mere. Spooky events are abundant in the old house and never fails to disappoint. The atmosphere is built gradually through the fantastic descriptions of the house, really breathing life into the old walls. This reminded me so much of Poe, the artistic detail in giving a living, breathing anthropomorphic character to the old house. It is as much a part of the story as the human tale of woe behind all the hauntings.

It's narrative is not simple, nor does it carry any of the slang of modern day children. I'm pretty certain the story is set in the late 19th century, which completely adds to the feel of 'otherness'. For children reading this I think it is a clever scheme: it gives space in dialogue at the beginning to give the reader time to adjust to the older speech style but then whisks you so much into the action that you barely seem to notice. 

This has everything you could want from a traditional scary read: a haunted house, ghosts, mirrors, trap doors and a whole dose of mystery. If you've enjoyed more modern stories like Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book I guarantee you will love this. Its a super quick read at only just over 200 pages but it is so much fun. Give this to your kid and they will be absorbed for hours.

- Bex.