Author Archives: keithbwalters

Warm Bodies

By Isaac Marion, published by Vintage (Also coming out as a movie in a few days).

Warm Bodies (Warm Bodies #1)

“Who says romance is dead?”

R is a Zombie in a crumbling world, living in an abandoned 747 at a zombie infested airport. He can remember nothing at all about his life before his death, only the beginning letter of his old name, but he can think, and talk… kind of. He craves brains, like every other zombie. They crave them because they can live the memories that they hold.

One day on a hunting trip with his pal M and some other undead, he eats the brains of a boy called Perry, and experiences Perry’s memories of his girlfriend, Julie Grigio. Finding Julie, he takes her as a hostage to his airplane home, planning to feast on her insides later. But Julie has triggered something inside of him, and his emotions are changing. He is in love with her, but it’s not that simple. This love is reigniting life inside R, and he’s getting warmer. As he hides inside the hideout of the remaining humans, he and Julie are about to uncover something big- something that could change the apocalyptic wasteland of a world forever…

Move aside, vampire romance novels. It’s zombie romance time.

This was, by far, one of the most intriguing books I have ever read. It’s not really a romance, despite the reviews saying it is. In fact, they kiss once. At the end. Yes, he is in love with her, but none of this was lovey-dovey, thankfully! I was more interested in the zombies and the apocalyptic story line… which was brilliant. It was perfectly executed, and imaginative. It had its scary points, and its funny points!

R was a brilliant main character. He was funny, and full of personality. I thought that the whole idea of a zombie narrator was strange at first, but I really, really loved it. Julie made a great character too- a broken girl with a haunting past who is the light that begins to cure the zombies. She was outrageous, adventurous, and seriously cool.

Their journey together was so fun to read, and I really recommend it! This was, by far, one of the best zombie reads I’ve ever encountered, and I now really want to read more from Isaac Marion, and watch the film (Although, of course, the films are NEVER as good as the books).

One Crow Alone

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By S. D. Crockett, published by Macmillan.

One Crow Alone (After the Snow, Book #2)

“A winter’s day has become a winter’s nightmare…”

Teenage Magda Krol is living in her quiet, Polish village until strange men arrive. She hides in her cellar, and upon emerging realises that they were not thieves, but people evacuating the village because of the harsh weather! She ventures across the frozen wasteland to the next village, in the hope of getting on the next evacuation truck, when she encounters Ukrainian boy Ivan. Together they smuggle themselves onto a truck bound for London, where they will search for Magda’s only remaining relative; her mother. But London is a whole lot worse than Poland…

*REVIEW MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS :)*

I really loved S. D. Crockett’s first book, After The Snow, and I loved this one just as much. Although I expected the sequel (Well… technically this is a Prequel) to be about the further adventures of Willo and Mary- but it wasn’t. In fact, they only had three short chapters in total. The whole of the book was about a minor character, Magda (Willo’s step-mum), from ATS. It was unexpected, but great to delve into a story of a different character. It’s was really great to see how she accidentally fell into Willo’s future.

The character of Madga was great; she made for a really adventurous, determined protagonist! She was really love-able, and I was rooting for her, hoping that she would find her mother, all the way through the book. I also really liked Ivan, the love interest- although when he decided to run off and leave Magda alone my mind really changed about him. He was portrayed as quite caring, and always stuck by Magda’s side- so it kind of confused me as to why he left for no given reason. The way all of Willo’s family fell into the story at the end was absolutely brilliant, and quite unexpected, too!

As for the plot, it was great, and I really enjoyed the adventure and action. It was dark and scary, and all about hope, survival, and loss. There was even an essence of romance in there too! I was also given a much better insight into S. D. Crockett’s dystopic world, actually giving us the date in which it’s set (late 2030’s and onward!). Overall it’s a really great, thrilling read from an author I love. Highly recommended!

New Books!

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Okay, so lots of blogs put up pictures of their newest books on their To Read pile. So I’ve decided that at the end of every week I can, I’ll do a little blog with the book I’ve received/bought this week!

Received in the post:

One Crow Alone

One Crow Alone by S. D. Crockett. I loved S. D. Crockett’s first book, After The Snow, and can’t wait to read this one, based on the minor character of Magda who didn’t get much of a mention in ATS.

