Review: Bloodstone by Allan Boroughs

Apprenticed to notorious tech-hunter Verity Brown, India Bentley has spent the last year travelling the globe, finding and selling long-lost technology and doing her best to stay out of trouble. Unfortunately, trouble has a habit of finding her.

Accused of an assassination attempt and thrown in jail, India is rescued by scientist-adventurer Professor Moon: a man obsessed with finding the Bloodstone; key to a source of unlimited energy hidden in the lost city of Atlantis. Now Moon wants India and Verity to join his quest.

Pursued by gangsters, lumbered with a stowaway and haunted by the ghosts of her past, India must risk everything to uncover Atlantis's secrets. But the truth comes at a price.

Allan Boroughs's debut novel, Ironheart, was one of my favourite books of 2014 and, having read it back in February I spent a lot of last year desperate to read the sequel, Bloodstone. As someone who has become rather jaded with post-apocalyptic/dystopian stories in recent years, I felt that Boroughs brought a freshness to the genre with his old school adventure story. I think also the fact this is firmly in Middle Grade territory and therefore does not contain the doom and gloom of a lot of dystopian YA contributed to my love of the story. If If you hadn't already worked it out from my blogging and tweeting last year I'm more than a little fed up with dark YA, but I simply cannot get enough of exciting Middle Grade adventure stories like this.

So, did Bloodstone meet up to the high expectations I had following Ironheart? Absolutely, and then some. It's hard to compare a a sequel to the original when nine months or so has passed between reading the first book, but I am confident in saying that Bloodstone is even better than its predecessor. This is mainly because it benefits from the main characters and their post-apocalyptic world already having been established in Ironheart, so now the author gets to have as much fun as is humanly possible with his creations.

Bloodstone picks up more than a year after the conclusion of Ironheart. India Bentley has been accompanying her mentor, Verity Brown, on her tech-hunting adventures and a potentially highly profitable find has them travelling to Sing City, the tech-hunting capital of the world. It's not a particularly pleasant place, and if you were hunting for a "more wretched hive of scum and villainy" than Mos Eisley, then Sing City would probably fit the bill. Of course, every wretched hive needs its kingpin, or in this case queenpin, and the Aunt Entity of Sing City is the merciless Lady Fang (she collects human eyeballs... 'nuff said). 

Verity and India's trading plans do not go as smoothly as they would have hoped, and it isn't long before India finds herself up to her neck in trouble, and on the run from Lady Fang and her goons, and also from a group of mad monks who have taken it on themselves to make recycling old rubbish central to their dogma. However, with a little help from a handful of new characters India finds herself fleeing towards Antarctica in search of  parts of the Bloodstone, which legend has it will give the wielder incredible power when complete.

I've had the good fortune to meet Allan Boroughs since I read Ironheart, although for some reason we didn't spend any time discussing influences and inspirations. However, if I were a betting man I would happily wager that Allan and I have a lot of these in common. Indiana Jones, the works of Jules Verne, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Star Wars, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (a film that holds a special place in my heart as I think it is the first film I can remember seeing at the cinema, although that honour may belong to Star Wars: A New Hope?)... tropes used in all of these and many other films/books are present in Bloodstone, whether intentionally or not, and together they make for a fast-paced thrilling joyride of a story that I think many 9+ year olds (and many much older) will love.

Bloodstone was published on 1st January and my thanks go to the fab people at Macmillan for sending me a copy to read/review. Watch this space for reviews of more fab Middle Grade books from Macmillan as it looks like they might be ruling the MG roost in the UK in 2015.

Review: Mutant City by Steve Feasey

Fifty years ago, the world was almost destroyed by a chemical war. Now the world is divided: the mutants and the pure, the broken and the privileged, the damaged and the perfect.

Thirteen years ago, a covert government experimental facility was shut down and its residents killed. The secrets it held died with them. But five extraordinary kids survived.

Today four teenagers are about to discover that their mutant blood brings with it special powers. Rush and three brothers and sisters he can't remember. Two rival factions are chasing them. One by one, they face the enemy. Together, they might just stay alive . . .

I am a big fan of Steve Feasey's Changeling series; if you have kids who are 9+ who like werewolf stories and have not yet discovered these books then they are well worth you getting your hands on them. Zombie Dawn, the fifth and final book in that series, was published back in 2011, and I know I'm not the only fan who has been waiting impatiently to see what Steve produced next. Finally, three years on, from a different publisher and aimed at a slightly older age group, we have Mutant City and it is well worth the wait.

