We have lots of new fiction in the library this term. Here are my first three top picks!
Dear Edward by Anne Napolitano.
I loved this
book and would happily read it again. Edward is the only survivor of a plane
crash. The other 191 passengers including his parents and brother all died.
Living with his aunt and uncle he tries to make sense of his grief and also why
he survived and no one else did. You are really rooting for him and the
characters around him who are trying to help. The chapters swap between
Edward’s life after the crash and the plane journey from check-in to disaster.
You meet some of the passengers and their characters are drawn so well that you
really want to get to know them better and the fact you know that they are
going to die makes it more poignant. Edward is really struggling until he finds
hundreds of letters that the relatives of the dead passengers have written to
him and he has to decide what he is going to do with all their requests.
The Last Day
by Andrew Murray
What would
happen if the earth stopped rotating and therefore half of it was plunged into
darkness and half in searing heat? This novel is set in the very near future
where Britain is one of the few places habitable situated in the part of the
globe that lies between unbearable heat and frozen wastes. Dr Ellen Hopper
receives a request to meet her dying Oxford professor for the last time and
leaves the sanctuary of her North Sea oil rig studying ocean currents and comes
to London. Instantly it is clear that Professor Thorne wants to give her
something that the dictatorship powers in Britain are also very keen to get
hold of. Trying to stay one step ahead of the authority, Ellen is desperate to
find out what Thorne has been hiding these 15 years and in doing so comes to
terms with her past as well. Good paced novel with believable characters and
believable scenarios. I really enjoyed it!
The
Crooked Mask by Rachel
Burge
This novel
is the sequel to The Twisted Tree.
Martha continues to explore her gift of reading emotions from people’s clothes.
The story is set in a very creepy circus with lots of Norse gods and myths especially
Loki and Odin. Martha is trying to find out why Nina (her sort -of -boyfriend’s
ex-girlfriend) is haunting her and in doing so realises not everyone can be
trusted. I loved this Gothic horror novel but found it difficult to read it
just before bedtime!
Mrs Godden