Count Down to Danger: Bullet Train Disaster

Count Down to Danger: Bullet Train Disaster by Jack Heath (Scholastic Australia)

PB RRP $12.99

ISBN 978-1-76015-962-7

Reviewed by Jenny Heslop

On the platform ahead of you is a shining new bullet train. It is about to take its first journey carrying passengers up the side of Mt Grave, the second tallest mountain peak in the world. The rails lead straight up, the train will be climbing almost vertically, and you will be aboard. When disaster hits, you have 30 minutes to escape. Hang on for the adventure of a lifetime ...if you survive!

This is a heart-pumping thrill ride which leaves no time for breath. Be prepared to meet bears, bandits and royalty. You never know where your journey is taking you.

Choose-Your-Own adventure books put the reader in control of the main characters’ decisions. As there are many different paths that may be taken, these books can be read over and over again, while still retaining a sense of anticipation. Of the 30 paths, only some lead to survival and only a handful to glory.

This is a must for arm-chair adrenaline junkies and will entertain middle school and early teen aged audiences alike. Look out for the next in the series Shock Wave.

Jack Heath is an Australian author who writes popular action-packed stories for young teens including the recent Scream series.

The Last Thirteen Book 12: 2

The Last Thirteen Book 12: 2 by James Phelan (Scholastic Australia)

PB RRP $14.99

ISBN 978-1-74283-195-4

Reviewed by Jenny Heslop

13 books. 13 nightmares. 1 destiny.

2 is the penultimate book in this adventure series about a group of children, the thirteen chosen Dreamers, who are prophesised to save the world.

As the world plunges further into chaos – nightmares plague the general population - the media attention on the Dreamers and UN protection makes it harder for Sam and his friends to do what they need to in order to ensure the Dreamers’ Gate stays hidden from Solaris, Stella and all those who would use it for power and dominance.

Sam and Eva leave Australia to search for Alex, the twelfth Dreamer, who is lost somewhere in Antarctica. With a powerful storm closing in, and Stella, Hans and rogue guardians searching as well, it is a dangerous version of hunting for a needle in a haystack.

But Alex has made an amazing discovery under the ice which will lead them closer to the end of the race. If only they can get out alive with betrayal all around.

This fast-paced series The Last Thirteen is an edge of your seat thrill ride with plenty of suspense, action and cliff-hangers. The series needs to be read in order, but these slim volumes are written for speedy reading and each will be consumed with pace. With only one to go, the conclusion is very close.

The Eye of Minds

The Eye of Minds by James Dashner (Doubleday Children's)
PB RRP $19.95
ISBN 9780857533142
Also available as an ebook
ISBN 9781448174195
Reviewed by Marian McGuinness

There’s a blur between virtual reality and reality in James Dashner’s first book in the YA Mortality Doctrine series. It follows on the rather racy heels of his New York Times bestseller, The Maze Runner.

Dashner is an expert. He’s an expert in fast prose, graphic descriptions and the technical world inhabited by gamers. He’s an expert in what a lot of young adults want to read.

I’ve had many experiences in sensory deprivation tanks. Pull the lid down on your coffin-like capsule, hear your heartbeat, hear your blood rushing and let your imagination soar.

Sixteen-year-old Michael is a gamer, coder and hacker; one of the best in the virtual reality world. His wealthy parents spend most of their time overseas, leaving him in the care of a nanny and his highly expensive VirtNet system. He spends a lot of time in his ‘Nervebox’ or ‘Coffin’ where ‘thin icy strands of NerveWire inserted into his skin’ along with the elements of ‘AirPuffs and LiquiGels’ immerse him in the shared virtual world nicknamed ‘the Sleep’. Every physical experience is possible: fighting dragons, flying spaceships.

Michael lives his life in ‘the Sleep’; he finds ‘the Wake’, where real people live, boring.

Gamers are being found brain dead in their ‘Coffins’ accompanied with the coding ‘Kaine was here’. Kaine is a rogue gamer and cyber terrorist who is hiding in ‘the Sleep’. Michael and his closest VirtNet friends Bryson and Sarah are recruited by the VNS –VirtNet’s security to use their coding and hacking skills to track down Kaine. They battle Hot Zones, Weak Spots and antimatter called KillSims as they follow Kaine’s trail to his lair.

Be warned. There is violence. There are issues of suicide. The clever twist at the end comes entirely from left field.

Fans of The Matrix, Inception and Neuromancer will love this thrill seeking, mind-bending techno ride, as along with Michael, Bryson and Sarah, they navigate this most dangerous ‘game that wasn’t a game anymore’.

