Flingo
14th January 2009, 10:18 PM
Read by me yesterday into the very small hours of this morning, announced as being on the shortlist for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize in more normal hours of this morning.
Firstly, I need to stress that this isn't a book for younger teenagers - there are descriptions of sex and also language that may not be acceptable to the under 14s.
Jem is a 15 year old girl, living in foster care. She has many problems, one of them being her psychic ability to see people's "numbers" - numbers that are actually the date of their death. To allow her to deal with this she avoids friendships and relationships with others. Then along comes Spider, and she learns what it is like to have a friend (and more...). Then on a day out, everything changes and Jem and Spider find themselves running for their lives.
The plot is a bit predictable, with some suspension of belief required and the twist at the end was more of a spiral (becoming more and more inevitable as you go along). But that doesn't matter. You care about Jem and Spider - you want everything to turn out right. It's fast paced and you are carried along with them as they go on the run. It also takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions.
A strong contender for not just the Waterstones, but also the Branford Boase (another prize for debut novels), I reckon.
Firstly, I need to stress that this isn't a book for younger teenagers - there are descriptions of sex and also language that may not be acceptable to the under 14s.
Jem is a 15 year old girl, living in foster care. She has many problems, one of them being her psychic ability to see people's "numbers" - numbers that are actually the date of their death. To allow her to deal with this she avoids friendships and relationships with others. Then along comes Spider, and she learns what it is like to have a friend (and more...). Then on a day out, everything changes and Jem and Spider find themselves running for their lives.
The plot is a bit predictable, with some suspension of belief required and the twist at the end was more of a spiral (becoming more and more inevitable as you go along). But that doesn't matter. You care about Jem and Spider - you want everything to turn out right. It's fast paced and you are carried along with them as they go on the run. It also takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions.
A strong contender for not just the Waterstones, but also the Branford Boase (another prize for debut novels), I reckon.