Friday January 18, 2013
Of mystery and magic
Compiled by Natashya Khoo and Wu Yee Pheng
The Shattering
Author: Karen Healey
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 320 pages
FRAUGHT with grief after her brother’s suicide, Keri wants very much to believe what her childhood friend Janna is saying – that it wasn’t suicide, it was murder.
Janna, too, lost her brother to an apparent suicide years before. And then there was Sione, who had also lost a brother in a similar manner. Could this be the carefully concealed work of a serial killer?
Kiwi writer Karen Healey offers not just the expected young adult fic-romance but also suspense as well as Maori rituals and different characters in a New Zealand setting that readers weaned on American and British YA novels will find unusual.
Splintered
Author: A.G. Howard
Publisher: Amulet Books, 384 pages
ALYSSA Gardner can hear the whispers of insects and flowers. Like her mother, she inherited the condition from her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Caroll’s Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland.
When her mother’s mental health worsens, Alyssa is plunged into the real Wonderland with her friend Jeb.
Somehow, Alyssa has to fix all the mistakes Alice left behind and save her family. Meanwhile, she also has to choose who to trust in the unknown, magical world.
Will it be her secret crush Jeb or her guide through Wonderland, Morpheus?
Crewel
Author: Gennifer Albin
Publisher: Faber & Faber, 360 pages
ADELICE Lewys lives in a world where some special people called Spinsters can manipulate reality to their liking, but are controlled by a corrupt government.
When her parents discover that Adelice possesses the ability too, they train her to hide it. Because being a Spinster would mean that she would be dictating the lives of others – what they eat, what they wear and when they die – based on the orders of the Guild.
Plunged into a world of deadly politics and a forbidden romance too, Adelice has to find out the dire truth about her powers and preserve her entire society.
Poison Princess
Author: Kresley Cole
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 368 pages
EVANGELINE “Evie” Greene can see the future, but she doesn’t know that yet. Not until she realises that her hallucinations are visions of what would be. What might come to pass are apocalyptic events that destroy her hometown and kill those she loves. Desperate to find out the truth about her unique ability, she turns to her classmate, Jack Deveaux, for aid.
On their quest, the two meet others who also have special powers and they find out that Evie is part of an ancient prophecy that is being played out. And in this battle between good and evil, Evie is stuck without knowing who is on which side.
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