The Girl in the Basement

Today Buzz Words reviews Dianne Bates' new book, The Girl in the Basement, as part of Dianne's blog tour. You can read yesterday's blog tour visit at author Chris Bell's site. Tomorrow Dianne will be interviewed by Elaine Ouston. 

Comment on any of the blogs or websites (including Buzz Words Books!) throughout the tour to go in to the draw to win a free copy of the book. 

The Girl in the Basement by Dianne Bates (Morris Publishing Australia)

PB RRP $24.95

Ebook $4.99

ISBN 9780987543417

Reviewed by Vicki Stanton

Dianne Bates’ new thriller The Girl in the Basement is a page turner that once started you will not be able to put down. Sixteen-year-old Libby is snatched off the streets by a man and spends the next few months swinging between terror and calculating her escape. Extra dimensions are added when Psycho Man, as Libby thinks of him, kidnaps a young boy to complete his family.

Bates pulls off a major writing coup: she successfully flits between the heads of Libby and her kidnapper giving us insights into the motivations and emotions of both. A lesser writer would have failed in this but it is testament to Bates’ skill that the head hopping enhances the story. I identified strongly with Libby’s ordeal. Memories of her own loving family strikingly contrast with Psycho Man’s warped version.

The mind of a psychopath is an unnerving thing to delve into. The accommodation of his distorted sense of reality into his life view is chilling, and fatal to others. Since I always hate to know the ending of a book, I won’t tell you whether Libby survives or not but if you are after a light read then this is not the book for you. There is violence, brutal at times, and more than one death (but no sex). The violence is always in context and never gratuitous.

This is definitely a book for older readers or adults and one that is particularly timely given the recent release of three women kept captive in Cleveland.  While the events in this book are fictional, it is a disturbing reminder of the depths humans can plunge to. Fortunately, it is also a reminder of the strength of character and tenacity we can summon in the face of the most cruel circumstances.

Books are available from any bookstore in Australia, many online stores as a paperback (including Amazon) and eBook, and from Morris Publishing Australia.  

Interview: Dianne Bates

Today Buzz Words Books is hosting Dianne Bates on her blog tour for her latest title, a YA novel, The Girl in the Basement. It is released this month by Morris Publishing Australia and is now available online and in bookshops. 

Dianne Bates is well-known in the children’s book world, having published over 120 books and won the Lady Cutler Award for distinguished services to children’s literature. She lives in Wollongong NSW with her award-winning YA author husband, Bill Condon. Di has won numerous grants and awards for her books, some of which have sold overseas and in translation. You can find out more about Di, her books and other projects at Enterprising Words.

Welcome to Buzz Words Books, Di. Your new novel, The Girl in the Basement, is very timely with the recent release of the three women kidnapped in Cleveland, Ohio. Where did you get the idea?

The Girl in the Basement is based on the real-life discovery in 1987 of a Polaroid photograph picked up by a shopper in a Florida (US) car park. It showed a girl around twenty, and a boy around ten who were both bound and gagged and who appeared to be in the back of a van. Disturbed by the photo, the finder took it to police.  Hundreds of stories about the picture were run in national media. It was also featured on the TV program, Missing People. The boy was thought to be Michael Henley, who had gone missing from a camping trip 17 months earlier. The girl, identified as Tara Callico, had disappeared 75 miles away a year earlier while out cycling. Both Michael and Tara were from New Mexico but were unrelated. For their parents, it was the first inkling of what had happened to them.

I remember being very distressed by the story and often wondered if either of the victims were ever found. As it turned out, there were numerous unconfirmed sightings of Tara in 1988 and 1989, mostly in the southern half of the United States. However, she has never been found, alive or dead. Remains found in the Zuni Mountains in June 1990 were eventually identified as Michael’s. It is believed he died of natural causes. Thus the identity of the boy in the photo is still unknown.

In The Girl in the Basement the story is narrated by a teenage girl, Libby, who is taken on the night of her 16^th birthday. Her kidnapper is a serial killer looking to start a ‘family’.

It must have been difficult to get into the minds of two such different people.

Yes, it was. I must say I struggled more with the teenage voice than I did with that of the kidnapper who Libby thinks of as ‘Psycho Man’ but whom she eventually comes to call ‘Papa’. I was helped in my writing to understand the psychology of a captive by reading several books written by Jaycee Lee Dugard, Natascha Kampusch and Sabine Dardenne who were held by different psychopaths at different times.

