Review: Falling Fast by Sophie McKenzie

Falling Fast by Sophie McKenzie (March 2012, Simon & Schuster Childrens Books, ISBN: 0857070991)

Falling Fast is the first part in the Flynn trilogy which is to be narrated by River; River is 16 and looking to love and be loved. Along with her two best friends Emmi and Grace they go along to a local boys' school to audition for the female roles in Romeo and Juliet. Though River is a better actor than Emmi, when she sets her eyes on Romeo, played by Flynn, she is overcome with emotion and fluffs her test. Emmi secures Juliet and Grace and River get other parts which means that several times a week they have to rehearse with the boys...

Slowly River and Flynn begin a relationship but he is moody and swift to anger and River, though soon deeply in love, is not sure Flynn is her Romeo; what's with all his secrets and his intense personality? Frank discussions are needed if they are to last...

Falling Fast charts a passionate but fragile relationship between the insecure River and the chip on his shoulder Flynn and shows the difference between expectation and reality. It's a quick read but still covers some serious issues. I found River a likeable and believable character. The three girls are quite grown-up what with getting drunk and the varying degrees of experimentation with sex (from none to frequent). There is also an aggressive/frightening scene with some drunks. If you want something along the same lines but more innocent then try Kay Woodward's Wuthering Hearts.

I look forward to seeing where the story goes in the second instalment, Burning Bright. In the meantime you can download  Acting Friends, a prequel, written for World Book Day, here.

Free e-book of The Thief by Sophie McKenzie

You can now download the pdf or read online, Sophie McKenzie's The Thief which was a 2010 World Book Day special and can only be bought second-hand now (and my library has *1* copy of!).

Read/Download The Thief here.

The Thief is a bonus Medusa Project story, originally written for World Book Day 2010 but no longer available to buy.

The events in this special story take place between The Hostage and The Rescue, but The Thief can be read as a stand-alone story.

The Thief stars the four Medusa teens, Nico, Ketty, Ed and Dylan. Following the explosion that ended The Hostage, the teens are sent to a boot camp in Spain - to learn some discipline, but also for their own protection. On the way there, the group are attacked and forced to carry out a high-risk diamond theft...

Cover Reveal - Sister, Missing

Further to my previous post recommending Sophie McKenzie's books, details of the cover of Sister, Missing and the reissue of Girl, Missing, have just been released.


The cover for Sister, Missing in particular is like one of those optical illusions where you see a wrinkly face and a young girl's in the same picture!

A similar approach was taken with Kelley Armstrong's The Gathering, earlier this year:

Review: Girl, Missing by Sophie McKenzie (audio book)

Girl, Missing by Sophie McKenzie and read by Kim Hicks (March 2009, AudioGO, ISBN: 9781408404324)

First Line:
Who am I?

Notes: Girl, Missing won the Red House Book Award for Older Readers and was Richard and Judy’s Children’s Books Winner in the 12+ Fluent Reader category. The paperback edition is published by Simon & Schuster Children's, ISBN: 9781416917328.

Review: As the sequel to Girl, Missing - Sister, Missing - is due out in September I thought I'd better get on and read the first book.

Girl, Missing is the story of Lauren Matthews who was adopted when she was three. Her parents refuse to tell her about her life before then saying that she's not old enough to know more yet as she is only fourteen. Naturally Lauren doesn't agree and a routine homework assignment on "Who am I?" turns into something more serious when she finds a missing children website. Lauren discovers that a girl, middle name Lauren, disappeared at the right age over in America. Could she be the same person?

Her investigations of family documents leads to the name of a US adoption agency on the East coast of America. Lauren manipulates and lies to get a family holiday in the right part of the US and is fortunate to be accompanied by her best friend Jam (James). Lauren's quest to find herself leads to much more than she bargained for with multiple life-threatening situations and much stress and strain for her adoptive parents.

Girl, Missing is an exciting thriller with a headstrong, teenage lead who comes across as selfish and thoughtless at times but is probably only acting as anyone would at that age when something so important is almost within your grasp. The story raises serious issues of who is family and how much blood-ties matter, along with being a gripping, thriller. I did enjoy it and am intrigued to see how Lauren will have matured as the next book is set two years later.

