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Alyxandra Harvey
Bloomsbury (2012)
ISBN: 978-1-4088-1132-0
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack
Stolen Away is a standalone novel by the author of the Drake Chronicles (to date, My Love Lies Bleeding, Blood Feud, Out for Blood and Bleeding Hearts) and Haunting Violet.
Stolen Away has much the same strengths and weaknesses as Harvey’s other novels. It seems that she’s not changing much as an author; she’s found her rhythm and is sticking to it with little improvement (or degeneration). But the result is a set of entertaining, pleasant enough novels; and if she’s happy and her audience is happy, does she really need to push herself?
Eloise Hart is a pretty ordinary teenage girl. She doesn’t fit with the cool kids, but she does have her good friends – notably, Jo and Devin. She has her share of insecurities, but she’s also pretty comfortable with who she is. Her family is a bit unusual – her single mother dresses like a rockabilly and tends bar, and her aunt appears every year for around six months and then disappears completely for another six. She’s not even contactable during those six months.
Alyxandra Harvey
The Drake Chronicles
Bloomsbury (2011)
ISBN: 978-1-4088-1497-0
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack
Bleeding Hearts is the fourth book in the Drake chronicles, following on from My Love Lies Bleeding, Blood Feud, and Out for Blood. Like its predecessors, Bleeding Heart is an enjoyable and well written young adult novel.
The Drake Chronicles follow a clear pattern. In each novel one of the seven Drake brothers falls in love. The Drake family are vampires; they are unusual in that they are not “turned” by another vampire – instead, when they turn sixteen they also turn into vampires. This significantly reduces the yuk factor when it comes to their becoming vampires; it also provides a credible explanation for the existence of an entire family of vampires. (There are some flaws if you think too hard, such as the question of why their father doesn’t look sixteen; but generally this is a well constructed world.) Importantly, it also means that we are reading stories of vampires who are either the same age as or only a few years older than the teenage girls they fall in love with. For me, this is less creepy than all those vampires who are one or two hundred years old and still fall for sixteen year olds.
Franny Billingsley
Bloomsbury (2011)
ISBN: 978-0-7475-8381-3
Reviewed by Tehani Wessely
Briony’s life is not an easy one. For starters, she knows she is a witch, and everyone knows that witches are destined to be hanged until dead. Her twin sister Rose needs constant care, and Briony promised her dead stepmother she would look after Rose all the time. Their father is aloof, their town superstitious and surrounded by strange creatures and elemental beings that only very few can see. When the enthusiastically engaging Eldric arrives in town, Briony does her best to avoid entanglement with this wild, golden young man, but he nonetheless becomes inextricably involved in her unusual life, and helps her to learn to understand her sister, her town, and herself.
Packaged beautifully in the hardcover Bloomsbury edition, Chime is dark and twisty in ways the reader does not anticipate. Billingsley imbues her characters with a richness of spirit that lights up the page, particularly the conflicted Briony but not neglecting the secondary characters either. The author’s sensitive yet honest portrayal of Rose as a damaged but functioning person in her own right was a feature of the story, and Briony’s journey of self-discovery was authentic and powerful.
Billingsley’s writing style is not necessarily an easy journey to flow with, but the culmination of character, solid story and unexpected action is worth the winding narrative. From beginning to end, Chime is a disarmingly enchanting read!
Alyxandra Harvey
Bloomsbury
ISBN: 978-1-4088-1131-3
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack
Haunting Violet is a standalone novel by the author of the Drake Chronicles (to date, My Love Lies Bleeding, Blood Feud, and Out for Blood). At least, I assume this is a standalone novel; it reads that way, although there is the potential for some major characters to reappear if this turns out to be a series.
When Violet Willoughby was nine years old, her mother told her that she was old enough and pretty enough to help with the family business. To put it bluntly, they con the grieving; Violet’s mother pretends to be a medium who can put the rich and gullible in touch with their lost ones. Violet is sickened by the pretense and by taking advantage of people so obviously grief-stricken. Her mother has no qualms, feeling that the world owes her a living and this is the easiest way for her to get it. And in fact, she’s quite good at her faking. They live a life short of luxury, but certainly of greater security than they could otherwise achieve. Why, it even looks like Violet, now 16, could make a good marriage to a rich man.
Gemma Malley
The Legacy, book 3
Bloomsbury
ISBN: 978-1-4088-0088-1
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack
The Legacy is the third book in a young adult trilogy, following on from The Declaration and The Resistance. The first two novels were strong, establishing interesting characters and a believable world. The Legacy is an equally strong conclusion to the series.
The world of the series is one in which the drug Longevity has assured eternal life for almost all. There is a heavy price to pay, however; to stabilise population, you can only receive the drug if you sign a Declaration that you will never have children. Most people sign this at 16, too young to fully understand what they’re giving up – which means some people then go on to have illegal children. Others choose to Opt Out – they don’t take Longevity and are entitled to have a child. A very lucky few are so important – generally as a result of their career or political influence – that they are entitled to have one child despite receiving Longevity.
In this world then, children are rare. And they’re rarely treasured as you might expect. Illegal children are taken by force when found, incarcerated in Dickensian orphanages, and taught that they have committed a crime simply by being born. Even legal children don’t have it easy – they must constantly have their papers, or risk being whisked away; they have few playmates, and their parents are often shunned as rather odd.