Mutant City is set in a post-apocalyptic world where much of the landscape has been turned into a dangerous wasteland created by all the of the nastiest weapons that you can think of. A large number of people were lucky, living underground for years, until it was deemed safe to emerge. These people now live in City Four in luxury and safety, in a society where disease and imperfections have been eradicated. Unfortunately though, a significant number of people ere not able to make it underground, and since then they have been living in the scorched earth wasteland (think the Cursed Earth outside the walls of Dredd's Mega-City One), many of them migrating towards the city where they have to live outside its walls in slums. Many of these people are physically and/or mentally damaged by the radiation and chemical residues from the war, and disease and starvation are rife. 

So far so good. Steve has created a world of the haves and the have-nots, much like a futuristic version of parts of our own world: South Africa under apartheid; the favelas in Brazil; places wherever a minority of people possess a majority of the power and wealth, whilst the majority live in misery. What makes this different from all those other YA post-apocalyptic/dystopian stories is the mutant twist. We aren't talking people whose bodies have been mutated by radiation here: the heroes of Steve Feasey's story are a small group of young people who, a number of years before, were genetically altered, and now find special powers emerging, much to their confusion. Split up and spirited away to safety by rebels whilst they were small children, circumstances now dictate that they come out of hiding. However, due to a telepathic mental-block placed on them by one of their fellow mutants they have no idea why they are now felt drawn towards City Four, journeys that will be fraught with danger for everyone one of them.

Bloomsbury have billed this as being great for fans of Marvel's X-Men, and I see no reason to disagree with this. In fact, if I hadn't read this in the press release I would probably have used the same comparison myself. These youngsters each have a special utility that is largely hidden, although if looked at carefully a normal human would probably feel that there was something slightly different about them; something not-quite-right. Just like the X-Men is very much about the various characters, so too is Mutant City, although as well as being a strength of the book it also creates a slight flaw. Steve Feasey has created a fantastic ensemble of chacarters in Mutant City, but as all of these five special young people (and the various villains and supporting cast) need to be introduced to readers, and as all have been kept separated for years, this means multiple POV shifts. The effect of these is two-fold: in the early stages of the book it means that the plot moves on quite slowly in places, and the sudden shifts to a different character's POV felt slightly jarring in places. There was one shift in particular that had me checking that I didn't have a few pages missing in my proof copy.

Please believe me though when I say that it is well worth persevering though these minor issues as once the story gets going the pace really picks up and we are treated to an action-packed science fiction adventure. As I've already said, the main characters are the stand-out element of this book, and the way they interact injects both humour and pathos into the story. In addition, the host of secondary characters, including a particularly  nasty cast of villains, also add to the plot, and set this up to be the first in what I expect to be a thrilling and highly entertaining science fiction series that is perfect for 11+ readers. The X-Men comparison is also a great way to get it into the hands of reluctant readers who are fans of the various X-Men and superhero movies that have become so popular in recent years.
My thanks go to the good people at Bloomsbury for sending me a copy of the book.

Review: Ironheart by Allan Boroughs

‘First comes the iron and then comes the snow, and then comes the winter when nothing will grow.’ 

Since her father went missing while prospecting for oil in Siberia, life has been tougher than ever for India Bentley. Little does she know that he was actually searching for Ironheart, a legendary fortress containing the secrets of the old world. A place some say could save humanity . . . or destroy the world. 

Along with tech-hunter Verity Brown and her android, Calculus, a killer from the old world turned protector in the new, India must make the journey to remote Siberia to try to find her father and finish his work. But there are others fighting to find Ironheart too – and they have very different goals in mind. 

If India fails, it won’t just be her father who pays the price. It will cost her the Earth.

The floods caused by the Great Rains have left London unrecognisable from its former glory as one of the greatest cities on the planet. Its inhabitants eke out a pretty miserable existence, scavenging through the mud for anything that might be of use or value. India Bentley lives in a walled village with her sister and step-mother, desperately hoping for the return of her long-missing father, an oil surveyor for one of the planets leading energy companies, the Trans-Siberian Mining Company.

