Chosen by Lucy Coats

review by Maryom

Lucy Coats' Cleopatra, the Chosen one of the goddess Isis, is back - fleeing from the wrath of her sister Berenice, and filled with guilt that, through unforeseen circumstances, she has been the one to break 'ma'at', the balance of the universe as represented by the Double Throne of the Pharaohs. Now following the secret map which leads and physically tugs her towards Isis' sanctuary, Cleo hopes she can restore the Goddess to her rightful place and bring peace and prosperity back to Egypt.
First though, there are battles to be fought, the sand storms of the desert and the perils of a sea-crossing to be endured, her father to be brought back from Rome to take up his role as Pharaoh and the attractions of a young Roman decurion, Marcus Antonius, to be ignored.....

Chosen picks up minutes after the closing events of Cleo - and this is one occasion when it's best to read the books in order - as Cleo and her friends run for their lives, jolting away on the world's smelliest camels! Ever-faithful Charm is still by her side, with her wit and generous friendship, sharing the hardships of the journey while facing problems of her own. The interaction between Cleo and Charm is a delight to read - one a princess chosen by a goddess, the other a slave girl, but behaving as equals. This book introduces a third young woman, Iras, a trained warrior of the crocodile god, Sobek, now self-appointed body guard to Cleo, and a possible 'love-interest' for Charm. Cleo's romance with librarian Khai is moving into a different phase - he's long haunted her dreams but now he's here in flesh and blood, and will their love prove stronger than the pull Cleo feels towards Marcus Antonius.

I've always found it easier to come to grips with history when it's about personalities rather than dry facts and dates, and although neither Cleo nor Chosen are 'true' accounts of events, they still bring the times and people vividly to life. From the shifting sands of the desert to the luxury of a Roman villa, the discomfort of camel-riding or a cunning cure for sea sickness, the sights and sounds of the times fill every page. Hopefully, having read both books, readers will be intrigued enough to want to follow Cleopatra's life further as she moves from obscurity onto history's stage.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Orchard Books
Genre - historical adventure, teen/YA

Melissa by Jonathan Taylor

review by Maryom

When seven year old Melissa Comb dies in her home in Stoke on Trent, her neighbours all experience the same hallucination - at first a shrieking, headache-inducing noise, which makes them go into the street, followed by uplifting "old-fashioned" music, which spreads a mood of happiness and pride among them. For a short while, the inhabitants of the street come together, putting aside their differences and behaving as old friends. But soon the media move in, followed by scientists trying to pin down the cause of the phenomenon, then religious groups/new age believers set up a camp in the street, and this small part of Stoke becomes a destination for spiritual holiday tours. While all this is unfolding, the only family who DIDN'T hear anything, Melissa's own, are having to come to terms with their loss. Hiding behind their drawn curtains, the Comb family is slowly falling apart...

Melissa avoids the sensational, sentimental, and over-emotional traps and offers an unblinkered view  of a family trying to make sense of tragedy. So far, it's rather like Carys Bray's A Song For Issy Bradley , but whereas the Bradleys for all their differing opinions behave as a family, the Combs lack that cohesion and act as individuals, each filled with frustration, anger and grief. Melissa is definitely a darker yet quirkier read.
Having been the one most closely involved with Melissa's illness, her mother Lizzie is the one most prepared to pick life up, and start again, but another blow that comes through the media's interference almost floors her. Teenaged half-sister Serena doesn't know how to grieve; her mother is abroad, contributing only financially to Serena's life, and father Harry is lost in his own world since Melissa's death. Although they try their best, her friends just don't know how they can help her, and Serena is left to work things out alone. Harry, though, is the one who really can't cope. He just can't see how carrying on is possible but wishes that, like a piece of music, life would end; gradually he retreats into himself - from work, from communication with his family, from the world.

Melissa is a curious read -  it's told in a variety of styles (with snippets from newspapers and scientific journals), it's not as straightforward as you may like (starting with the musical phenomenon then moving back to Melissa's illness), and it only gradually seems to focus in on the real heart of the story - but its quirkiness appealed to me. Of course it's bleak - after all it's dealing with the death of a much-loved child, and the family's disintegration afterwards, but it's told with a sense of wry humour (particularly as regards the habits and 'goings-on' of the neighbours), and the 'coda' at the end leaves the reader feeling that, no matter what, life does carry on. 

