YA & Children’s Book Recommends Jan-Jun 2016 (Waterstones Links)

DARKEST NIGHT

Will Hill

9780007505913

PB

8.99

Harpercollins Children’s

Department 19

The epic conclusion in the blood-poundingly brilliant Department 19 series, from bestselling author, Will Hill. #YoungAdult

The brave men and women of Department 19 have fought Dracula at every turn, but now Zero Hour has passed and the ancient vampire is at full strength.

Inside Department 19, the Operators are exhausted and fractured. Jamie, Larissa, Matt and Kate are each struggling with their own demons. When the friends need each other most, they are further apart than ever.

Outside the Department, the world reels from the revelation that vampires are real. Violence and paranoia spread around the globe and, when it finally comes, Dracula’s opening move is more vicious than anyone could have imagined.

A final battle looms between the forces of darkness and the last, massed ranks of those who stand against it. A battle that will define the future of humanity. A battle that simply cannot be lost…

ETERNITY’S WHEEL

Neil Gaiman, Michael Reaves & Mallory Reaves

9780007523481

PB

7.99

Harpercollins Children’s

Interworld

3

The heart-pounding conclusion to the InterWorld series, by award-winning writers Neil Gaiman, Michael Reaves and Mallory Reaves #YoungAdult

As the threat of FrostNight looms ever closer, Joey Harker seeks out more of his fellow Walkers across the Altiverse, training them as fast as he can. But even a solid team of recruits can’t prepare Joey for the ultimate showdown with InterWorld’s enemies, old and new.

Joey never wanted to be in charge. But he’s the one everyone is looking to now, and he’ll have to step up if he has any hope of saving InterWorld, the Multiverse, and everything in between.

ARENA 13

Joseph Delaney

9781782954057

PB

6.99

Red Fox

The first book in the exhilarating new fantasy sequence from Joseph Delaney, the multi-million-selling author of The Spook’s Apprentice.

#YoungAdult

Welcome to Arena 13. Here warriors fight. Death is never far away . . .

Leif has one ambition: to become the best fighter in the notorious Arena 13. Here, punters place wagers on which fighter will draw first blood. And in grudge matches, they bet on which fighter will die.

But the country is terrorized by the creature Hob, an evil being who delights in torturing its people, displaying his devasting power by challenging an Arena 13 combatant in a fight to the death whenever he chooses. And this is exactly what Leif wants . . .

For he knows Hob’s crimes well. and at the heart of his ambition burns the desire for vengeance. Leif is going to take on the monster who destroyed his family. Even if it kills him.

SPOOKS: THE DARK ARMY

Joseph Delaney

9780370332239

HB

12.99

The Bodley Head

Spooks: The Starblade Chronicles

#YoungAdult

This is the second terrifying tale in the Spook’s spin-off series from bestselling author Joseph Delaney. Thomas Ward was working as the new County Spook, fighting the Dark with his own apprentice. But a new enemy stirred in the north, and Tom’s calling required him to leave his home and lead an uprising against a legion of beasts: creatures of the dark intent on locking the whole earth in a never-ending winter.

Then something went horribly wrong, and now Tom lies cold in a grave, while those who remain are in despair. Who can now take up the battle? And how much time remains before the dark army brings the fight back to the County, and the world is changed for ever?

MARTians

Blythe Woolston

9781406341393

PB

6.99

Walker Books

Sharp and satirical, this dark comedy will appeal to fans of M.T. Anderson’s groundbreaking dystopia, Feed. #YoungAdult

An unsettling story of consumerism gone mad, MARTians brilliantly imagines “a world that is part Kafka and part Orwell” (Booklist). Last girl Zoë Zindleman, numerical ID 009-99-9999, is starting work at AllMART, where “your smile is the AllMART welcome mat”. Her living arrangements are equally bleak: she can wait for her home to be repossessed now that AnnaMom has left, or move to the Warren, an abandoned shopping centre, to live with the other left-behind children.

As Zoë struggles to find her place in a world that has consumed itself beyond redemption, she realizes she isn’t ready to disappear into the AllMART abyss quite yet. Zoë wants to live.