Girl, Missing is well narrated by Kim Hicks who gives Lauren a confident voice which may make her sound more selfish than she actually is. You can listen to a sample of the opening chapter on the AudioGO website.

Publishing Deal - Sophie McKenzie

Here's a partial extract from Simon & Schuster's Press Release announcing Sophie McKenzie's sequel to Girl, Missing:

24th January 2011, London—Simon & Schuster Children’s Books today announced a major new deal with award-winning author, Sophie McKenzie, for a sequel to her debut bestseller, Girl, Missing.

Sister, Missing takes up the story of sixteen-year-old Lauren two years after the events of Girl, Missing. Life is not getting any easier in either her adoptive or birth families as exam pressure and a recent family tragedy take their toll. Lauren’s birth mother takes Lauren and her two sisters on holiday in the hope that some time together will help, but a few days into the holiday the youngest girl is kidnapped, under circumstances suspiciously similar to those in which Lauren was taken years before. The kidnapper demands a huge ransom for the child’s safe return – and is threatening to kill her if the police get involved. Can Lauren save her sister, and stop the nightmare happening all over again?

Sister, Missing will mark Sophie’s first hardcover launch in October 2011 alongside a high profile marketing and publicity campaign, a national author tour and key festival appearances. The paperback edition will follow in summer 2012.

Review: Blood Ties by Sophie McKenzie (audio book)

Blood Ties by Sophie McKenzie and read by Rebekah Germain and Mark Meadows (July 2009, Chivers Children's Audio, ISBN: 9781408438695)

First Lines:
I could see him waiting for me outside the steel school gates.
Roy.

Notes: Blood Ties won the Red House Children's Book Award 2009. The paperback edition is published by Simon & Schuster Children's, ISBN: 1847382754.

Review: Blood Ties brings together two fifteen-year-olds, Theo and Rachel. Complete strangers, they have more in-common than anyone could possibly realise.

Theo, confident, but emotionally contained has had a bodyguard for as long as he can remember, Even when he gives him the slip, his freedom is short-lived. He and his mum have such a big row that she decides she must tell Theo the truth. That his dad is not dead but in hiding from extremists, and that Theo's life may be in danger as he's his father 's weak point.

Meanwhile, in the other-side of the city, Rachel is being bullied at school and at home she is constantly being compared to her dead sister who was apparently all that Rachel is not: brilliant, gorgeous, elegant.

Theo decides to track his dad down, in spite of what his mum's said and this leads him to Rachel as her father worked with his. Theo's desperation to find his dad however, sets in motion all that his mum has feared over the years and so begins an exciting thriller which takes the two to Scotland and Washington. They have both friends and foes, and not all will survive the experience.

Blood Ties is narrated alternately by Theo and Rachel and is a fabulously exciting and enthralling story which sees Theo and Rachel change and mature over a few short weeks. As well as thriller it's also a gentle love-story as the two realise how close they've become (though it takes Theo a bit longer to realise) with the alternating viewpoint showing how confused they are about the feelings of the other one! The theme of identity and the effects of nurture or nature on a person's personality is also there to be explored by the reader if they so wish. But perhaps first and foremost it's a page-turning thriller and one that should (and does) appeal to both male and female readers.

Though the sequel has just been published, this one stands on its own, but I am very pleased that there is more to come as there are several plot-lines that can be carried on.

I loved the dual narration by Rebekah Germain and Mark Meadows and in particular Mark Meadows accent for Theo's father was very convincing, very evocative of the man he is.

Review: The Medusa Project: The Set-Up by Sophie McKenzie

The Medusa Project: The Set-Up by Sophie McKenzie (July 2009, Simon & Schuster Children's, ISBN: 9781847385253)

First Lines:
I'm Nico and what I'm about to tell you is Secret and Dangerous and True. It's also several planetary systems beyond Weird. Here's How it started....

Review: Our narrator is Nico a fourteen-year-old who lives with his stepfather (who is also his headmaster) at a boarding school in London.

Nico has the hots for his best friend Ketty, a very keen runner but when in assembly he sees another boy's arm around her, he gets angry and jealous. And that's when the furniture starts flying around. Nico realises it's him causing the havoc, he's telekinetic! Fergus puts it down to a freak storm but he calls Nico over and tells him not to do it again and that his power is evil. So when Nico gets an anonymous text from someone offering to tell him about his ability, he can't resist.