On an evening when it looks as if India's already miserable life is about to get much, much worse, tech-hunter Verity brown and her android bodyguard (not a robot, definitely an android), appear on the scene, hunting for any clues that John Bentley may have left behind regarding his possible discovery of the legendary Ironheart -  a long hidden depository of great treasures and possibly more. India manages to persuade Verity to take her with her as they flee from untrusting villagers, and so begins an adventure that sees India travelling deep into the heart of frozen Siberia, on a quest to find her father and Ironheart. It is a quest that will test her to the limits of her physical and mental endurance, and little does she know that the safety of the whole planet is at stake if she fails.

There was so much I loved about this book, but ultimately it boils down to this being a perfect old-school action/adventure story, in the tradition of Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines books, Indiana Jones and all of the adult quest thrillers that I read when I'm not reading YA and children's books. Writer Allan Burroughs does not spend several chapters building his post-apocalyptic world - instead, he draws the reader into the action in the very first chapter, and gradually lets the details of his world gradually develop as the plot progresses. This makes it a great read for reluctant readers as there is no chance at all for them to get bored.

Of course, even a rip-roaring plot can soon become somewhat tedious if the characters aren't interesting and appealing. To make an adventure story truly entertaining from first to last page you need characters who readers will grow to love and hate, and Ironheart has these by the truckload. India Bentley is an especially great main character and it is really refreshing to read an adventure story with a female protagonist. She is a gutsy, courageous young lady who is ready to risk life and limb in order to find her father. I have to say that it is also rather refreshing that the author does not feel the need to introduce a love interest or an element of romance for his female lead into the plot.

As well as India, there are a host of entertaining supporting characters, although some of these are not developed as much as others. Verity Brown, the tech-hunter, is one in particular that I was left wanting to know more about, although as this book is a sequel I am hoping that we will see more of Ms Brown in the next episode. Other great characters do get more wordage though, and android Calculus and pirate rigger Captain Aggrovius Bulldog were my personal favourites.

There is so much more that I want to mention but I risk creating spoilers by doing so. I will say that the book does come across as being very well researched. The Siberian setting of the story is a new one for me, and Allan Boroughs really brings the location alive. I also loved how the writer weaves real-world history like the Tunguska event into his story, adding a touch of Graham Hancock ancient advanced-civilisation theory to the story, something I've not encountered in a chidlren's book before, whilst also mixing in elements of shamanism. All of these aspects are great for enquiring minds, and I am sure there will be a number of kids who will be enthused into researching these areas once they have finished the book.

Ironheart is a great book for aged 9+ kids, and I think boys and girls will love it equally, and be left wanting more like I was. However, like me they will have to be patient as the sequel, The Sun Machine, is not due to be published until January 2015. My thanks go to Allan Boroughs for sending me a copy to read.

Review: 20 Years Later by E.J. Newman

LONDON, 2012: It arrives and with that the world is changed into an unending graveyard littered with the bones, wreckage, and memories of a dead past, gone forever.

LONDON, 2032: Twenty years later, out of the ashes, a new world begins to rise, a place ruled by both loyalty and fear, and where the quest to be the first to regain lost knowledge is an ongoing battle for power. A place where laws are made and enforced by roving gangs—the Bloomsbury Boys, the Gardners, the Red Lady’s Gang—who rule the streets and will do anything to protect their own.

THE FOUR: Zane, Titus, Erin, Eve. Living in this new world, they discover that they have abilities never before seen. And little do they know that as they search post-apocalyptic London for Titus’ kidnapped sister that they’ll uncover the secret of It, and bring about a reckoning with the forces that almost destroyed all of humanity.

20 Years Later is a book that I was aware of long before it was picked up by fledgling US publisher Dystopia Press. The publishers very kindly sent me a copy to review many months ago, but even before then I already knew a great deal about the story as Emma Newman, the author of 20 Years Later, had been podcasting the story through her website for some time. Three quarters of the way through doing this she got that publishing deal for the book, but Dystopia Press allowed her to continue hosting the podcasts on her website here. I wrote this review some time ago, as 20 Years Later was originally scheduled for a July release here in the UK, but this was then postponed, and then postponed again, and so I held off publishing my review. However, on Sunday I was informed by the author that the book is now officially published in the UK today. Hurrah!

I have mentioned on The Book Zone previously that post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories seem to be all the rage in YA literature at the moment, although the genre is one that I only tend to dip in and out of. Focusing more on the post-apocalyptic rather than dystopian side of things, examples that spring to mind are Jonathan Maberry's Rot and Ruin (great zombie story) and Moira Young's Blood Red Road (Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome for the new millennium). Whilst I would suggest that 20 Years Later is not as polished as either of these two, it is still a hugely enjoyable read. This story refreshingly does not include any zombies, neither is it like Mad Max, and best of all, in comparison to the majority of post-apocalyptic stories published this year, it is not set in the USA, but in London.