THE NOVICE

Taran Matharu

9781444923995

PB

16.99

Hodder Children’s

The Summoner

1

Fletcher was nothing more than a humble blacksmith’s apprentice, when a chance encounter leads to the discovery that he has the ability to summon demons from another world. Chased from his village for a crime he did not commit, he must travel with his demon to the Vocans Academy, where the gifted are trained in the art of summoning.

The academy will put Fletcher through a gauntlet of gruelling lessons, training him as a battlemage to fight in the Hominum Empire’s war against the savage orcs. Rubbing shoulders with the children of the most powerful nobles in the land, Fletcher must tread carefully. The power hungry Forsyth twins lurk in the shadows, plotting to further their family’s interests. Then there is Sylva, an elf who will do anything she can to forge an alliance between her people and Hominum, even if it means betraying her friends. Othello is the first ever dwarf at the academy, and his people have long been oppressed by Hominum’s rulers, which provokes tension amongst those he studies alongside.

Fletcher will find himself caught in the middle of powerful forces, with nothing but his demon Ignatius to help him. As the pieces on the board manoeuvre for supremacy, Fletcher must decide where his loyalties lie. The fate of an empire is in his hands …

BONUS MATERIAL: Find out more about Demons in a detailed DEMONOLOGY – exclusive to this paperback edition.

‘Friendship, loyalty, magic and political intrigue beckon …’ The Bookseller

Check out our Author Profile of Taran on Carabas here, and read an extract of The Summoner – The Novice here!

*

REBEL OF THE SANDS

Alwyn Hamilton

9780571325252

PB

£7.99

Faber

Sold immediately at auction across the world, this phenomenal novel is the first in a trilogy packed with shooting contests, train robberies, festivals under the stars, powerful Djinni magic and an electrifying love story. This promises to be a global super lead.

“Tell me that and we’ll go. Right now. Save ourselves and leave this place to burn. Tell me that’s how you want your story to go and we’ll write it straight across the sand.”

Dustwalk is Amani’s home. The desert sand is in her bones. But she wants to escape. More than a want. A need.

Then a foreigner with no name turns up to save her life, and with him the chance to run. But to where? The desert plains are full of danger. Sand and blood are swirling, and the Sultan’s enemies are on the rise.

BULLET CATCHER

Joaquin Lowe

9781471405068

PB

£7.99

Hot Key Books

A coming-of-age tale reimagined as a searing Western epic In the small town of Sand, populated by gunslingers and surrounded by endless desert, Imma washes dishes and grieves for a life she never had.

She and her brother, Nikko, dreamed of escaping to become bullet catchers, a legendary band of outlaws who can deflect bullets with their hands. But they were wiped out years ago, Nikko with them. And leaving is impossible when walking into the desert means certain death.

When she sees a stranger catch a man’s bullet and turn it back on him, Imma knows it can only mean one thing: the bullet catchers live on, and this is her way out. Determined to follow him, Imma starts a journey that will take her to her physical extremes and force her to question just what family means and who she really is: bullet catcher or gunslinger; hero or monster.

BURNING MIDNIGHT

Will McIntosh

9781509803569

PB

£6.99

Macmillan

For fans of The Maze Runner and The 5th Wave, this debut YA novel from Hugo Award-winner Will McIntosh pits four teens against an evil billionaire in the race of a lifetime.

Sully is a sphere dealer at a flea market. It doesn’t pay much – Alex Holliday’s stores have muscled out most of the independent sellers – but it helps him and his mum make the rent. No one knows where the brilliant-coloured spheres came from. One day they were just there, hidden all over the earth like huge gemstones. Burn a pair and they make you a little better: an inch taller, skilled at maths, better-looking. The rarer the sphere, the greater the improvement – and the more expensive the sphere.

When Sully meets Hunter, a girl with a natural talent for finding spheres, the two start searching together. What they find will change more than just their lives . . . Because the entire world fights over spheres, but no one knows why they’re here or what their powers are . . . until now.