Why do you think teenagers would want to read a book about a kidnap victim?

Wikipedia reports dozens of cases of kidnapped victims over the past century; some have been found alive but many were murdered. More than any demographic, young women are likely to be victims of crime, especially kidnapping, so it’s not surprising that teenage girls would have a fear of being abducted by a stranger.

The Girl in the Basement sets a scenario of how the combination of being a teenage girl, over-indulging in alcohol, being alone, being in the wrong place and being very unlucky, can predicate abduction. My book also shows a young woman’s resilience in dealing with her captor and how she sustains herself with the hope of being rescued.

Is there a hopeful ending to your novel, or would that be giving too much away?

Since it’s a thriller I really can’t divulge the ending, but I can tell you that Libby never abandons hope. Like most teenage girls, she is fiercely independent, brave and resourceful.

Can you talk about the writing of the book and the drafting processes?

Finding the impetus for writing was easy enough; the first real problem was to decide on and find the narrative voice. Both Psycho Man and Libby demanded to be heard so I finished up having multiple voices, Libby telling her story in first person present tense, the kidnapper’s story being told in third person present tense. I wanted show Libby always living in the moment, whereas the kidnapper, being more elusive and anonymous, needed to be presented in a cloak of mystery. The use of present tense means there is more immediacy to the story as events unfold.

There were countless drafts of this book. Before submitting it to a publisher, I not only underwent weekly copy-editing workshops, but I also paid for the finished draft to be assessed by a professional, in-house editor. She made many suggestions, all of which I followed to finish with a manuscript I finally decided was publishable.

Thanks for dropping by Di and all the very best on your tour. You can see yesterday's interview with Di at author Alison Reynolds' site. Tomorrow Di will be interviewed by Chris Bell.

Comment on any of the blogs or websites (including Buzz Words Books!) throughout the tour to go in to the draw to win a free copy of the book. 

Books are available from any bookstore in Australia, many online stores as a paperback (including Amazon) and eBook, and from Morris Publishing Australia.  

Blog tour dates: Dianne Bates and The Girl in the Basement

Buzz Words is thrilled to be part of Dianne Bates' blog tour for her new YA spine-chilling thriller The Girl in the Basement. Follow the posts to find out how Di conquered a writers' ultimate characterisation challenge: how to be an innocent teenage girl one moment, a terrified teenage boy the next, then a psychological killer. 

As well as reviews you will discover the reason Di wrote the story, the research she had to do and much more. 


Plus comment on any of the blogs and go in the draw to win a free copy of the book. 

Monday July 1^st. www.creativekidstales.com.au Review

Tuesday July 2^nd  www.alisonreynolds.com.au  Interview

Wed July 3^rd  www.buzzwordsmagazine.com Interview

Thurs July 4^th  www.christinemareebell.wordpress.com Interview

Fri July 5^th  www.buzzwordsmagazine.com Review

Sat July 6^th www.elaineoustonauthor.com Interview

Sun July 7^th www.kids-bookreview.com Review

Monday July 8^th  sherylgwyther.wordpress.com Interview

Tuesday July 9^th  deescribewriting.wordpress.com Interview

Tuesday July 9^th clancytucker.blogspot.com.au Interview

Wed July 10^th  www.morrispublishingaustralia.com Interview

Wed July 11^th www.jackiehoskingpio.wordpress.com Interview         

Thursday July 12^th www.melissawray.blogspot.com.au

Here's a sneak peek into The Girl in the Basement:

Enter the minds of a psychopath and a defenceless teenager in this mesmerising and timely page-turner, with its unforeseeable twists and edge-of-the-seat suspense.

A man lurks in the shadows, spying on a girl in a red party dress.

The girl, Libby, is trying to shrug off a bad date. Not for a moment does she suspect that this night is the end of life as she knows it. The man pounces; Libby is grabbed and driven away. Held prisoner in a basement, she grapples with constant fear, all the while sustaining herself with thoughts of escape. Meanwhile, her captor is engaged on another mission, that of abducting a young boy to complete his 'family'.

Will Libby ever escape? Or will the man kill her? And what of the boy who refuses to submit to the man's demands? Can he possibly survive his merciless anger? 

Books are available from any bookstore in Australia, many online stores as a paperback (including Amazon) and eBook, and from www.morrispublishingaustralia.com.  