He meets up with a man called Jack who also introduces him to an American girl called Dylan. Jack explains that there are four of them with the Medusa gene which gives each of them a psychic ability of some sort and that he has been hired to track down all four children. Nico doesn't ask too many questions - he just wants to get money to impress Ketty and pay for her trip to a Scottish running event.

Initially things go well, but when the formula for the gene turns up, a gene that can kill, Nico's conscience won't allow the formula to be sold. Life becomes dangerous for Nico and his friends as they put their own lives in jeopardy...

The Set-Up is an easy read with an entertaining if very naive narrator. Unfortunately, I didn't find any of the main characters particularly likeable and Nico's habit of calling Ketty 'babe' irritated me. Though the story is well paced and eventful, I didn't feel that it offered that many surprises but I'm a rather older and jaded reader than the target audience and a friend's fourteen-year-old couldn't put it down.

Each of the four books has a different narrator and the second book, The Hostage, is out in January. This series should appeal equally to boys and girls.

Cover: An enticing cover which accurately depicts the two girls, though I'm less sure about the boys!

The Medusa Project - news

The first part of Sophie McKenzie's The Medusa Project - The Set-Up is out now. Part two, The Hostage, is out in January. Originally conceived as a four parter, news comes of a fifth part, to be published as part of World Book Day in March. From Sophie McKenzie's website:

The Medusa Project was originally intended to be just four books - one story focusing on each of the main four characters and their particular psychic ability. But thanks to the lovely people who organise World Book Day, there’s now going to be a fifth story about the Medusa teens. The Thief will publish next March. It won’t be as long as the other books but, thanks to the way its set up, should be even more exciting!


It will follow on from The Hostage chronologically - though you won’t need to have read the other stories to understand what’s going on! The Thief will be narrated by all four main characters in turn: Nico, Ketty, Ed and Dylan, in that order and will involve diamond-theft, dramatic sand storm action and a terrible revelation…

Teenage Previews: July

Taken from the Bookseller magazine print edition, three books that will be published in July and that I'm looking forward to:

Michelle Lovric - The Undrowned Child
Orion Childrens
Synopsis - It's the beginning of the 20th century; the age of scientific progress. But for Venice the future looks bleak. A conference of scientists assembles to address the problems, among whose delegates are the parents of eleven-year-old Teodora. Within days of her arrival, she is subsumed into the secret life of Venice: a world in which salty-tongued mermaids run subversive printing presses, ghosts good and bad patrol the streets and librarians turn fluidly into cats. A battle against forces determined to destroy the city once and for all quickly ensues. Only Teo, the undrowned child who survived a tragic accident as a baby, can go 'between-the-linings' to subvert evil and restore order.


Sophie McKenzie - The Set Up
Book 1 of the Medusa Project
Simon & Schuster
Synopsis - Fourteen years ago, scientist William Fox implanted four babies with the Medusa gene - a gene for psychic abilities. But Fox died and the babies were hidden away for years. Now the children are teenagers - and unaware that their psychic powers are about to kick in. Cocky, charismatic Nico thinks his emerging telekinetic abilities will bring him money, power and the girl of his dreams. He's about to find out just how wrong he is...





Marcus Sedgwick - Revolver
Orion Childrens
Synopsis - 1910. A cabin north of the Arctic Circle. Fifteen-year-old Sig Andersson is alone. Alone, except for the corpse of his father, who died earlier that day after falling through a weak spot on the ice-covered lake. His sister, Anna, and step-mother, Nadya, have gone to the local town for help. Then comes a knock at the door. It's a man, the flash of a revolver's butt at his hip, and a mean glare in his eyes. Sig has never seen him before but Wolff claims to have unfinished business with his father. As Sig gradually learns the awful truth about Wolff's connection to his father, Sig finds his thoughts drawn to a certain box hidden on a shelf in the storeroom, in which lies his father's prized possession - a revolver. When Anna returns alone, and Wolff begins to close in, Sigs choice is pulled into sharp focus. Should he use the gun, or not?