Is it a book I'd say I loved? Well, it's too dark for that, but it's a quiet, slowly revealing story one I could read again and again.

Jonathan Taylor's earlier novel Entertaining Strangers didn't quite grab me when I first read it - too many ants among other things! - but I always felt it was a book worth re-reading. Having been so impressed with Melissa, it's time I did just that!

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Salt Publishing
Genre - Adult literary fiction

A Savage Hunger by Claire McGowan

review by Maryom

It's two years after the events of The Silent Dead and Paula Maguire is getting ready to settle down and marry her teenage sweetheart, though not without a few last minute qualms. She's distracted from her personal life though by the disappearance of a student, Alice Morgan, daughter of an important official in the Home Office. Alice was last seen at the remote church outside Ballyterrin where she was doing research, and an important holy relic has disappeared too - the only traces left behind are some bloodstains. Is it pure coincidence that this is the same spot from which another young woman disappeared, back in 1981? or could the two cases be in some strange way connected?

In this fourth case for forensic psychologist Paula Maguire, a lot has changed - the Disappeared Persons unit has been disbanded, some of its members demoted, others moved away, and Paula's private life seems to have settled down (though maybe not for long).
As with any good crime novel, there are numerous suspects and leads that spin off in the wrong directions, but being Northern Ireland, the past, particularly the years of the Troubles, seems ever-present. So while the team work out the hidden secrets behind the present-day crime, things that have been swept under the carpet in the name of the Good Friday Agreement have a nasty habit of popping up again.

Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Headline
Genre - adult crime 

More Of Me by Kathryn Evans

review by Maryom

To her friends and teachers, Teva seems a perfectly normal 16 year old, but at home there are eleven younger versions of herself who will never grow up. Each year Teva separates into two - the previous version stays that age forever, the new one continues to grow for a year till she too is replaced. While her toddler-self knows nothing different, and the younger girls seem happy to stay locked in childhood or their early teens for ever, the last version, now known as "Fifteen", isn't happy. She had friends, a boyfriend, had worked hard for her GCSE grades - and doesn't want to hand all this over to Teva. Teva equally has realised that at the end of the year she will be cast off and become "Sixteen", virtually imprisoned in the house while another 'self' becomes Teva and moves on. 
Why are her family so different? Can Teva stop this process and begin to live life fully? This mix of real-life problems and scary science will have you on the edge of your seat wanting to find out!

More of Me is an absolutely brilliant YA debut from Kathryn Evans; part thriller, part science fiction, part romance, part everyday growing-up problems - and totally fab!
The concept of a body that splits each year is weird, but it's treated in such a way that I found it easy to believe in - and when all is revealed at the end, there's enough scientific basis that it doesn't all fall apart  (though I hope no one would ever pursue such ideas in the name of Science!) It isn't just a book about a scientific conundrum though - Teva and her younger, stroppier version Fifteen are believable characters you can easily empathise with - they put in all the effort at school, do the homework, revise for and sit exams, and then someone else benefits; make friends to lose them at the end of the year; they fall in love, only to hand their boyfriend over to a new self - who wouldn't be angry? 
I just loved it from the first page, and it had me hooked till the last. 


Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Usborne
Genre - Thriller, Teen, sci-fi, YA 

The Road Beneath My Feet by Frank Turner

review by Libby Mayfield

On September 23rd 2005, Frank Turner played his last show with Million Dead. On April 13th 2012, he played Wembley with his band, The Sleeping Souls. Over the course of several EPs and albums, dozens of tours and more than a handful of transport disasters, last minute shows, and drunken nights, the singer/songwriter tells his story of playing in the back of a pub to playing to tens of thousands of people. 

With the title taken as a line from one of his own songs, The Road Beneath My Feet tells the almost unbelievable story of what can be achieved through sheer hard work and resilience, but it's not all glory and good friends. Turner speaks frankly, often brutally, about the harsh reality of a life on the road, from the predictable - long, silent drives for hundreds of miles across America or nights sleeping on floors - to the wildly unexpected - a dead deer or being totally lost in the English countryside. I'm not one to laugh out loud at books, or to be moved to tears of sadness, joy, and laughter by one, so perhaps it's the fact that every anecdote, no matter how self critical, is true that makes this an exception. 
Disregard any worries you might have that the stories will be a shoddily put together collection of scraps of half-forgotten tales; you'll be surprised by his ability to draw you into the atmosphere of his live shows and the grittiest moments of living out a suitcase.

