I recently spent five nights in what felt like the middle of nowhere, with no phone reception and no internet. Okay, so phone reception was just a ten minute drive up a hill if I needed it, but I found I didn’t, unlike some of the other adults I was staying with. Usually, teenagers are…
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Allyse Near’s Fairytales for Wilde Girls is a refreshingly original debut. Though clearly inspired by a range of fairytales, ghost stories, literary works and poems, Near uses her affection for these genres to develop an entirely new fantasy world, one where she can explore the pitfalls of young adulthood. The novel follows Isola Wilde, a…
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I think it’s fair to say ‘thank God Facebook wasn’t around when I was in high school’ is a popular statement among 20-something year olds. Sure, we had MSN and MySpace, but we were spared Facebook’s procrastination-friendly bevy of games, fan pages, chats and snooping opportunities. We were also spared some of the more latent…
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I not only shamelessly judge books by their covers, but by their titles, too. I’m forever drawn to quirky titles, and What the Raven Saw by Samantha-Ellen Bound, was one of the most intriguing titles I’d read in a while. Add to that the beautiful cover artwork, and I couldn’t wait to rip open the…
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Does any women have complete power over her choices? The agency and reproductive rights of women come into question in Maureen McCarthy’s YA novel The Convent. McCarthy writes in her “Author’s Note”: ‘History is so often told from the male point of view, with the female experience either ignored or trivialised.’ In The Convent, she…
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The Diviners is the first book in the new series (of the same title) from New York Times bestselling author, Libba Bray. The novel introduces small-town girl Evie, who has been sent to New York to live with her Uncle Will – curator of the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition and the Occult. In the…
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There are times when I complain about things in my life which, really, don’t warrant complaining about: Australia’s performance at the Olympics, getting out of my shift at work ten minutes late when I’m anxious to get home, the phenomenon that is Fifty Shades of Grey, university assignments. The list goes on. Thankfully, life is…
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Everyone feels the pressure of meeting deadlines at one time or another. At least, I do. Maybe there are many lucky people who simply take a Douglas Adams approach to deadlines and laugh in the wake of them. For those of us who don’t, whether that deadline be at school, or at uni, or in…
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Martha Marcy May Marlene Sean Durkin won the Dramatic Directing Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival for Martha Marcy May Marlene – an intense psychological drama about a young girl named Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) who has just escaped from a repressive and dangerous cult helmed by the manipulative (and creepy) Patrick (John Hawkes). After disappearing for two…
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It’s not that I don’t know how I feel about Charlize Theron’s Mavis in Young Adult, it’s that I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. The cinema-going audience for the film seems to be divided; there are those who loathe the character and applaud Diablo Cody for putting such an abrasive figure on screen,…
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It’s that time of year again! The sun is getting hotter and hotter, summer music festivals are about to start and Hollywood is queuing up the box office with a barrage of movies to put you in cinema seats, so in order to spend your money wisely I have written a little guide of movies…
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I can already hear most of you groaning: ‘Oh great, another supernatural romance…’ Although it is another supernatural romance for the young adult market, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi actually has a great concept of a dark and dystopian world, in a similar vein as Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden and recent…
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‘It’s a fine choice you’ve given him. To crawl back to his home in defeat, or to put his life in the hands of a madman’, Mother Gale Ship Kings: The coming of the whirlpool is the first book in a new young adult series by Andrew McGahan about Dow Amber, a regular highland’s lad,…
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