Alyxandra Harvey
The Drake Chronicles (book 3)
Bloomsbury
ISBN: 978-1-4088-0706-4
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack
Out For Blood is the third in the Drake Chronicles. Volumes one (My Love Lies Bleeding) and two (Blood Feud) have both been reviewed here. Although there is an overarching story to the series, each volume focuses on a different Drake sibling’s romance.
In this instance, the focus is Quinn Drake. He’s the fourth Drake son, twin to Connor. And like all six of his brothers, and his sister, he became a vampire when he turned 16. In the earlier novels, his mother Helena kind of accidentally became the vampire queen while protecting her only daughter, Solange, from assassins. At least some of the assassins promptly turned their attention to Helena, and one of the early events in Out for Blood is the resulting low key and semi-secret coronation ceremony. It’s at this ceremony that Quinn first lays eyes on Hunter Wild.
Hunter is the latest in a long line of vampire hunters and doing very well at the Helios-Ra Academy – essentially, a high school for vampire slayers. She’s open to the recent truces that have been developed between some vampires and the Helios-Ra, but the grandfather who raised her believes that the only good vampire is a staked vampire. Which is going to prove inconvenient when Quinn seems irresistible to Hunter.
Jon Mayhew
Bloomsbury (2010)
ISBN: 978-1-4088-0392-9
Reviewed by Mitenae
Josie is an orphan performing in a stage act with her uncle and guardian The Great Cardamom. Alfie is an assistant to Wiggins, an undertaker, when his life unexpectedly intersects with Josie after three aunts arrive and take over her house. They put her uncle under a spell and demand to know where the Amarant is hidden. But Josie’s never heard of it and doesn’t know how to accomplish her uncle’s dying wish to find the Amarant and destroy it. But with Alfie and Gimlet’s help, she might just be able to before the Aunts destroy her.
Mortlock is a glorious book with just the right touch of darkness to scare young readers without terrifying them. It’s the sort of story I would have loved to read when I just beginning to get into horror stories.
Although I liked Josie and Alfie, I did feel their familial relationship could have played out and been used in the story more than it was.
John Mayhew is a skilled storyteller who successfully weaves echoes of Paradise Lost with a mid-nineteenth century London bringing it vividly to life.
This is a book I’d recommend to young readers who are just beginning to discover, or who’ve already discovered, the delights of horror stories.
Ian Beck
Bloomsbury (2009)
ISBN: 978-1-4088-0009-6
Reviewed by Mitenae
Eve, a young girl of seventeen, is only allowed out at night with her nearly blind guardian, Jack, to walk the streets of her Victorian London home. One day, she overhears a conversation between Jack and another man and resolves to run away to keep him safe. Taken in by Jago, a travelling performer, Eve soon discovers talents she never knew she had and begins to gain glimpses of her forgotten past.
Caleb comes to visit Pastworld, a recreation of Victorian London, with his father, one of the founders, Lucius Brown. Lucius is there on a free pass for a celebration, but has plans his son doesn’t know about. When Lucius is abducted and another man killed, Caleb is forced to flee in to an antiquated world. Taken in by Bible J, he finds himself in the care of Mr William Leighton who smells an opportunity to make some money out of the boy. But in the machine-fogged streets of London town, the Fantom lurks, once more killing, beheading and taking the hearts of his victims. Read the rest of this entry »
Carrie Jones
Bloomsbury (2010)
ISBN: 978-1-4088-0740-8
Reviewed by Tehani Wessely
Zara White’s stepfather died in front of her, and she isn’t coping very well. In desperation, her mother sends Zara to her (step)grandmother in Maine, with the hopes the change of scenery will help. But strange things are happening in Bedford and a weird man is stalking her – is he connected to her dad’s death? What does he want from Zara, and who among her new friends is actually on her side?
Another addition to the ever-growing pantheon of young adult paranormal romance novels, Jones takes pixies and shapeshifters and brings them into the “real” world, but not always in a traditional manner. She has written pixies in a way I’ve not come across and although she has made them somewhat vampiric in nature (combined with some conventional fairy-style lore), this has created an unusual and engaging story.
Carrie Jones
Bloomsbury
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack
Captivate is the second in a series (Need was the first), and as the story ends on a cliffhanger, there will certainly be at least one more in the series. This is a novel which is difficult to read if you haven’t read the first one – although the story makes sense, there are other aspects of the novel that don’t work well without the initial introductions. Most notably, the characters and their relationships struggle to ring true or to fully engage the reader.
In book one, Zara and her friends captured the evil pixies – including Zara’s father – and trapped them in a house deep in the woods, ringed about by iron and magic. But they continue to see more and more pixies, and soon a new Pixie King arrives, planning to claim the territory previously ruled by Zara’s father. Is he telling the truth when he says not all pixies are evil? Are the teenagers doing the right thing by keeping sentient creatures prisoner? What will happen if the pixies ever get free? And Zara lives with the constant fear that she, half pixie, will go pixie and become evil. Could anything ever convince her to agree to the change? Well, maybe. If something threatens Nick, who she loves madly, or her family, or her friends. Then she’d at least think about it.