THESE DARK WINGS

John Owen Theobald

9781784974312

HB

£12.99

Head of Zeus

The Ravenmaster Trilogy

1

After her mother is killed in the Blitz and her father in the Western Desert, 12-year-old Anna Cooper is sent to live with an uncle she has never met – the Ravenmaster at the Tower of London.

Amid the Tower’s old secrets and hidden ghosts, the ravens begin to disappear and Anna must brave the war-torn city to find them.

With Nazi forces massing on the other side of the channel, the fate of Britain might be at stake, for an ancient legend foretells that ‘the Kingdom will fall’ if the ravens ever leave the Tower.

THE MAP OF BONES

Francesca Haig

9780007563098

HB

12.99

Harper Voyager

2

Book Two in the critically acclaimed The Fire Sermon trilogy—The Hunger Games meets Cormac McCarthy’s The Road in this richly imagined post-apocalyptic series by award-winning poet Francesca Haig.

Four hundred years in the future, the Earth has turned primitive following a nuclear fire that has laid waste to civilization and nature. Though the radiation fallout has ended, for some unknowable reason every person is born with a twin. Of each pair, one is an Alpha—physically perfect in every way; and the other an Omega—burdened with deformity, small or large. With the Council ruling an apartheid-like society, Omegas are branded and ostracized while the Alphas have gathered the world’s sparse resources for themselves. Though proclaiming their superiority, for all their effort, Alphas cannot escape one harsh fact: whenever one twin dies, so does the other… (Copy from US)

HALF LOST

Sally Green

9780141350905

PB

£7.99

Penguin Children’s

Nathan Byrn is running again. The Alliance of Free Witches has been all but destroyed. Scattered and demoralized, constantly pursued by the Council’s Hunters, only a bold new strategy can save the rebels from total defeat. They need the missing half of Gabriel’s amulet – an ancient artefact with the power to render its bearer invincible in battle.

But the amulet’s guardian – the reclusive and awesomely powerful witch Ledger – has her own agenda. To win her trust, Nathan must travel to America and persuade her to give him the amulet. Combined with his own Gifts, the amulet might just be enough to turn the tide for the Alliance and end the bloody civil war between Black and White witches once and for all…

DESOLATION

Derek Landy

9780008156985

HB

£14.99

Harpercollins

Demon Road

2

THE EPIC NEW THRILLER CONTINUES. Book two in the mind-blowing new supernatural thriller from bestselling author DEREK LANDY, creator of international sensation Skulduggery Pleasant. For a girl on the run, Desolation Hill is the perfect place to hide. Only problem? The place has other things to hide, too…

Reeling from their bloody encounter in New York City at the end of Demon Road, Amber and Milo flee north. On their trail are the Hounds of Hell – five demonic bikers who will stop at nothing to drag their quarries back to their unholy master. Amber and Milo’s only hope lies within Desolation Hill – a small town with a big secret; a town with a darkness to it, where evil seeps through the very floorboards. Until, on one night every year, it spills over onto the streets and all hell breaks loose.

And that night is coming…

KNIGHTS OF THE BORROWED DARK

Dave Rudden

9780141356600

PB

£6.99

Puffin

The first book in a new series about an orphan boy who discovers he is part of a secret army that protects the world from a race of shadowy monsters.

Grey placed his finger in the middle of the shadow.

‘What’s this?’ he asked.

Denizen frowned.

‘It’s a shadow.’

‘No, it isn’t,’ Grey said. ‘It’s a door.’

Denizen Hardwick doesn’t believe in magic – until he’s ambushed by a monster created from shadows and sees it destroyed by a word made of sunlight. That kind of thing can really change your perspective. Now Denizen is about to discover that there’s a world beyond the one he knows. A world of living darkness where an unseen enemy awaits.

Fortunately for humanity, between us and the shadows stand the Knights of the Borrowed Dark. Unfortunately for Denizen, he’s one of them…

THE CONJUROR

John & Carole E. Barrowman

9781781856376

HB

£12.00

Head of Zeus

The Orion Chronicles

2

Sixteen-year-old twins Matt and Em Calder are Animare: they can bring art to life, and travel in time through paintings. They work for Orion – the Animare MI5 – protecting the secrecy of their order and investigating crimes committed by their own kind.

