YOUNG ADULT
THE TRUTH AND LIES OF ELLA BLACK by Emily Barr (Penguin £7.99) eLLa BLaCK is constantly battling the dark, destructive voice inside her head — a voice she names Bella — and keeps ‘her’ a secret from even her closest friend.
as her 18th birthday nears, ella is suddenly whisked away to rio de Janeiro by her overprotective adoptive parents.
But why? and why will they not let her go out alone or contact anyone from home?
tortured by the increasingly vocal Bella, she meets Christian, a handsome american tourist, to whom she confesses her innermost fears. But can she trust him? Barr is superb at evoking the heightened emotions of adolescence: the exhilarating thrill of first love, the intensity of fear and rage at adults’ deception and the need to discover one’s own identity.
with disturbing undertones, vivid characters and authentic dialogue, this is a worthy successor to her wonderful debut, the one Memory of flora Banks.
OUTWALKERS by Fiona Shaw (David Fickling £10.99) IN tHIS dystopian near-future, the english Coalition has microchipped all inhabitants to monitor their every move and stop them breaching the trumplike wall built at the border with independent Scotland.
Newly orphaned Jake breaks out of his boarding school, rescues his adored dog Jet and falls in with a gang of renegade young outwalkers who have removed their microchips and survive on their wits, skills and fierce loyalty to one another.
Jake’s scientist parents, who were killed in a mysterious car crash, made him promise that he’d escape to his Scottish grandparents if they died, so he enlists the help of the outwalkers to travel north.
In doing so, the outlaws discover a horrifying secret . . .
gripping, action-packed, but with moments of tenderness, Shaw’s first Ya novel tackles contemporary issues, balancing them with timeless themes of love, loyalty and freedom.
GOODBYE, PERFECT by Sara Barnard (Macmillan £7.99) tHere’S a very modern issue at the heart of this challenging novel, too, in which adopted misfit eden is shocked to learn her best friend Bonnie, the a-grade ‘good’ girl, has run away with her much older music teacher.
Secretly contacted by a lovestruck (or should that be ‘groomed’?) Bonnie, eden’s loyalties are called into conflict as she worries for her friend, but can’t betray her confidence.
what Barnard really examines in this thought-provoking and controversial story is what constitutes good and bad behaviour, how parental pressures and unconditional love can shape adolescents and how easily vulnerable teenagers can be manipulated.
eden is a terrific character, veering heartbreakingly between honesty and self- deception as she navigates her broken past and optimistic future.