TEEN FICTION

DEMONS OF GHENT

by Helen Grant

(Corgi, £7.99) I’M A huge fan of Helen Grant and her dark, atmospheric writing. This disturbing novel, the second in her Forbidden Spaces trilogy, reunites us with teenage heroine Veerle, now living with her father in Ghent having narrowly escaped death at the hands of The Hunter in Brussels.

But when Kris, a boy from her past, appears at the same time as a series of apparent suicides, she suspects the murderous game isn’t over. Grant’s respect for the intelligence of her teenage readers combined with complex characters, brilliantly controlled tension and her love of legend and folklore build into a tantalising cliffhanger that whets the appetite for the final resolution.

Age 14+ ONE WISH

by Michelle Harrison (Simon & Schuster,

£6.99)

% HARRISON’S awardwinning Thirteen Treasures trilogy managed the difficult juggling act of making fairies appeal to older children by creating characters who could be spiteful, funny and unpredictable — just like their human counterparts.

This is the prequel to Thirteen Treasures in which 12-year- old Tanya, her mother and dog, Oberon, move to Spinney Wicket, where she discovers the magical Wishing Tree and meets Ratty, a boy who can also see fairies but has surprising other talents — he can steal memories.

Harrison is particularly good at depicting children who feel lonely or different and who yearn for friendship and security. She develops the relationship between Tanya and Ratty with sensitivity before the twist-inthe-tale ending. Age 11+ JESSICA COLE, MODEL SPY: CODE RED LIPSTICK

by Sarah Sky

(Scholastic, £6.99)

% THe dAYS when boys ran around having adventures while girls stayed at home are, thankfully, long gone in children’s literature and no more so than in the richly rewarding arena of espionage.

enter the latest teenage girl spy, Jessica Cole, who also happens to be a successful model (we’re talking Ruby Redfort, my other favourite sleuth, in Manolos here).

When Jessica’s spy father disappears she calls MI6 for help, but they believe her father has betrayed them and kidnapped a scientist. Then five supermodels mysteriously ‘retire’ and Jessica is forced to take a modelling job in Paris to investigate.

This first in a series has all the right teen ingredients: best friend, hot boy, designer names and bitchiness, but also a genuinely intriguing mystery that rattles along at speed and leaves plenty of questions for the next book to answer. Age 12+