‘Witch- hunting never went away, it just operates under many different names.’ When Rizu, only child of a wealthy family in Delhi, has a falling out with the mean girls in school, she is accused of being a witch. How will she make what happened right? How can she get justice? Having run away to join a vigilante group, an ember burns in her, eventually catching light, with dangerous consequences.
Poison Tides is beautifully choreographed. It has a rhythm and flow that echoes the journeys of its principle characters. In this sequel to Blood Flowers, the story is told in individual chapters from the perspective of the three protagonists; Bear, Felix and Meya, where they give a topographical sense of the places that they inhabit.
Ghost Boys is a graphic novel with a message and a mission. An adaptation of the book of the same name by Parker Rhodes, it is narrated by the ghost of a twelve-year-old Black boy, Jerome, who’s body we see lying dead in the opening pages, shot in the back by a cop. Jerome is one of many ‘Ghost Boys,’ – an innocent victim (he was playing with a toy gun) of white racism, ignorance and negligence. The book teases out Jerome’s story through alternating ‘dead’ and ‘alive’ segments, and connects it to those of America’s racist past.
Ella is heading out for New Year’s Eve when one of her persistent migraines takes over. Ever since her diagnosis, she has been struggling to keep up with normal life. In a change of plans, when Ella arrives at her aunt’s house to babysit, the door is wide open, she smells gas and sees her two cousins’ unconscious by the door. As the gas clouds her mind, she drags them outside, but she knows she has left someone behind …
Finding Her Edge is a wild ride of love, lies, family, and drama. It follows Adriana Russo, the sixteen-year-old heir to a skating dynasty, struggling under the strain of her father’s excessive spending and lavish lifestyle. With the family business on the line, they are all relying on Adriana’s sister Elisa to win gold at the Olympics; sponsorships and documentary deals have become their lifeline.
Control Alter Delete is a bold, thought-provoking addition to the YA science fiction and dystopian genre, set in a world that feels both dazzlingly futuristic and uncomfortably familiar.
Already the author of vampire tales in the Mina series published by UClan, Amy McCaw embraces further vampiric tropes in this full Dracula retelling.
Heading into her second year of university, protagonist Mary-Elizabeth certainly has her plate full. Between lectures, writing an advice column for the on-campus magazine and occasional gigs as a DJ, there isn’t room for much else – except her mega crush on magazine editor Felix that is! Despite her friend’s warnings about his reputation, Mary-Elizabeth has her sights set on a casual fling with Felix. She is confident and self-assured Mary-Elizabeth Baxter, she can handle anything, right?
Full of plot twists, We Three Witches is set in 1930s York and tells the villain origin story of Viola Samphire. Viola is seventeen, part of a coven of four witches, and respected as a practitioner of divination using knucklebones. But her life is turned upside down after a catastrophic fire kills one of the coven members, Edie. The trauma leaves Viola able to see the dead, meaning she can still speak to and touch Edie and all the other Earthbound souls that roam around York.
This reimagined story of the myth of Bluebeard is not for the faint hearted. The House Saphir is not only a ghost story, but a romantic fantasy (romantasy) tale. Every box on the romantasy checklist has been ticked; there is a bestiary, magic, rituals to the gods, and a haunted mansion. On top of that, we have a murder and family secrets to uncover on the way.
