You Wouldn’t Catch Me Dead
- Written by Tess James-Mackey
Over the last 6 months I have developed a love for murder mysteries YA books, so I was delighted when this came out.
The only thing worse than being lost . . . is being found.
Keely planned to keep her head down at her new school – she isn’t there to make friends or memories, she just wants to be left alone .
In order to get into college, she is roped into a programme that involves camping in the Welsh wilderness with five over-keen try-hards. Her plan is to keep her head down, keep her mouth shut and get through the next few days.
But Keely is running from something. Something that drove her family out of their home and to this quiet town. And when her fellow explorers start disappearing and the bodies begin to pile up, she has to ask, did she run far enough?
This is going to be one of my favourites of 2024.
As soon as you have finished chapter 1 there has already been a death, and it’s the death of a teacher, what a beginning.Then other campmates are either killed or they disappear until Keely is left with just three other students.
Alongside the creepiness of the situation they’re in – and there are no punches pulled in the ways characters are dispatched – the secrecy surrounding Keely definitely makes for an interesting story and as the story goes on we find out what has happened.
From start to finish this was suitably terrifying and entertaining in equal measure, it was completely a nail biting experience.
It was brilliant that there was only a small cast of characters
By and far my favourite character was Barry, he was the unsung hero of the book, the unofficial camp leader and the most sensible of the teenagers.
I loved how the relationship between Barry and Keely progressed during the book and by the end they were best friends.
This is one of these books that make you believe that you are there, that you are cold and wet and you just want to get out of the situation.
There are flashbacks to Keely’s past and what had happened to her, this all leads to a terrifying conclusion.
I totally recommend this to teens aged 14+.
Black Heat
- Written by Bex Hogan
Exile. Rebel. Healer. Three underestimated women, destined to be brought together by revenge in this dark and thrilling new YA fantasy.
Marzal – an exiled daughter with a plan for her return.
Rayn – a rebel blacksmith with a blade of blood.
Elena – a gentle midwife with a fiercely protected secret.
Each young woman wants peace for their country, but in times of war, not everyone fights by the same rules. As their countries burn around them, and the stakes of victory rise, each woman will have to decide how far she is willing to go for peace.
But the desire for revenge also burns deep..
I absolutely adorned this book
Black Heat is a stunning revenge YA fantasy about Marzal, Rayn and Elena – three incredible women whose stories converge in the cleverest and most brutal revenge plot I’ve ever read! These women are completely different characters and this is why this book works so well. The way the women’s stories start out separate before coming together at the end, in a masterful stroke of untangled threads and layers, completely blew my mind! And this is so cleverly written. It’s about an exile, a rebel and a healer from completely different walks of life proving that women are fierce, strong and uncompromising But it’s also about revenge.and how deep revenge burns. Bex Hogan was unflinching in her and very brutal choices to create an absolutely epic revenge fantasy that shattered my heart into a thousand tiny pieces with an ending I didn’t see coming. Or an ending that I definitely didn’t want,YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID BEX!!!!!!
I had no idea where this story was going and by the end of the first quarter of the book I thought I knew where I wanted to go and I thought I really liked one particular character, but as the story progressed I realised that I actually didn’t like this character, and I was gutted that she came out on top in the end.
Instead I found myself drawn to Rayn’s story and the more I read of her story the more I liked her and wanted her to succeed , but we know what Bex did.
I really liked how the story was told from the three girls point of view, this will be a story that will stay with me for a long time.
Seven Million Sunflowers
- Written by Malcolm Duffy
The 24th February 2022 will always be remembered as the day Russia invaded Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainians people were able to travel to Britain and offered places to live with UK hosts.
But we never really heard how this went so when Author Malcolm Duffy hosted he decided to write about the experience Ukrainians people had, and it wasn’t all good.
And what a powerful book this turned out to be.
Escaping war is only half the battle as the Kovalenko family swap Ukrainian dangers for life with a British family.15-year-old Kateryno and her family live in Kharkiv. Their lives are shattered when on February 24th 2022 the Russian army invades. Their apartment block is struck by a missile. After weeks living in their basement, Kateryno, her mother, and brother, decide to leave, joining seven million Ukrainian refugees. They come to England and meet their host family, the Hawkins. But their new beginning brings a whole new set of problems.
I was hooked by this book and I read it completely in one weekend, not wanting to put it down.
This book is told in POV of the main character Kat. So we get to see everything through her eyes
Seven Million Sunflowers follows 15 year-old Katheryno, her mum, and older brother, as they flee Ukraine to seek shelter in England while her father stays behind to fight in the army. The scenes of them talking to her dad over zoom are extremely powerful as they struggle to hide their problems from him.
Struggling to fit into their new reality, Katheryno has to balance processing recent events and finding a new life away from the war. The struggles of friendships and a budding romance is explored.
But we also get to see how the host family views the situation and as the book goes on you can clearly see how bored they become of their visitors. I had read of this happening in real life which I found to be really sad.
Having followed the unfolding of events from the news, I was first intrigued by this book to read about the Ukrainian experience in fiction. The relationships of our main character with her family and others felt real, but without being too heart-wrenching. All in all, a good book for those interested in YA with inspiration on current events.
It would be really interesting in a few years if there was a follow up to this book.
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