It’s dangerous work. But when they are sent to Edinburgh to find a teenage boy who can alter reality with his music, they are drawn into something more dangerous still. For this boy, Remy, is the Conjurer’s Son. And he carries something that could change humanity for ever…

PEACE MAKER

Malorie Blackman, Ill by Matthew Griffiths

9781781125618

PB

£5.99

Barrington Stoke

Michela knows the law – everyone must wear a Peace Maker device at all times, and it must never be tampered with. Non-aggression is her society’s founding principle, and the Peace Maker the means by which is it enforced. But Michela is desperate to experience the full range of human emotions in her own fantasy world of books and games, and the Peace Maker is the only thing stopping her. And when her mother captains their ship into enemy airspace and they come under attack, it seems that Michela’s freedom from the Peace Maker may be the only thing that can save them.

Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 8+

CHASING THE STARS

Malory Blackman

9780857531414

HB

£10.99

Random House

Olivia and her twin brother Aidan are heading alone back to Earth following the virus that wiped out the rest of their crew, and their family, in its entirety.

Nathan is part of a community heading in the opposite direction. But on their journey, Nathan’s ship is attacked and most of the community killed. Only a few survive.

Their lives unexpectedly collided, Nathan and Vee are instantly attracted to each other, deeply, head-over-heels – like nothing they have ever experienced. But not everyone is happy. And surrounded by rumours, deception, even murder, is it possible to live out a happy ever after . . . ?

Drawing on Othello for inspiration, Malorie Blackman entwines mystery thriller, heart-rending love story and space adventure.

RIVERKEEP

Martin Stewart

9780141362038

PB

£7.99

Penguin

Fifteen-year-old Wulliam is dreading taking up his family’s mantle of Riverkeep, tending the river and fishing corpses from its treacherous waters. But then everything changes. One night his father is possessed by a dark spirit, and Wull hears that a cure lurks deep within the great sea-beast known as the mormorach. He realizes he must go on an epic journey downriver to find it – or lose Pappa forever.

THE INQUISITION

Taran Matharu

9781444928419

HB

12.99

Hodder Children’s

The Summoner

2

More demons, epic battles, and fights to the death: introducing the unmissable next instalment in the Summoner Trilogy…

On trial for a crime he did not commit, Fletcher must face the Inquisition who will decide his future – the process is gruelling, lead by those who will do anything to see him suffer and haunted by ghosts from the past with clues to Fletcher’s tragic origins.

But Fletcher has little time to dwell on these new revelations when the king announces a deadly challenge to the graduating students at Vocans. One that involves entering Orc territory to complete a risky mission. With loyal demons by their sides, commoners and nobles, dwarves and elves must overcome barriers of class and race and work together to triumph. The reward: a fortune in gold, the safety of an empire and PEACE.

With the entire empire watching, Fletcher has much to prove, but there are those out to get him and it soon becomes clear that there’s a traitor in their midst, trying to thwart the mission and create unrest within the Empire.

With everything stacked against him, Fletcher must use everything in his power to fight his way to victory.

‘Friendship, loyalty, magic and political intrigue beckon …’ The Bookseller

BLACK ARTS

Andrew Prentice, Jonathan Weil

9781910200797

PB

£7.99

David Fickling Books

The Books of Pandemonium

1

London is a teeming warren of thieves and cutthroats. Young Jack fits right in. But when he picks the wrong pocket, he finds himself in a London far more dangerous than he ever imagined. A metropolis of spies and dark magic. A city that will change him. A city where devils are real.

DEVIL’S BLOOD

Andrew Prentice, Jonathan Weil

9781910200575

PB

£7.99

David Fickling Books

The Books of Pandemonium

2

Ever since Varjak Paw… Time works differently for devils …In the place that we call Hell, the Lord of Swarms is plotting his conquest. In the shambles of London’s Smithfield, Jack the Darksman sets off to steal a devil. And in a different London altogether, a wicked secret is about to be revealed. The stage is set for an adventure that will span centuries. Devils are rising once more…

THE REST OF US JUST LIVE HERE

Patrick Ness

9781406365566

PB

£7.99

Walker Books

Nominated for the Bookseller’s YA BOOK PRIZE 2016!

