Micah Wilkins is a liar. Her whole family are liars. But when Micah’s classmate is killed she plans to come clean and stop lying. She tells us that we can trust her, that she doesn’t lie anymore. Mostly. Of course she can’t keep this up and then has to point out the lies she has told us. This means that while reading the book you never quite know what parts of the story are true and what parts are lies.

Liar is a brilliantly constructed novel. It jumps between events before Zach’s death, events after his death, and background information about Micah’s family and childhood. While it makes for a lot of short chapters that jump back and forth, it really works.

The book is broken up into three sections which divide the story nicely. I was enjoying the book through the first section but not really sure where it was going until I hit the second section, the first line of which picked me up and dropped me on my head.

This really is a wonderful book and in my opinion it is easily Justine Larbalestier’s best work so far and well worth a read.

[cross posted over at aboutthebooks.blogspot.com]

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

Here’s my review of The reformed vampire support group as posted over at my library’s blog.

The plain fact is, I can’t do anything much. That’s part of the problem. Vampires are meant to be so glamorous and powerful, but I’m here to inform you that being a vampire is nothing like that. Not one bit. On the contrary, it’s like being stuck indoors with the flu watching daytime television, forever and ever.

Vampire books are all the rage these days, but here’s one with a difference. Often vampires are portrayed as being some combination of attractive, strong, and rich. Catherine Jinks has turned this on its head.

Nina, the narrator of the story, is 51 years old. But she became a vampire when she was 15. So she still looks 15, and people still treat her like a 15 year old. She can’t even learn to drive. Bridget is stuck in her 80s. She has arthritis. Others never learned to drive because cars weren’t invented when they became vampires.

They can’t get normal jobs. They can’t eat normal food. They breed guinea pigs to satisfy their vampire cravings. They get sick constantly and bright lights will make their eyes bleed. Being a vampire is hard. Which is why they have a support group with weekly group therapy.

Things get even worse when one of them is killed. They decide to track down the killer, not for revenge, but to show him what pitiful creatures they are, that they are no threat to anyone. But they stumble onto something far more concerning and far more dangerous.

This is a very different take on the vampire genre and a fun one at that.

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

If you’re excited about Lili Wilkinson’s new book Pink but haven’t got your hands on it yet, you can pop over to Lili’s blog and read the first chapter. I think it looks good and can’t wait for the copies we have on order to come in.

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

Those of you who have been following BookBoy for a while may have picked up that I have a bit of a thing for Scott Westerfeld. I mean, he’s not Johnny Depp, but boy can he write.

Anyway, you may also have heard me mention his upcoming book Leviathan, due out very soon. Just to tease you a bit more, here’s a trailer.

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

I used to be someone.
Someone named Jenna Fox.
That’s what they tell me. But I am more than a name. More than they tell me. More than the facts and statistics they fill me with. More than the video clips they make me watch.
More. But I’m not sure what.

Jenna Fox has just woken from a one year coma following a car accident. She now lives in California instead of Boston. She knows nobody except her parents and grandmother. She remembers nothing from before the accident. She has to learn everything again. Her parents show old home movies and tell her what happened, but there are gaps. Some things do not add up.

This is one of those books that works best if you don’t know too much about it, so I’ll keep it short. I guess you would call it science fiction, but don’t let that put you off if you’re not particularly a fan of that genre. It’s a powerful story about ethics, identity, and the lengths to which a parent would go to protect their child.

It is wonderfully written, challenging, beautiful, and well worth reading. Trust me.

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

One of my two most anticipated books of 2009 is coming out in August. That’s next month! The book is Sacred scars by Kathleen Duey and it is the sequel to 2008 Golden Bookboy winner, Skin hunger. I previously mentioned that you can read the first chapter online, but perhaps you haven’t even read Skin hunger yet. If that is the case, get yourself to a bookstore or library and read it. Go on. Do it now. So you are ready for the Sacred scars release. You can also pop over to Kathleen Duey’s blog where she has posted an excerpt of the Kirkus review for it.

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

For those unable to attend the recent Reading Matters conference , there are a few podcasts now available.

Tim Flannery, John Green, Mal Peet, M.T. Anderson, and a panel discussion about growing up Muslim in Australia are available for your downloading pleasure over at insideadog.com.au

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

For almost two years now, the small leather-bound journal of Lieutenant William Downes has been sitting on a corner of my writing desk, defying me. I must confess that I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve sat here in the twenty months since the diary came into my possession, leafing through its pages and then staring out my study window at the distant Brindabella Mountains, sometimes for hours, trying to come to terms with the horrors contained within.

First, a bit of background. Some years ago Anthony Eaton, while researching for what he referred to as a “boys own adventure story” was presented with the opportunity to visit Antarctica as a guest of the Australian Antarctic Division. I heard him talk about this trip at a recent conference and he talked about the way the experience forced him to change the nature of his book.

What we have ended up with is essentially two stories intertwined throughout the book. One story is that of an author named Anthony Eaton who was given the opportunity to visit Antarctica as a guest of the Australian Antarctic Division (sound familiar?). He talks about his experience at Casey Station, his reaction to the story he uncovered there, and some of his experience back in Australia following up that story. Which leads us to the other narrative running through this book. The aforementioned story.

