Children's Express reporter Zak Garner-Purkis reviews two very different novels for young people.
| This is Bloodtide – the most violent book to come creeping up on you yet. |
Bloodtide
by Melvin Burgess, published by Puffin
The setting is future London where the ganglords have taken over and the monstrous halfmen—genetically-altered war machines—are lurking in the wastelands. This is Bloodtide—the most violent book to come creeping up on you yet.
The raw violence and devious treachery are mixed in with the crazy life of the 14-year-old son of a ganglord. This brutal and bloody tale has love and passion, mysterious deaths, car chases, as well as Romeo and Juliet-style liaisons.
Melvin Burgess should keep on being controversial if he can turn out books like this. His previous novel, Junk, was great but this is even better and I would recommend this book to anyone 13 and over. Descriptive narrative at its best.
There’s A Viking In My Bed
by Jeremy Strong, published by Puffin
When you start this book, you're looking for comedy because if a Viking turns up in present day Britain, there's bound to be fun.
The book makes you laugh all right—the hotel setting provides flabbergasted guests and paranoid parents who don't know what's going on.
The only thing this book doesn't offer is a good story line to match the comedy and the plot wavers. It has crazy moments explained delightfully by the children—Tim and Zoe—who know, for instance, that Vikings would run naked into battle on occasions.
The flimsy storyline and strange events are not a good combination, and overall the jokes are good but the story is bad. I dread seeing this on TV!
Reviews by Zak Garner-Purkis, 13. They were published at World Online Kids.