Award-winning writer Patrick Ness’s bold and irreverent novel powerfully asks what if you weren’t the Chosen One? The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? What if you were like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school.  Again.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life. Even if your best friend might just be the God of mountain lions…

An exceptional novel from the author praised by John Green as “an insanely beautiful writer”.

MAGRIT

Lee Battersby

9781925081343

HB

£8.99

Walker Books

For fans of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, Tinder and David Almond; a haunting tale about accepting the truth about yourself, presented in a gothic gift package.

Magrit lives in an abandoned cemetery with her friend and advisor, Master Puppet, whom she built from bones and bits of graveyard junk. She is as forgotten as the tiny graveyard world that surrounds her. One night as Magrit and Master Puppet sit atop of their crumbling chapel, a passing stork drops a baby into the graveyard. Defying Master Puppet’s demands that the baby be disposed of, and taking no heed of his dire warnings, Magrit decides to raise the baby herself. She gives him a name: Bugrat. Magrit loves Bugrat like a brother, friend and son all rolled into one.

But Master Puppet and the newly discovered skeleton girl know all too well what will happen when Bugrat grows up – that the truth about them all will be revealed. Something Magrit refuses to face.

SERAFINA AND THE BLACK CLOAK

Robert Beatty

9781405283786

PB

£6.99

Egmont Books

Venture into the spooky world of Serafina and the Black Cloak – the New York Times bestselling magical mystery adventure for children.

“Never go into the forest, for there are many dangers there, and they will ensnare your soul.”

 Serafina and her pa have secretly lived in the basement of the grand old house on the Biltmore Estate, surrounded by dark forests, for as long as Serafina can remember. She takes the greatest of care never to be seen. But when children at Biltmore start disappearing, only Serafina knows who the culprit is: a terrifying man in a black cloak who stalks the corridors at night.

To solve the mystery, Serafina teams up with Braden Vanderbilt, the nephew of the estate’s owners. Their search for answers leads them into the very forest Serafina has always been taught to fear. There, they discover a legacy of magic, long forgotten – until now…

THE CROOKED SIXPENCE

Jennifer Bell

9780552572507

PB

£6.99

Young Corgi

Welcome to a world where nothing is quite as it seems…

When their grandmother Sylvie is rushed to hospital, Ivy Sparrow and her annoying big brother Seb cannot imagine what adventure lies in store. Returning to Sylvie’s house, they find it has been ransacked by unknown intruders – before a mysterious feather scratches an ominous message onto the kitchen wall. A very strange policeman turns up on the scene, determined to apprehend them…with a toilet brush. Ivy and Seb make their escape – only to find themselves in a completely uncommon world, where ordinary objects have amazing powers. The forces of evil are closing in fast, and Ivy and Seb must get to the bottom of a family secret…before it’s too late.

Dive head first into the world of Lundinor in this magical adventure story for anyone with a Hogwarts-shaped hole in their life.

ARENA 13: THE PREY

Jospeh Delaney

9781782954064

PB

£6.99

Red Fox

Following the first year of his apprenticeship as an Arena 13 combatant, Leif seeks information from his late father’s people. There he learns more about the man, who was the greatest arena fighter ever seen. The man who came so close to destroying the demon Hob, but paid a terrible price for every victory.

Leif returns to the fighting floor with a renewed hunger for revenge. But can he remain focused on his training as his passion for his master’s daughter, Kwin, grows? And will his place in his master’s greater plan help or hinder him in his personal mission to defeat Hob in a fight to the death?

The second instalment in the legend of ARENA 13.

SIX OF CROWS

Leigh Bardugo

9781780622286

PB

£7.99

Orion Children’s

Game of Thrones meets Ocean’s Eleven in this brand new fantasy epic from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising, Leigh Bardugo. As gripping, sweeping and memorable as the Grisha trilogy, Six of Crows will be perfect for fans of George R. R. Martin, Laini Taylor and Kristin Cashore, and will take Leigh’s fans back into the world they know and love.

Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams – but he can’t pull it off alone. A convict with a thirst for revenge. A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager. A runaway with a privileged past. A spy known as the Wraith. A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist.

Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction – if they don’t kill each other first.

THE SHEPHERDS CROWN

Terry Pratchett

9780552574471

PB

£7.99

Random House Children’s

A shivering of worlds. Deep in the Chalk, something is stirring. The owls and the foxes can sense it, and Tiffany Aching feels it in her boots. An old enemy is gathering strength. This is a time of endings and beginnings, old friends and new, a blurring of edges and a shifting of power. Now Tiffany stands between the light and the dark, the good and the bad. As the fairy horde prepares for invasion, Tiffany must summon all the witches to stand with her. To protect the land. Her land. There will be a reckoning… This is the Final Discworld Novel.

RE-MADE

Alex Scarrow

9781509811205

PB

£6.99

MacMillan

Leon and his younger sister, Grace, have recently moved to London from New York and are struggling to settle into their new school when rumours of an unidentified virus in Africa begin to fill the news. Within a week the virus hits London. The siblings witness people turning to liquid before their eyes, and they run for their lives. A month after touching Earth’s atmosphere the virus has assimilated the world’s biomass. But the virus isn’t their only enemy, and survival is just the first step…

THE POWER OF THE DARK

Robin Jarvis

9781405285087

HB

£9.99

Egmont Books

The Witching Legacy

1

9781405280235

PB

£6.99

*** The Hardback, released on the 2nd, is exclusive to independent bookshops as part of Independent Bookshop Week 2016! The paperback will is released on the 30th through all bookshops ***

An enthralling mix of magic and horror – first of a new series from fantasy legend Robin Jarvis.

Something is brewing in the town of Whitby. To best friends Lil and Verne, it just seems like a particularly bad storm. But Cherry Cerise, the last of the Whitby witches, fears that ancient forces are at work, reviving the curse of a long lost magical artefact. The legend goes that the Nimius was created by magician Melchior Pyke, with the assistance of a young witch known as Scaur Annie. But they were both betrayed by Pyke’s villainous manservant, Mister Dark, causing a feud that has survived even beyond death. As Mister Dark, with his horrific winged familiar, arises to mastermind Whitby’s very own apocalypse and take the Nimius for his own evil purposes, can Lil and Verne join with Cherry to quell his plans and save their home? Robin Jarvis started writing in 1988 and quickly became a bestselling author with his Deptford Mice and Whitby Witches series.

The Power of Dark is the first of a hauntingly good new series set in the atmospheric North Yorkshire coastal town of Whitby.

CONCENTR8

William Sutcliffe

9781408866245

PB

£7.99

Bloomsbury

Nominated for the Bookseller’s YA BOOK PRIZE 2016!

In a future London, Concentr8 is a prescription drug intended to help kids with ADD. Soon every troubled teen is on it. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Keep the undesirable elements in line. Keep people like us safe from people like them. What’s good for society is good for everyone.

Troy, Femi, Lee, Karen and Blaze have been taking Concentr8 as long as they can remember. They’re not exactly a gang, but Blaze is their leader, and Troy has always been his quiet, watchful sidekick – the only one Blaze really trusts. They’re not looking for trouble, but one hot summer day, when riots break out across the city, they find it. What makes five kids pick a man seemingly at random – a nobody, he works in the housing department, doesn’t even have a good phone – hold a knife to his side, take him to a warehouse and chain him to a radiator? They’ve got a hostage, but don’t really know what they want, or why they’ve done it. And across the course of five tense days, with a journalist, a floppy-haired mayor, a police negotiator, and the sinister face of the pharmaceutical industry, they – and we – begin to understand why…

This is a book about what how we label children. It’s about how kids get lost and failed by the system. It’s about how politicians manipulate them. Gripping and controversial reading for fans of Malorie Blackman and Patrick Ness.