People’s Republic

People’s Republic by Robert Muchamore (Hodder/Hachette)

HB RRP $29.99

ISBN 9781444906103

Reviewed by Hilary Smillie

This is the first book in the second series of CHERUB, written by a London-based author who was a private investigator prior to becoming a best selling children’s author. CHERUB is a branch of British Intelligence whose agents are children between the ages of ten and seventeen. Recruited mainly from orphanages and care situations, the children (and younger siblings) live on a campus with a huge staff to educate and train them to become agents. This only happens if they pass a 100 day test of endurance and self reliance.

Ryan Sharma, twelve years of age, has passed the test and is recruited for a mission infiltrating a crime empire based in Kyrgystan. His task involves befriending the grandson of the woman who heads the evil Aramov Clan, Ethan Kitsell, who goes to a school in California. Ryan finds being an agent is not easy and his attempts to win over Ethan includes inadvertently harming him. He wonders if the whole project is worth it.

Enter an eleven year old Chinese girl, Fu Ning. Her story illustrates the difficulties of having a criminal for a father, and an alcoholic stepmother. When her father is arrested, she embarks on a dangerous escape from China, enduring torture, kidnapping and detention. The reader is exposed to the way desperate people are victimised, manipulated and abused. Ryan and Ning eventually meet which sets the scene for the next book in the series.

People’s Republic ticks all the boxes for coarse language, sexual reference and violence, although to its credit it does portray a sense of conscience and empathy. Halfway through this book I gained the impression I was reading an adult crime story in which, strangely, two children played the main roles. It is certainly a page turner, but also a reality hit which, to me, overshadows the fictional storyline. The tag NOT SUITABLE FOR YOUNGER READERS found on the back cover is important for discerning parents aware of the influence of the written word.

Mammon

Mammon by J.B. Thomas (Random House)

HB RRP $18.95

ISBN 978-1-7427-5074-3

Reviewed by Oliver Phommavanh

Mammon is the debut novel from J.B. Thomas, the first in a series for older readers. Mammon kicks off the Ferryman Chronicles. A brother and sister discover that they’re ‘Sarsareh’-demon hunters. When their parents get killed by a deadly demon, they vow revenge and train up for battle with a group of mercenaries. This is where they have to gain respect and skills. 

Joe is a headstrong boy who holds a trump card. He’s a ferryman who can create a rift to send demons straight to hell. It’s a rare ability is sort after by both sides of the war. Mammon is a high-level demon who wants Joe for his own ambitious plans. 

Grace tries to keep her brother in order. She’s a telepath who wants to prove that mind over firepower works against demons. Both main characters get equal footing in this novel. There’s also a massive cast that come and go. Politics plague the group of mercenaries who are mostly in their teens. Sometimes there’s more action in the words than against the demons themselves.

Thomas sets up a contemporary and supernatural setting that is ripe for action and suspense. A world where demons hide themselves among humans is pretty cool. Joe and Grace learn the ropes of demon hunting and guide the reader through all the nuts and bolts of this dangerous war. There are some gruesome scenes here that make you want to read more in the Ferryman Chronicles. Mammon is a promising novel that will attract readers who love their supernatural thrillers. Recommended for ages 13 and up. 

Dangerously Placed

Dangerously Placed by Nansi Kunze (Random House)

PB RRP $17.95

ISBN 978-1-8647-1882-9

Reviewed by Oliver Phommavanh

Dangerously Placed is a novel for teenage readers about friends who do work experience in various places. The main character Alex Thaler lands a dream placement in Virk, a company that has a ‘virtual’ office. Workers wear a Virtual Reality suit and enter this computer-generated environment, mingling with employees from all over the globe. Alex wants to extend her stay in this technologically advanced company with a graduate position. But she gets more than she bargains for, when her fiery boss is virtually murdered and actually dies in real life.

Alex is a likeable lead character. As she moves up and down the prime suspect list, she’s determined to find the killer herself with the help of her goofy friends. They’re a hoot, joking around when times get tough.  

I also really enjoyed the technological aspects of the novel, working in a virtual office sounds like fun but this ‘not too distant future’ side is never really explored. The novel switches from thriller to romance effortlessly, so it’s a frisky read from start to finish. There are two love interests thrown into the mix, though the tension fades halfway. Still, readers will like Alex’s romantic reactions.

 

Dangerously Placed is an amusing story that mix-mashes genres. It’s hard to say if strictly romance or thriller fans will like it, but I think they should give it a go. Recommended for ages 13 and up.          