Frank Turner is a humble man, and though he's obviously and rightfully proud of what he's achieved in the six and a half years the book takes place over, he's never one to brag about it. His passion for music is blatantly obvious and no matter how many hundreds of people he plays to, he remains down to earth. It works well as a biography, but for some people The Road Beneath My Feet could be a good guide on how to treat the chaotic music industry correctly. 

You don't need to be a fan of Frank Turner's music to be shocked and moved by some of the tales he has to tell; but if you are, you'll gain a new insight into the backdrop for some of his songs.

For any budding musician, this will be the book that decides for you if you want to pursue your dream further, and for any fan of adventure, this will be the book that shows you how many adverse situations one person can battle through.

Publisher - Headline
Genre - autobiography, music

The Man I Became by Peter Verhelst

translated from the Dutch by David Colmar

review by Maryom


A family of gorillas are snatched from their jungle home, transported across the sea, trained to become 'human' and used as part of the attractions of a theme park. One of them, the Narrator, learns well, is quickly promoted and receives the badge to prove he's now 'human'. But he soon finds himself torn between what he's been taught and what he instinctively feels, and when he discovers the theme park turns out to be hiding a clandestine trade he's driven to take action...

Now, this is a strange book and if I said 'It's about a gorilla who becomes human' I'm not sure all of you would be flocking to read it, but if I said "it's like a modern version of Animal Farm" or even somewhat like this clip from Not The Nine O'Clock News, where the animal becomes more human than his teacher, you might be tempted. Yes, it contains a certain level of ambiguity; should you consider it's events literally? is it, perhaps, set in some future world where animals actually can be changed into humans?  or is it a fable or fairy tale in which an animal acquires human attributes? or even a serious scientific experiment as seen in?  Probably best to not get hung up too much about these dilemmas, just read it.

The publisher, Meike Ziervogel, says it "leaves behind images that play in your mind long after you have closed the book", and she's absolutely right. I've read a couple of books, after The Man I Became, and found ideas from it creeping in to what I'm reading now.

Fables with animals as the main characters have always been used to shine a spotlight on our failings and teach us about human behaviour, both good and bad, and this story certainly does. I think it's a book that different readers will find different themes hidden in. For me, it spoke about slavery, immigration, man's destruction of habitat and the environment, and the way 'civilised' society is often heartless and cruel in ways that the 'natural' world isn't. Give it a try, and see what it says to you!

 Maryom's review - 5 stars 
Publisher - Peirene Press 
Genre - Adult Literary Fiction, translated fiction

North of Porter by Kirkland Ciccone

Review by The Mole

Porter's parents decide to move to Castlecrankie because they see an opportunity. He arrives in a car he can't get out of because his parents have removed the door handles to ensure he doesn't escape. Porter's life is not a happy one - but you can guess that. Castlecrankie is a placed troubled by strikes, mysterious deaths and Aliens. But that is why his parents have taken him there; they see an opportunity to make money out of this and Porter will help them - whether he wants to or not.

Porter is a child who doesn't make friends easily and is on medication after his breakdown - a breakdown not helped when he discovered his brother in a suitcase.

With this, Ciccone's third book, the plotting is stronger (not that it was ever weak!), the story more believable and the characters more easily identified with.

I loved the quirkiness of this story - not humorous fantasy, which is a genre I love - but more conspiracy theory put into context. Porter has personal issues. And voices. It took me a little while to understand that the speech that was crossed out in the text is actually the voice inside his head - is it his brother? And Porter is OCD and it manifests itself, in part, by a terror of walking on cracks in the pavement. And Porter makes a friend at his new school - a full-on kleptomaniac who tries to shoplift an ironing board!

Quirkiness and bizarrity in every corner of this book but it's a serious story, told with a little humour, that will have you sitting back and wondering about the ending.

Well done Kirkland - another great story very well told.

Publisher - Strident Publishing
Genre - YA/teen horror, mystery