The story starts off with a prologue, narrated by an as yet unnamed person. I'm not a big fan of prologues in post-apocalyptic stories, as they are sometimes used to give the reader a history of whichever apocalypse has occurred, be it mass-zombification of a population, nuclear war, climate change, etc. The prologue is written as if it were the introduction to a book, long lost and finally discovered many years later, with the narrator begging the reader to read on, rather than burn the book for a few more minutes of heat. Whilst it is used to divulge a little information, to set the scene, it does not give us any information regarding the nature of the apocalypse (referred to as It), but a description of London being a 'dusty, ghost-filled monument to the dead' with bone-littered streets, leaves us with no doubt at all that 'It' was pretty nasty indeed.

The London of 2032 is a pretty nasty place indeed. Areas have been taken over by various gangs, and these gangs are happy to fight to the death in order to prevent other encroaching on their territory. We have the Bloomsbury Boys, the Gardeners and the most organised and strongest group, The Red Lady's Gang. Main character Zane lives with his mother Miri in Bloomsbury. The pair are tolerated by the gang of boys that control that part of London as his Zane's mum has often been their first port of call when injured as a result of a fight with another gang. Miri has a small house, with a tidy garden, different to most of the overgrown areas in the city. Living so close to the Bloomsbury Boys is not easy for Zane; he wants to fit in with the crowd, but also feels obliged to follow the rules that his mother has laid down for him.

Zane's world is shaken to the core by several events near the beginning of the story. First off, he and his friend Dev observe a mysterious giant stalking the corridors of a long-abandoned hospital, an event that stirs up a good deal of speculation amongst the rest of the gang. Soon afterwards a small boy, dressed only in pyjamas, is discovered on the fringe of Russell Square, central in the Boys' territory. As soon as the boy sees Zane's face he becomes completely terrifed, yet Zane has never seen him before in his life. So begins a tale that sees Zane having to grow very quickly, as he comes under the influence of the Red Lady, discovers he has a strange power, and meets Erin and Titus, two other very special young people, who join him in his quest to discover what the giant is doing, and where Titus' kidnapped sister has been taken.

One of the things I really liked about 20 Years Later was main character Zane. In may post-apocalyptic stories we are given characters who are wise beyond their years, their personalities hardened by the difficult lives they have had to lead in order to survive. Zane is very different to these characters - he is one of life's innocents, and has a naivety rarely seen in books of this genre. If he had been a fully paid up member of a gang this would not have been at all believable, but unlike the other children in the book he has been brought up within the protective sphere of his mother's influence, having to work the garden and follow sensible rules. She has shielded him from the realities that have faced everyone else, and as such he is not as well equipped as others when it comes to survival. He therefore has to grow a great deal as the story progresses. 

One of the things I find quite hard to believe in many post-apocalyptic stories with young characters is how every one of them so quickly acclimatise to their new situation, fast becoming great survivalists. As someone who works with children I know that this simply would not be the case - a small number might, but many would give up as soon as things got too tricky for them. Having a character who is not worldy-wise and a ready killer is, for me, a breath of fresh air in this genre. Zane has also had the finer details of the nature of 'It' kept from him; in fact, none of the Boys seem aware of the nature of the apocalypse that affected their world, and as readers we are kept guessing until very near the end of the story. Again, I quite liked this as it kept the story feeling fresh and different to many others that deal with similar themes.

As I said before, 20 Years Later does not seem as polished as other big name books in this genre. This is not the fault of the author, who I feel has created a well-paced, exciting story. The blame needs to be laid on the head of the publisher, but not too heavily. Like all small press publishers, Dystopia Press will have limited resources and less time to put into the editing process, and I think this book would have benefited from the more rigorous editing process it would have received in the hands of one of the major publishers.

20 Years Later is the first book in a planned trilogy, and as such there are many loose ends left untied come the final page. E.J Newman does end the story in a satisfactory manner, without leaving us dangling on a nasty cliffhanger, but leaves us with plenty to look forward to in future instalments. Flaws aside, this is a hugely enjoyable read and I will definitely be wanting to follow the rest of the story.

My thanks go to the good people at Dystopia Press for sending me a copy to review.