While at Casey Station, Eaton discovered a journal written by Lieutenant William Downes detailing a previously unheard of expedition to Antarctica in 1921-22. Sections from the journal are recorded describing the preparations for the trip, the people aboard, it’s aims, and it’s slow and increasingly inevitable failure. I am not spoiling the plot for you, as this outcome is indicated within the first few pages of the book.

Eaton has done something quite fascinating by adding his fictional self into the story and the first chapter of the story reads much like an author’s introduction, which is essentially what it is. But the use of so many real facts about himself and his trip serve to make it feel more real, or to blur the lines between fact and fiction. It is very well done.

The chapters taken from Downes’s diary are no less enthralling. After service in the First World War, Downes is invited by his former Captain to be involved in a mysterious adventure which turns out to be an expedition to Antarctica. Things start going wrong before they even reach the ice bound continent and only get worse as they travel further south. Although the eventual fate of the expedition is known to the reader all along, the unfolding of the story is no less captivating. It held me right to the very end, which is an impressive writing feat when that end is given away on page three.

Into white silence is a brilliant book. It is published as a young adult book but the main characters are all beyond that age themselves leading some people to argue that it should be considered an adult book. Eaton himself wrote a fairly weighty article about the nature of YA literature and this book in particular. I find it too difficult to say whether this book is one or the other, because I honestly believe it is both. I really think a lot of teens will like this book. I might hand it to some of the older Horowitz/Muchamore readers and see what they think. I also think a lot of adults will like it, but I feel that way about plenty of other YA fiction anyway.

The feeling the book left me with was odd. It wasn’t gut-wrenching or tear-jerking, more soul-emptying perhaps. After turning the last page I just had to drop the book and stare into space for a while. It was fascinating. I should say that I have spoken to a couple of other people who simply could not get into it, and plenty of others who loved it. For my money, Into white silence is very cleverly crafted and written, it grabbed and held me to the end and thoroughly deserves its place on the Children’s Book Council Awards shortlist. I would not be surprised if it wins.

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

The morning after noted child prodigy Colin Singleton graduated from high school and got dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, he took a bath. Colin had always preferred baths; one of his general policies in life was never do anything standing up that could just as easily be done lying down.

An abundance of Katherines was the second book by John Green. It was published after his made-of-awesome award winning breakout novel Looking for Alaska, but before his current award winning made-of-awesome novel Paper towns.

Katherines tells the story of Colin Singleton who, like most of John Green’s male characters is something of a nerd. In fact, he was once considered a child prodigy. Curiously, Colin just happens to have been dumped 19 times in his life, and every time it was by a girl called Katherine. Not the same Katherine. Different Katherines. Hence the title.

While it always felt odd to me that a child prodigy could have had 19 girlfriends by the end of high school, I enjoyed reading this book. After the most recent dumping, Colin heads out on a road trip with his best friend,  who happens to be a big Judge Judy fan. It is on this trip that Colin sets about calculating a formula which will be able to predict the future course of any relationship and the likelihood of being dumped.

It’s a fun book. Odd things pop in and out of the story, and Colin’s slightly skewed view of the world accompanied by his larger than life friend make for some funny situations.

While it hasn’t received the same level of attention as his other two books, An abundance of Katherines is distinctively John Green and well worth a read.

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net

“Here’s what’s not beautiful about it: from here, you can’t see the rust or the cracked paint or whatever, but you can tell what the place really is. You see how fake it all is. It’s not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It’s a paper town. I mean look at it Q: look at all those cul-de-sacs, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the houses that were built to fall apart. All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm. All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper convenience store. Everyone demented with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. And all the people, too. I’ve lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters.”

“I’ll try not to take that personally,” I said.

John Green has done it again. He’s matched up a nerdy guy with a mysterious charismatic girl and produced a fantastic story that is funny, challenging, and great to read. Quentin (Q) has always had a thing for Margo Roth Spiegelman with whom he discovered a dead body when they were youngsters. Now in their final year of high school Q and Margo are at opposite ends of the social ladder.

Q is surprised therefore, when Margo appears at his window late one night wearing black face paint and inviting him to join her as she ticks off a list of eleven things that she needs to do that night, at least five of which require a getaway man. Needless to say, Q does help Margo with her tasks and has a fantastic time. But that’s only part of the story.

Then Margo vanishes. Her parents write it off as another of her regular running away episodes, but Q starts following a trail of clues trying to track her down. He ventures to parts of Orlando he has never seen before, and then along with several friends, embarks on what can best be described as a road trip against the clock, trying to find Margo in a town that doesn’t really exist before she is gone again.

If you liked Looking for Alaska, which I did, then you will probably also like Paper Towns. Some of the characters are similar – nerdy guys and a mysterious girl with issues – but the situation and storyline is quite different. It doesn’t have quite the same emotional oomph as Alaska, but it has one of the best road trips of all time.

John Green is hot property in the YA scene at the moment, and with good reason. He writes exceptional books. I had the opportunity to hear him speak when he was in Melbourne recently and can also confirm that he is a funny and entertaining speaker, but of course you already know this because you have been over to his blog and watched some wonderful videos, haven’t you?

Wherever you happen to be reading it now, Jonathan published this post at: BookBoy.net