Full dark, no stars

Stephen King

This is a collection of four novellas dealing with, as King puts it, ordinary people faced with extraordinary circumstances and how they deal with them. Being King novellas, the events faced are dark and disturbing (a wife's murder, cancer, rape, a serial killer husband) and the outcomes are not always pleasant or as you'd expect. There are some real gems in the collection, particularly "Big driver" which sees a cosy mystery writer attempting to avenge being attacked and left for dead while taking a shortcut home from a library talk. I can see decent films potentially being made of a couple of the stories, (like "Shawshank redemption" began as a King novella called "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank redemption"). An excellent collection for King fans, or people who enjoy dark tales.

(Reviewed by Angela)

A Bite to Remember

Lynsay Sands

Set in L.A. ‘A Bite to Remember’ is an ingenious novel based on the story that immortals/vampires originated from Atlantis. Atlantis was so advanced that they combined nano-technology and bio-engineering to create healing nanos that repair damage and keep the body in peak condition. In this novel an immortal, Vincent Argeneau, is being sabotaged by another unknown immortal and so he calls in Jackie Morrisey, a mortal P.I., to catch the saboteur. As the attacks escalate from property damage to bodily harm Vincent and Jackie discover they are life mates. But when the saboteur kills Vincent’s employees and kidnaps Jackie after she becomes immortal with the intent of killing her in a twisted irrational bid for revenge the race is on for Vincent to save her.

The character I most admire is Jackie because even though she has bad experiences with immortals she overcomes it in order to find her destiny. I would recommend this book to mature teens and rate it 8/10.

(Reviewed by Samantha)

New Teen books for a new Year

More New Releases

Look back in hunger: the autobiography

Jo Brand

British stand-up comedian, Jo Brand looks back over her life and the influences that made her who she is today. From a nice, well brought up little girl, she morphed into a teenage nightmare, skipping school, staying out all night and socialising (underage) in pubs. She talks with great humour about her early family life, providing many hilarious anecdotes about her childhood escapades with her two brothers. Brand studied towards becoming a psychiatric nurse, (even though she always aspired to do stand-up comedy) and she describes some of the places she worked and the people that she encountered – no doubt providing good material for her comedy routines in later life. She also recounts the horror of her first gig which marked the beginning of her career.

A really good read, lots of laughs.

(Reviewed by Jill)

The Undomestic Goddess

Happy new year everybody. It's time for another review from our teen summer reading competition. This ones a bit of chick lit, perfect for summer reading;

The Undomestic Goddess
Sophie Kinsella

Samantha is a high powered lawyer that is on the verge of being offered a partnership with her company until the most unfortunate thing happens, she loses her company $160 million dollars because she didn’t notice a note. She rushes to the bus station in shock and gets on a bus heading towards a small township. Trish greets her and thinks she is the new housekeeper. Unfortunately for Samantha, she doesn’t know the first thing about cooking or cleaning. Everything is great until she realizes that she had been set up.
This is a hugely hilarious book about Samantha and keeping her secret of being a top lawyer, it all goes fine until the press find out where she is and what she is now doing. To find out whether she keeps her job as a housekeeper or goes back to London you will have to read The Undomestic Goddess.
Samantha is a twitchy, jumpy person when she is in London, but when she is a housekeeper she becomes a happier, freer person. You wouldn’t want to work in the live of a person whos life is spilt up into 6 minute segments. Throughout this book as Samantha comes to understand what a different lifestyle is available you come to understand how horrid her old job was, Samantha also becomes a happier, freer person.
I would recommend this book to any girl who likes a light reading book that is a comedy and slightly romantic. It is a good book to read on a wet and cold day inside out of the weather.

(Reviewed by Stephanie)