Attention Grabber #5: Dark Life by Kat Falls

Attention Grabber is my new weekly feature where I post what I think is a great opening paragraph to a book, the sort of opening that pulls young readers in and hooks them from the start.

Another short one for you this week, this time from Dark Life by Kat Falls (reviewed here). What I love about the first two sentences of this book is that the reader can immediately tell that something pretty disastrous has happened to the planet. It grasped my attention immediately and made me want to read on and find out more. I wonder how many rewrites this one went through before Ms Falls came up with this perfect opening?


I peered into the deep-sea canyon, hoping to spot a toppled skyscraper. Maybe even the Statue of Liberty. But there was no sign of the old East Coast, just a sheer drop into darkness.

.

Review: Rip Tide by Kat Falls

Ty has always known that the ocean is a dangerous place. Every time he swims beyond the borders of his family's subsea farm, he's prepared to face all manner of aquatic predators-sharks, squid, killer whales . . .

What Ty isn't prepared to find in the deep is an entire township chained to a sunken submarine, its inhabitants condemned to an icy underwater grave. It's only the first clue to a mystery that has claimed hundreds of lives and stands to claim two more - lives very precious to Ty and his Topsider ally, Gemma.

Now in a desperate race against the clock, Ty and Gemma find themselves in conflict with outlaws, Seaguard officers, and the savage, trident-wielding surfs - plus a menagerie of the most deadly creatures the ocean has to offer.

Back in July 2010 I posted a review of Dark Life by Kat Falls. I loved that book and said at the time that I would be very disappointed if it didn't turn out to be the first book in a series, and I am glad to say that thanks to Kat Falls and Simon and Schuster I have been spared that feeling of disappointment, and even more so because its sequel, Rip Tide, it is just as good as its predecessor.

After the events of Dark Life Gemma managed to mere three months living with Ty and her new adopted family before panic attacks forced her to move back above the waves. Since then she has been sleeping in little more than a large cupboard at the Trade Station, although is still happy to make the occasional submarine trip with Ty as long as she doesn't have to enter the water physically. Unfortunately events at the beginning of this sequel leave her with no option but to don a dive suit and within minutes she is again seemingly paralysed with fear and vowing never to go in the water again.

Apart from missing Gemma living with him and his constant worrying about her terror of the sea things have moved on quite nicely for Ty, his family and the other settles since the end of Dark Life. The government has given them permission to sell their agricultural produce on the open market, and his parents are looking forward to their first big deal with the inhabitants of Drift, a floating township. However, on the day before the deal is due to go down Ty and Gemma stumble across another one of these townships, deliberately sunk and hidden in 'the biggest trash vortex in the Atlantic' with all of its inhabitants still on board. Things go from bad to worse when the very next day Ty's parents are kidnapped midway through their deal with the people of Drift, and so begins Ty's quest to find and rescue them.

I likened Dark Life to a western beneath the waves, with the story of the settlers and their problems with bandits very reminiscent of some of the western films I watched when I was younger. Whilst there are still some of those elements present in Rip Tide, this time around the story is more of an action/adventure tale with barely a page going by without Ty or Gemma facing one kind of danger or another.

Kat Falls has a wonderful economy with words. If this were a fantasy story written for the adult market we would have to endure endless chunks of text about the world and its politics and the book would probably have ended up twice as long as its 314 pages. This is the perfect example of quality of quantity and Kate Falls delivers a story where the locations are well developed and easily pictured in mind of the reader. Her characters are also all perfectly realised, and there are some new additions in this book, some good, some bad and some downright nasty. As well as finding out a little more about Gemma's brother Shade and the members of his Seablite Gang, we also meet Mayor Fife and his nasty righthand man Ratter, Captain Revas of the Seaguard and Hadal, chief (or sachem) of Drift. Kat Falls weaves a plot where it is nigh impossible to work out the motives of these various people, and it isn't until the very last chapter that we finally discover exactly what is going on and why.

I think that Rip Tide would make a really good class reader for an 11+ english group. Not only is it very well written with a brilliantly imagined futuristic setting, but it would also give rise to many class discussions relevant to the world in which we live, on such topics as discrimination (e.g. the prejudice faced by Ty when surface dwellers see his shine), corruption (the way the government and various other characters in power act), and poverty (the members of the townships have a fairly low quality of life) and sustainability (for the township dwellers nothing is ever thrown away if it can be reused, recycled or repaired).

