Discover the new books for young adult readers that our booksellers are excited about this month!
Blood Moon Bride
Demet Divaroren
Blood Moon Bride is a heartbreaking yet empowering look at how courage and resilience can challenge even the cruellest worlds. This dark fantasy standalone follows Rehya, a young girl who lives in a society where young women are forcibly married off to the highest bidder when they turn 16. The reader watches Rehya as she tries to navigate her way through such a world without losing herself.
Demet Divaroren’s worldbuilding and character writing go hand in hand to lend this book strength. Mennama Valley is a place soaked in suffering and greed, and this is palpable in all the people that inhabit it. The magic system in this book is also very well developed. Rehya’s magic is a lot more subtle than that of other YA protagonists, but it never stops being pivotal to her character and the plot.
While this is a fantasy book, the way it explores genocide, cultural erasure and gender-based violence as tools for the powerful to keep control echoes many real‑world events. Despite its difficult themes, the story never allows the reader to become complacent. Rehya and those around her are constantly fighting to improve their lives and those of all the people in the valley.
Make no mistake, this YA book is definitely on the darker side, but that just makes its underlying messages of justice and freedom ring out all the louder. Recommended for readers aged 14+, this book is perfect for fans of The Hunger Games and Children of Blood and Bone.
Reviewed by Alicia Guiney.
Let the Light In
Jenny Downham & Louis Hill
Leah and Charlie have been confused and distraught since their dad’s death. Their mum has been suffering from depression ever since, not even capable of leaving her bedroom for days on end, leaving the two siblings to care for their younger sister, Abby. Leah has found comfort in an affair with an older, married man, who promises he’ll leave his wife and child for her. Charlie, to help with the rent and bills that keep piling up, seeks money from a loan shark, not realising the depth of trouble he’s gotten himself into. When both of their secret lives become intertwined, Leah and Charlie must finally confront their demons together and save what’s left of their family.
Let the Light In is a story that oftentimes feels challenging to read because of the situations Leah and Charlie have found themselves in and how the adults around them abuse or exploit their moments of weakness. However, Jenny Downham and Louis Hill have carefully shown the difficulties between choosing what you think is good for you and what is actually good for you, and shine a light on the burdens of children who have to step up and act as parents when their own aren’t able to. The heavy themes of the novel are paired alongside the small glimpses of genuine happiness within their family, offering hope and light when all seems lost. This is a complex and heart-wrenching novel about trying to do your best for the ones you love. For ages 16+.
Reviewed by Aurelia Orr.
A Door in the Dark (Waxways, Book 1)
Scott Reintgen
This engaging fantasy story begins in a magical school called Balmerick. It is highly hierarchical, with family bloodlines holding all the power. A ruling family must sponsor a student for them to secure their future career. It’s an ancient land, once populated by dragons, and the remnants of their unique magic remain.
Ren and her friend Timmons are both scholarship students from poorer families. Despite Ren’s brilliance, her excessive studiousness and inability to ingratiate herself with the wealthy families do not help her ambitions. Ren and Timmons travel to and from school in a magical portal, which works like a bus powered by candles and magical currents. When waiting in the portal one day for the magical current to take hold, two wealthy students who are being punished for misbehaviour get into an argument with another student just as the portal activates. The magic goes haywire. They are all transported to the Dires, an ancient forest many days travel from their homes, and one of the students is dead on arrival. The rest must work together, despite their dislike for one another, if they are going to survive the terrors of the woods.
This first book in a duology is an exciting mix of dark academia fantasy and action adventure set in an intriguing, magical land. Fantasy lovers aged 12+ will enjoy the fast-paced challenges Ren and her companions must undertake to survive.
Reviewed by Angela Crocombe.
That Was Then, This is Now
S.E. Hinton
S.E. Hinton’s first novel, 1967’s The Outsiders, is often cited as the book that launched the genre we now call Young Adult. Her 1971, loosely related follow-up is the story of Byron and Mark, two streetwise teenagers coming of age in a tough neighbourhood. They are as close as friends can be, having been raised as brothers since Byron’s mother took Mark in after his parents shot each other during a drunken argument.
Their numerous exploits are recounted with pride by Byron, the story’s not entirely reliable narrator, who, despite the love he has for Mark, knows deep down there is something not quite right about his friend. He pushes these feelings aside and manages to explain away everything until a sequence of tragic events forces him to confront a painful reality and make a decision that will crush them both.
I read this book several times as a teenager and already know how it ends, but that didn’t make those final pages any less devastating now I’m an adult. Does it hold up? Yes, I think it does. It’s very much a product of its time and place, but the issues it tackles outside the boys’ relationship – racism, drug abuse, class and the breakdown of social supports – are sadly still as relevant as ever. For ages 12+.
Reviewed by Kate O’Mara.
Also recommended this month are:
Sunrise on the Reaping (A Hunger Games Novel)
Suzanne Collins
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honour of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. When Haymitch's name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He's torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who's nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he's been set up to fail. But there's something in him that wants to fight ... and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.
The Song that Sings Us
Nicola Davies, illustrated by Jackie Morris
When animals talk, it’s time humans listened.
Harlon has been raised to protect her younger siblings, twins Ash and Xeno, and their outlawed power of communicating with animals. But when the sinister Automators attack their mountain home they must flee for their lives. Xeno is kidnapped and Harlon and Ash are separated. In a thrilling and dangerous adventure they must all journey alone through the ice fields, forests and oceans of Rumyc to try to rescue each other and fulfil a mysterious promise about a lost island made to their mother.
A stunning environmental epic with cover and chapter illustrations by award-winning illustrator, Jackie Morris.
Fearless (Powerless, Book 3)
Lauren Roberts
Paedyn Gray and Kai Azer return to the Kingdom of Ilya...
And Paedyn has a life-altering choice to make. Whatever she decides will determine her fate – and the fate of those around her – forever.
In the ultimate battle of love and loyalty, who wins?
Be swept away by the conclusion to the smash hit, dagger-to-the-throat romantasy trilogy.
Desert Tracks
Marly Wells & Linda Wells
Have you ever been lost in a book?
Entranced into the world of a mysterious old story of Alice Springs published a hundred years ago, Millie, a Warlpiri teenager, is sucked up by a willy willy and transported to 1924. Here she meets a crew of oddly familiar young people: Sonny, Beryl and Spike. As the group compare notes, they realise the Alice Springs of the past and the future are not as different as they seem...
Desert Tracks is a time travelling novel about young people in central Australia, about racial profiling, the historical legacy of racist policies and the relationship between history and the present.
