I read a lot of great books this year, which makes it hard to pick the best of the best.
I’m going with Abigail’s Curse because I love the way this book tricks the reader into thinking it’s going to be one story, then becomes something else entirely.
As it starts out, Abigail’s an ordinary teenager, in an ordinary school, dealing with a problem that shouldn’t be ordinary: a predatory teacher is trying to take advantage of her. Realising she’s about to make a formal complaint, the teacher gets in first with made-up allegations against her.
As punishment, Abigail is expelled, and has to be sent to a boarding school, known as the last chance for troubled kids.
When Abigail sets foot in Lament Academy, this moves from a sad story of the unfairness in the world, into a well-crafted, disturbing, gothic horror.
The book’s aimed at teenagers, but as an adult, I found it a great read.
Lament Academy is a place for the forgotten, the troubled, the unwanted. Abby never wanted to be here, but she wasn't given a choice. The halls are cold, the whispers never stop, and something about this place feels wrong.Her roommate, Raven, listens to the floorboards like they might answer. The other students watch her like they know something she doesn't. And Ethan... Ethan looks at her like he's waiting for her to remember something she's long forgotten.But the longer Abby stays at Lament, the more the lines between dreams and reality blur. Shadows stretch where they shouldn't. Time slips through…
It can be difficult negotiating the ups and downs of being a preteen. It can be even harder when you’re a parahuman, trying to build a reputation as a superhero, in a quiet town where hardly anything happens.
Annalisa’s troubles are compounded because, while her team, The Neighbourhood Watch, is smart and ambitious, the other pre-teen superhero team in town, Culture Club, gets to every incident faster.
To make matters worse, Culture Club is a team of rich triplets who bully The Neighbourhood Watch members, and who have a television journalist father who is always on hand to publicise their exploits.
When Annalisa stumbles on a serious crime in progress, at the same time as Culture Club, they work together out of practicality.
Suddenly, Annalisa has the option to join the team that has all the resources, training facilities, and publicity. All it would take would be leaving her team of best friends behind. Things are moving fast, and it almost seems she doesn’t really have a choice.
This is a great book for kids in the chapter book stage, grandma here also absolutely loved it.
Seventh-grade Superheroes!It's not easy being a twelve-year-old superhero, but the five kids of the Neighborhood Watch are doing the best they can. La Capitána: super-strong flier. Wheels: brilliant inventor. Hothead: catches on fire. Breezy: controls wind. Rascal: super-skateboarding. From their headquarters built into a repurposed Winnebago, they patrol the streets and alleys of their small hometown and dream of being Big Time Heroes like Mustang Sally and the rest of Just Cause. Instead, they're stuck rescuing cats stuck in trees . . . or they would be if their rivals didn't get there first.Three identical superpowered triplets, the Culture Club,…
Emma and Molly are best friends who both successful television presenters in Sydney.
Emma is balancing a husband and sheep farm at Bowral, and a weekday home, and weekday boyfriend, in Sydney.
Molly’s life is no less complicated. She only has one partner, who she shares her Sydney home with, but she’s also founder of Tulip Treasures, an orphanage in India, which she still keeps close links with.
They’ve been best friends for their entire adult lives, through any challenge, but a number of extreme crises are about to test their friendship in unprecedented ways.
This book has complex relationships, an interesting story line, and believable characters.
Fame is a double-edged sword, and nowhere is this more precarious than in the cutthroat world of television hosting.
Molly Edwards and Emma Bears Jones are inseparable—two powerhouses of television, hosting rival shows on Shine Ch33 and BBS12. But years of friendship crumble in a single night, a scandal sparked by a reckless decision at an industry party that sends their lives spiralling out of control.
In a haze of drugs and poor judgment, both women end up in bed with Richard—Emma's lover. Molly wakes first, horrified to find herself naked between her best friend and Richard.
Destiny sometimes chooses seemingly insignificant people for significant roles. Orsinius Wishlet is a wisp, a nobody, a common thief. Even in the magical world, he is an outcast. He does not imagine he will ever be anything more.
Ariana Sutton is an ordinary woman, a hairdresser, who is unaware that the magical world exists. That changes when, on her wedding day, she is caught in a magical trap intended to kill her.
Soon, the fate of the world, of Reality itself, will depend on these two and the friends who gather around them.