Bought today:

Warm Bodies Matched - Matched

After seeing the Warm Bodies movie posters everywhere I can’t wait to see the film, but the books are always better than the motion pictures to me, so I had to pick up a copy! Also, I’ve always wanted to read Matched and never gotten around to it, and now there’s a whole trilogy of them, I thought I’d better get my butt into gear and start reading it.

Look out for reviews of these three soon! 🙂

How to Fall

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By Jane Casey, published by Corgi.

How To Fall

“Sometimes the truth hurts. Sometimes it kills…”

Sixteen year old Jess Tennant moves to a holiday home by the sea with her mum, to escape London for the summer. It’s Jess’s mother’s old hometown, where her side of the family still lives… except for one member.

Freya is Jess Tennant’s never-met-before cousin, and she died under mysterious circumstances a year before, plunging to her doom on the rocks after falling from a clifftop. When Jess begins her summer, she’s already turning heads in the town- she looks exactly identical to her cousin. Confused at the dismissal of her cousins death as ‘accidental’ she delves into an investigation, forming a list of suspects and determined to discover whether the death was suicide, murder, or if it really was an accident. Suspects include the mean queen of the town Natasha, and even the boy next door, Will. Along the way she’ll get tangled up in other situations too, one involving falling in love with Will.

How did Freya really die? And what lengths will Jess go to in order to find out?

I picked this book up this morning, and as soon as I began reading I couldn’t stop. Despite the huge amount of pages (just over 400) I read this book pretty quickly, and loved every second of it! Jess was a really great character; and I loved her from the start. She made a great narrator… She’s the twenty-first century, female version of Sherlock Holmes- inquisitive, determined, adventurous; the perfect detective! The other characters were absolutely brilliant too.

I loved the plot; it was a classic whodunit? story line with a twist of love thrown into the mix. There were lots of plot twists that kept me on the edge of my seat. I found myself guessing ahead, trying to work out who was the killer, and in the end I had gotten it totally wrong! The ending was really shocking, yet satisfying. The hint of secret love and teenage rivalry made the story more exciting than it already was, as the reasons behind Freya’s death all came down to the dating side of things. The story was realistic; with a strong essence of the extreme consequences of bullying.

Overall, I seriously enjoyed it and recommend it to any young adults, and of course to crime fans in general. It’s brilliantly written, and a really great, thrilling read!

The Quietness

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By Alison Rattle, published by Hot Key Books.

The Quietness

The eldest child of a poor family living in the slums of London, Queenie, dreams of a better life with more money. When she finds an advertisement for a job working at the house of two sisters, Mrs Waters and Miss Ellis, she runs away from home to begin work as a carer for the many babies that the two sisters own. The babies came from women who had no husbands and did not want to be looked down upon in society, so hid away for months in the Waters and Ellis house, gave birth, then carried on with their lives leaving the child behind. All the while, babies are slowly disappearing, with Miss Waters claiming that they have been adopted. But Queenie is getting suspicious, and is determined to track down the truth of the baby farm.

In a higher-class part of London, a girl of the same age as Queenie called Ellen is living a lonely life inside of a house in which nobody cares about her. When her handsome cousin Jacob comes to stay after the death of his mother, Ellen begins to feel less lonely. But after a huge betrayal from Jacob, Ellen is about to fall into Queenie’s life in the strangest way, and together they will solve the crime behind the ‘baby farming’, become the greatest of friends, and discover something that will change their whole lives forever…

***WARNING: SPOILERS IN THE REVIEW BELOW!!***

I really enjoyed this! I wasn’t sure I’d really get into the story; I don’t read historical fiction much; but I really got hooked on it, and couldn’t stop reading. I liked the switching of the narratives every other chapter, and how the two girls come together and discover they are related under coincidental circumstances. Both teenagers came from very different, very interesting… at points frightful backgrounds, and I loved reading about them. I think that, after reading the authors note, the story became so much more real. Alison Rattle said that she had stumbled across the characters of Miss Waters and Miss Ellis and their crimes of Baby Farming whilst researching for something else. It was really shocking to hear that the events in this book were actually based on something that had really happened before!

The whole crime conspiracy building throughout the book kept me guessing about the ending, and when it came to the final pages I was shocked at the unpredictable closing paragraphs. It really tugged at my heartstrings- the unfortunate death of my favorite character (I’m not saying any names!).