Striker: Sudden Death

Striker: Sudden Death by Nick Hale (Egmont Press)

PB RRP $16.95

ISBN 9781405249508

Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis

What happens when your parents are divorced and after making the decision to move across the world to be with your father, incredible things start to happen, and you discover that almost everything you’ve been told is a lie?  Welcome to Jake’s life.

Jake Bastin at sixteen is a soccer team captain, and is following a life in sport left by his legendary father’s footsteps. He has abandoned Paris and his mother to join his father, Steve, in London. He barely arrives when Chernoff, his father’s friend hiding a suspect past, is poisoned in a restaurant while dining together. This sets off a course of events that force Jake to question everything he has been told by his enigmatic father.

Jake travels with his father to Russia at the request of the billionaire, Popov, in his private jet to coach a new team. While in mid-air, a fellow traveller and the two pilots are shot dead. Steve’s quick and cool-headed reaction saves their lives. Jake secretly questions the curious fact that Popov totally disregard these traumatic events, and acts as if nothing untoward has happened. These murders set a precedent for the remainder of the Jake’s Russian visit.

Jake’s curious and dissatisfied mind sends him out in search of answers and he uncovers ghastly secrets through detective work and lots of eavesdropping. He learns of sinister plots that involve his father in some way or another. Corruption seems to be everywhere and murder is a regular occurrence.

How and why is scientific research on tidal energy tied into a soccer match? Is Jake’s father really involved in murder? Why is the Russian Mafia and MI6 involved in something as everyday as sport?

This is a new action thriller series with a new young hero and countless twists and turns. It is riveting and fast-paced, and will be devoured at one sitting.  

Z

Z by Michael Thomas Ford (Random House)

HB RRP $19.95
ISBN 978-1-8647-1822-5
Reviewed by Oliver Phommavanh

Z is a novel for teenagers that combine two awesome things, video games and zombies. Josh is a highly skilled player in a game where he fights zombies and saves humans in various situations. It’s a controversial game because the world has just recovered from an actual zombie virus that almost wiped humanity off the map. Josh even had family who were destroyed as zombies, yet he still thinks they’re a fantasy.

All this changes when he meets the mysterious Charlie. Charlie introduces Josh to an underground league where you can play the game for real. That means real weapons, locations and...zombies?

Z is a relentless thriller, with loads of zombie-blasting action (both in-game and real-life). Despite the violence, Ford handles the gruesome detail with discretion so it’s no graphic bloodbath scenes. Readers will enjoy the gaming strategies that Josh’s team uses to battle the cunning zombies.

There is some drug use in the book. Josh takes some Z, a drug that warps his mind and makes him think like a zombie, enhancing his gaming experience. However, this scene focuses more on what it means to behave like a zombie than anything else.

Z is a wonderful story that brings video games to life in more ways than one. It’s recommended for ages 12 and up.

Ghost in the Machine

Ghost in the Machine by Patrick Carman (Scholastic Inc)
PB RRP $16.99
ISBN 1741695031
Reviewed by Dawn Meredith

Ghost in the Machine is the first of two books; it is a thriller story that blurs further the now indistinct line between book fiction and video. There is an uber-cool password protected website, which forms part of the storyline, supplementing a journal.

Ghost in the Machine tracks the current lives of Sarah Fincher and Ryan McCrae, who are trapped inside the mystery town of Skeleton Creek where there are no movie theatres but three churches. Sarah shoots video of everything she can while Ryan notes down all the clues in his journal.

It begins in a dark and dusty cellar with the prophetic words: ‘Remove this cryptix and suffer the consequence’. A dark, figure in a hat and coat appears above them and peers down in the gloom before slamming shut the heavy iron door. There is no phone signal and the air is getting thick. All they have now is each other. The video is eerie. Even I held my breath as the figure leaned down towards the camera. Was that a real skeleton face or a mask?

Snippets of video, messages passed in secret, scribbled names that don’t mean anything yet; it’s all a mystery. Has the ghost of Old Joe Bush followed Ryan home to write a message on his wall, or did Ryan write it himself and can’t remember? Somehow, everything leads back to the dredge and thirty million dollars of gold.

Each video chapter has a new password for access. I find this concept exciting! The suspense is palpable and the actors who play Sarah and Ryan do a great job. It combines modern kids’ love of video games with horror movies and adventure, but does it detract from the book itself?

With all the ‘live’ tension of the Blair Witch Project, the videos are definitely not for younger children. There is even a warning on YouTube.

Dawn Meredith writes from the Blue Mountains and is a recipient of a May Gibbs Fellowship for 2010. www.dawnmeredithauthor.blogspot.com