Rip Tide was published in the UK by Simon and Schuster at the beginning of August and my thanks go to the good people at S&S for sending me a copy to review. Hopefully there will be more adventures of Ty and Gemma to come in the future.

Review: Blood Red Road by Moira Young

In a lawless land, where life is cheap and survival is hard, Saba has been brought up in isolated Silverlake. She never sees theangers of the destructive society outside. When her twin brother is snatched by mysterious black-robed riders, she sets out on an epic quest to rescue him.

Post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories seem to be all the rage in YA literature at the moment, although neither are sub-genres that I have had a huge amount experience of reading. However, with a number arriving in the post over the past couple of months I decided that this summer would be a good time to see what is currently out there. I have read three new books that could fit into these categories recently, and each is very different from the others, either in setting or the nature of the apocalypse that befell society, and every one of them has been a hugely enjoyable read. This is a review for Blood Red Road by Moira Young, but watch this space for reviews for Six Days by Philip Webb and 20 Years Later by E.J. Newman.

Blood Red Road tells the story of Saba, a young teenage girl living in some remote dust-bowl of an area with her father, twin brother Lugh and younger sister Emmi. Saba feels incredibly close to Lugh, but her relationships with the rest of her family are fraught. Her father has been going increasingly potty since the death of Saba's mother, who died whilst giving birth to Emmi, and as such Saba has a great deal of resentment towards this younger sibling. The story is narrated in the first person by Saba, and initially I found it hard to get in to for two reasons. The first is that a good deal of Saba's narration is written in her dialect, exactly as it would be if she was dictating it out loud, and this really takes a great deal of getting used to. On its own, this would probably not cause too many problems, even for less confident teen readers, as it really does work and I found myself drawn into the story completely. However I feel that the issue was compounded by the complete lack of speech marks in the story, which means that every single line of dialogue blends in with the rest of the prose. Again, once I was used to it there was no problem, but this is where I think struggling readers may give up on the story.

As far as the story is concerned, I found myself constantly reminded of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, and this feeling increased the further I got into the story. The post-apocalyptic desert setting is the first element that brought that Mel Gibson film to mind, but it is the lawless settlement of Hopetown, and some of the villainous fiends who live there, that really struck that chord of similarity in my mind. This is not a bad thing: although in my opinion Beyond Thunderdome is nowhere near as good a film as the previous two outings for Mad Max (too many pesky kids), I love the scenes set in Bartertown, and the fight scenes in the Thunderdome are fantastic. 

To summarise very briefly, strange men appear on horseback one day, abduct Lugh and kill Saba's father in the process. She vows to herself that she will hunt them down and rescue her brother, and eventually ends up as a prisoner in completely misnamed Hopetown. Here she is forced to be a cage fighter, or face execution, for the entertainment of the rather nasty inhabitants of the town. At this point the story gets pretty violent, although the author always manages to hold off from describing some of the more potentially brutal scenes in full blood soaked detail. Instead of breaking her, Hopetown is the making of Saba, as she gives in to the rage whenever she enters the cage, and always leaves unbeaten, even if it means an opponent will face execution. She has one thing on her mind at all times, driving her on however bad things get: finding Lugh.

Saba is a great character: although initially I found it quite hard to like her, especially given the way she treats her younger sister, as the story progresses she grew and grew on me, and by the time she is cage fighting I was almost shouting out loud, egging her on to beat her latest opponent. This feeling of support for her increased even more throughout the second half of the book, but to tell you what happens there would be to spoil the story for you. In the course of her quest she meets a variety of other colourful characters, some of them good, some of them pretty damn nasty (Vicar Pinch and his mother are a delight to read).

It would be remiss of me to finish this review without mentioning Jack, and the relationship he builds with Saba. As with a great deal of YA novels featuring female main characters there is an element of romance to this story, as Saba meets and falls for the mysterious Jack. However, this is only a small part of the story, and there is more than enough action, adventure and violence to keep those boys who might normally avoid books with romantic elements thoroughly interested in the story. It certainly did not bother me at all, and I am now eagerly awaiting the sequel, due to be published sometime in 2012. 

At nearly 500 pages this is quite a long book, and given the aforementioned issues regarding the phonetic narration and the lack of speech marks I would reluctantly suggest that this is not for less confident readers. Boys (and girls) of 13+ who are confident with their reading should however find this an exciting and rewarding read. My thanks go to the generous people at Scholastic for sending me a copy.