Review: Eva's Journey, by Judi Curtin

Eva's Journey is the newest offering from Judi Curtin, author of the well loved Alice and Megan series.

Eva's father is a rich and powerful builder. Eva is used to only the best of everything; yearly trips to New York for a new wardrobe, private school, all the latest gadgets. But the building market is collapsing, and Eva's treats and luxuries have to go. Soon they're selling their beautiful house and moving into a fixer upper, and Eva's posh private school has become the local public.

Desperate to regain her former glory, Eva visits a fortune teller who tells her to do good deeds. Eva begins watching the people around her and, in the process, learns that she's not as badly off as she thought...



A modern day fairy tale, Eva's Journey charts Eva's progress as she learns that stuff, while nice, is not what makes life worthwhile. The friendship she begins with the odd girl in her class makes her new life more bearable, and the steadfast friend from her old life makes it more fun. Watching out for other people distracts her from her own troubles, and before she knows it she's enjoying herself in her run down house, last year's clothes and no gadgets.

A timely story and one I enjoyed a lot.




Victoria looked around approvingly.

'The house is looking lovely,' she said to my dad. 'You've got a talent for home improvement.'

I wondered how Dad would take that. Up to recently he'd had a talent for running one of the biggest businesses in town.

But Dad looked at Victoria like she was his best friend in the whole world.

'Thanks,' he said, beaming so much that he accidentally thumped his finger with the hammer.

Victoria and I giggled, and fled upstairs.

Review: The Enemy, by Charlie Higson

The first in Charlie Higson's new series starts with a bang, catapulting you straight into a nightmare world.

A year ago something happened. Everyone over the age of fourteen caught a mysterious new illness. The lucky ones died. The rest? Well, they're still around, hunting down the surviving kids in a desperate search for food.

The children who are left have come together to form gangs to help protect each other. But the adults – mothers and fathers, the children call them – are growing smarter, and the children's safehouses are being overrun. Rumours of a safe haven couldn't come at a better time...


The first scene – an attack by adults on a supermarket where children have been staying – is the perfect opener. All the important information is slipped in perfectly naturally; adults are bad, they hunt children, it's been like this for about the year, the kids aren't as safe as they used to be. It also starts one of the plotlines, as a captured child fights desperately to get back to his friends.

It's hard to put this book down once you've picked it up. The pressure almost never lets up, our heroes scrambling from one problem to the next. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but several of them die during the course of the story – no one is safe here, not the heroes, not the villains, not that new character who was just introduced or the one you've been reading about for two hundred pages.

Luckily the sequel is already out, but you'll have to wait a while for the third.

Ollie was walking alone by the lake. There were ducks on it, probably fish swimming down below. He felt neither happy nor sad. He was thoughtful. This all looked fantastic on the surface.

Franny had given him a small lettuce to try. It had tasted delicious, but when he'd pulled off one of the leaves he'd found a small slug on it.

There was always a slug on the lettuce.

This was too good to be true.

He had never trusted Jester, and he didn't trust David.

He wasn't going to let his guard down just yet.

Being careful had kept him alive this far.

There was no reason to stop being careful now.

Review: The Dead, Charlie Higson

The sequel to The Enemy is set a year before it, making it a prequel. Sort of.

Only a few weeks before the book begins, adults began falling prey to a strange new disease. Most of them died outright. The ones who are left are desperate for human flesh, and the only source left is children. Anyone over fourteen is dead or changed.

When the book begins the kids have been on their own for only a couple of weeks. Their new reality hasn't really sunk in yet. Most haven't realised how drastically the world has altered. It's not until a group holed up in a school dorm are attacked by the people who used to be their teachers that it really begins to sink in.

Abandoning the school, the group head for the countryside but are rapidly cut off and forced to retreat towards London. They're rescued by by a man driving a coach, the only uninfected adult they've seen in a long time. the roads of London are clogged with zombies, though, and it takes a long time before they find somewhere they can call home.


This book, if anything, is even more gory than the last. There are several loving descriptions of the zombies, including Greg and the one they nickname Pez. There's also a horrific sequence set in the Oval Cricket Ground. The protaganists aren't any safer in this one than they were in The Enemy, either, and it's an entirely new group this time around. There are fewer characters to keep track of this time, and most of the action comes from two specific characters, making it easier to keep track of who's doing what where for what reason.

The ending does provide two very clever links with The Enemy, though; one I saw coming and one I didn't, though I should have. From the way this one ends, I'm guessing the third will bring all our characters together.

The Dead is just as fast paced as The Enemy, events rolling together with few breaks. It's a hard book to put down, as just as one problem is almost solved another rears its' head. The final chase through London was almost unbearable. Once I'd reached the end and figured out who some of the people were, it was fascinating to see them now, weeks into the apocalypse. I also really loved the quiet nod to another recent series of all-the-adults-are-dead books, one that I'm guessing few people will notice.

One of the better books I've read this year.

Jack lifted out the sword. It was clean and gleaming, the edge still sharp. The curators at the museum had obviously looked after everything very well. He smiled. The blade was perfectly balanced in his hand, a good weight. He sliced a long curve through the air.

Perfect.

'Jack?'

He took the scabbard and belt from the dummy torso they were fixed to and fastened them round his waist. It was a good fit. The scabbard hung well.

'You coming, Jack?'

'Yeah. I'm ready.'

Event: Author Visit

The second in our Author a Month program sees Aubrey Flegg visiting on Thursday 14th October. Aubrey will be talking about his newest book, Fugitives! a novel about the Flight of the Earls.

Again we'll have two sessions, one at 10am, one at 11.30am.

Author a Month: Marilyn Taylor

Our Author a Month program got off to a great start this morning, as Marilyn Taylor met with two groups of children from local schools. Marilyn discussed her two historical novels, Faraway Home and 17 Martin Street. The groups had an opportunity to ask questions, and Marilyn signed several copies of each book for our stock.


We'd like to thank Marilyn for travelling from Dublin to visit us today.

Event: Author Visit

Tuesday 14th Spetember, Marilyn Taylor will be visiting the store. There'll be two sessions, one at 10, one at 11.30. Come along and meet her.