Overall, The Quietness made for a really riveting, well written read. Highly recommended for YA’s and Adults alike!

Geek Girl

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By Holly Smale, published by Harper Collins

Geek Girl

“My name is Harriet Manners, and I am a geek.”

Harriet Manners is the geekiest girl of the school. She gets picked on by mean girl Alexa, and ‘GEEK’ graffitied on all of her property. One day, she is forced on a school trip to a fashion show with her best friend, who dreams of getting spotted and becoming a model.

But when Harriet herself in spotted instead, she jumps at the possibility of changing her lifestyle. It will mean stealing her best friends dream, lying to her mother, flying to Russia, and more. But wouldn’t it be worth it to become popular, and change from being a geek? With the support of Geeky-stalker-boy Toby and Harriet’s easily excitable, very enthusiastic father, she embarks on a hilarious journey to pursue a modelling career. Can she make it, and impress super-cute model boy Nick?

This is going to be one of the hottest debuts of the year, I just know it!

The story follows Harriet as she gets a crush on a cute model boy, struggles with bullies and friendships, and experiences the ups and downs of being a (pretty clumsy) model, ultimately discovering that it’s fine to be a Geek. It’s a hilarious, brilliantly written novel which also reflects on the teenage life of the author: As Holly Smale got scouted herself as a teenager!

Harriet is a brilliant main character, your stereotypical, clumsy geek who knows more than enough facts. I fell in love with her story right from the beginning! I actually think she was a bit like me; being called ‘ginger’ when she has Strawberry-blonde hair, amongst many other things. I really related to her, which was great. The other characters were awesome too; all of them funny, but I think my favourite has to be Harriet’s agent (Who reminded me of Louis Spence)!

I really loved this. It’s a brilliant story; comedic yet full of heart and personality, a great read for young teenagers, and young adults alike!

Overall, a stunning first novel from a new author who definitely has a great writing career ahead of her. I couldn’t believe this was her first book, and I can’t wait to see how the sequel turns out!

*Note- look out for the geek girl blog tour, with great, geeky posts appearing on lots of YA blogs, including mine! My post will be on the 26th of February.*

Unremembered

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By Jessica Brody, published by Macmillan

Unremembered (Unremembered, #1)

“The only thing worse than forgetting your past… is remembering it.”

Sixteen year old Sera is the sole survivor of a plane crash in the middle of the ocean. She wakes up, nicknamed Violet for her purple eyes. She can’t remember anything at all, and she has no family looking for her. Then a mysterious boy called Zen arrives in her hospital room, and tells her that she is called Sera, that she needs to remember that she is part of a secret scientific experiment, and that she is not to trust anyone.

She is adopted by two foster parents and their son, Cody, but upon incidents that make her seem ‘supernatural’ and ‘like a robot’ to the people around her, she decides that she must uncover her real identity and sets off on a dangerous journey with the help of thirteen year old Cody to try and remember her past life. On the way she meets Zen again, and another mysterious person. Who can she trust in this new dangerous world? What is Diotech and what did they do to her? And is she falling for Zen? Read this great book to find out!

I absolutely loved this. It’s everything I hoped for; a lot of gritty action, a brilliant main character, a sci-fi based storyline, and a little bit of romance, too. Unremembered is full of exciting, and unpredictable plot twists which kept me on the edge of my seat whilst reading; and the plot in general really was brilliant. I ended up reading this in about a day, but I wish it could have been a little longer (There will be a sequel though! Yay!) .

Sera made a great leading character, and so did Zen, the love interest. I liked the ‘undying love’ between them, how she had had her memory wiped of him so many times but he was still determined to make her remember him again and never stopped loving her. I also found Cody, the thirteen year old foster brother, one of my favourite characters-He’s just so cool, a nerdy boy with a serious crush on his ‘amnesiac supermodel’ step sister!

…And now we come to the ending. THE ENDING. Possibly one of the most frustrating, most effective cliff-hangers of all time. It absolutely terrified, upset, and excited me, and now I am eagerly awaiting the publication of the sequel!

*QUICK UNRELATED NOTE- Yep, this is my third post in the space of about half an hour. I’m off ill with a cough, and sorting through forgotten, unfinished reviews and posting them! woo!*

The Beautiful and the Cursed

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By Page Morgan, published by Hot Key Books

Ingrid Waverly and her sister Gabby move to Paris with their mother, escaping the memories of the accident Ingrid caused- setting fire to a house. They had sent Ingrids twin, Grayson, ahead of them to France to scout out a new home. They arrive at an eerie looking Abbey guarded by stone gargoyles but Grayson is nowhere in sight. Locals say he went missing. like the french girls who have been kidnapped.

Determined to find their brother, Gabby and Ingrid begin a search, but stumble across a scary new side to Paris. The gargoyle which sits on top of their abbey was once a human; Luc; and was turned into a beast, who is sentenced to protect whoever shelters within the abbeys walls. Also, Demons exist- and so does an ‘Alliance’, who pledge to protect people from the Demons. On their search for their sibling, Gabby will fall in love with Detective Nolan, and Ingrid with their Gargoyle Luc, but can they protect each other, and save Grayson, on top of stopping the evil force behind the kidnappings?

Move over, sparkly vampires- the magic gargoyles have arrived! This book was amazing. As soon as I saw the cover I knew this was going to be a great, Gothic read. It was thrilling from the beginning, with scary murder cases and supernatural secrets and evil demonic hell-hounds… So much awesome stuff. There was so much action, so much drama, packed into the pages, and I loved it.

I thought that the main focus would be on Ingrid, seeing as that’s the character on the cover, and even though most of the limelight was on her, her sister Gabby was also a main character. I loved Gabby and Ingrid, they were great protagonists; brave, courageous, adventurous 19th century girls. Luc made a great character too; a Gothic, half human gargoyle sentenced to protect the people that live in the abbey but accidentally falls in love with the eldest girl? How cool!

I didn’t think there was going to be a love triangle, but then one was introduced on the last few pages which was really unpredictable. I’d like to see it develop a bit more in the sequel out soon (The Sweet and the Savage), but I hope it won’t overpower the action!

A Month with April-May

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By Edith Bulbring, published by Hot Key Books

A Month with April-May

‘Life is not a bowl of cherries. Suck it up.’

April-May February is the unfortunately named daughter of two recently split up parents. When she joins a new school, she instantly gets on the wrong side of her teacher! She wears bright stripy socks, and the wrong bag- which means trouble when her evil teacher miss Ho sees! April-May makes friends with the mouth breather Melly, but soon loses her clothes to a homeless person and joins Seb and his gang, when she gets all mushy lovey dovey feelings for him…what ever will happen next?

Watch out Georgia Nicholson… there’s a new comedic girl about! I found this book brilliant; it’s packed full of laughs and tears (Mostly from laughter, but from sad bits too)! It’s one of the funniest books I’ve read in a while. I really loved the character of the April-May February; her story is a funny one but it pulls at your heartstrings, as she tries to ignore her parents’ dilemmas and tries to become a normal girl in her crushes’ gang. Although quite short, this book was awesome and comical. I would recommend it to any teenage girl; you’ll really love it! I can’t wait to hear more from South African bestseller Edith Bulbring in the near future!

Red Ink

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By Julie Mayhew, published by Hot Key Books

Red ink

“Sometimes lies are safer than the truth…”

Fifteen year old Melon Fouraki is the daughter of a beautiful Greek woman, and an unknown father. When her mother is hit by a bus and killed, and the memories of Maria Fouraki are slipping away, the only thing Melon has to remember her Mother by it The Story, a tale her mum wrote about her childhood.

Melons’ Aunt Aphrodite is unlikely to be jumping on a plane soon to look after her great niece, so Melon is stuck living with the much-disliked Paul, who was her mothers fiance until she died. The story follows Melon as she discovers that some things her mother had told her were not real, and that her mum, Maria, was not the person she seemed…

This story really was amazing! I didn’t know what I would make of it when I began reading; but I was hooked after a few pages! It was beautifully written, and packed with emotion and heartbreak. The story dealt with love, loss, superstition, and family secrets- and it made for a really sad (but at parts, witty) tale. Melon made a really great narrator with a huge personality.I love the style of writing: One chapter would be at the present, then the next would flash back to before her mothers death.

The ending was very, very, unexpected. And shocking. But I liked it all the same- Now I want to read on about Melon’s future! I can’t wait to read more from Julie Mayhew, this debut novel was excellent- I think I just might have to go and hunt down some of Julie Mayhew’s short stories now.