The Haunted by Jessica Verday. A review by Hannah Ainsworth

The Haunted is the sequel to The Hollow. This book continues with the main character Abbey after she returns from her stay with her Aunt Marjorie. She had been away for a while, whilst trying to forget the hallucinations she was supposedly having. The most interesting part of this book is when Abbey goes to work for her Uncle at an ice cream shop. She works behind the counter with a girl from school named Aubra. One night Aubra’s boyfriend, Vincent, comes into the shop; they must have had an argument as Abbey could hear shouting. One night when Abbey got back from the shop she went up to her room and found rose petals on her bed. She thought it would be Caspian, but no, it was Vincent. He trashed her room and threw her around the room. Caspian came charging into the room but he was to late, Vincent had taken her.This shocks me as the book, like the hollow, leaves it as a cliff hanger. I hope there is going to be another book because I want to read what is about to happen to Abbey.

I find Vincent very interesting because the way he acts is quite scary. He scares me even though I know he is just a character from a book. At the end of the book it mentions that Vincent is the same as Caspian in many ways except everyone can see Vincent. They are mortal enemies.

The Hollow by Jessica Verday. Reviewed by Hannah Ainsworth

The Hollow is the first book of two, about a girl called Abbey living a tough life after her best friend, Kristen, disappeared. Although Kristen had never been found: her parents held a funeral to mark her death. At the funeral Abbey met a boy called Caspian. Several weeks after the funeral Abbey kept bumping into him and eventually they spoke. To Abbey, Caspian was a normal person who didn’t go to her school but he had a secret, he was a ghost. Abbey and Caspian carried on meeting up and eventually they fell in love. The most interesting part is when Abbey told her parents about Caspian being a ghost, they thought she was going insane, Abbey moved to her Aunt Marjorie’s for a while, until she could realise that he was really dead. The book ended on a cliff hanger.

I find Caspian the most interesting character because he is an illusion for Abbey. Caspian is described with white-blonde hair and a black streak standing out amongst his pale hair colour. Caspian tells Abbey he is there to help her get through life without Kristen but that’s not the only reason he is there for. He says no-one can see him apart from her which must mean something.

Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mist by Liz Kessler: a review by Erin Sharpe

Ever since Emily Windsnap descovered she was half mermaid half human, she has adored life on her perfect desert island, going to mermaid school and spending time with her best friend, Shona Silkfin.

However everything changes when Emily Windsnap discovers an old diamond ring during a class hunt for trinkets, how is she supposed to know that the ring is half the key to unlocking an ancient curse by Neptune himself? Now, with the ring stuck firmly on her hand, Emily finds herself under a new curse: in just a few days, she’ll cease to be half-human and half-mermaid and must say good-bye to one parent forever. Can she possibly find the other missing ring that will break all the curses? Is there anyone who can help her — before it’s too late?

DeathNote - story by Tsugumi Ohba, art by Takeshi Obata - A review by Joe C

When I get stuck into a good manga it’s hard to get me or my thoughts away from it; DeathNote is a perfect example of this, for a series of only 12 volumes it is an epic tale.

A brief synopsis then... Light Yagami is a bored genius who while attending school something out of the ordinary catches his eye, a black notebook falling from the sky outside his classroom window. Curious, Light takes the notebook before anyone else can and reads the two words in white on its cover ‘Death Note’. Inside the notebook are pages instructing the holder on its use, the first, most important rule reading “The human whose name is written in this note shall die.”Light assumes the notebook is an elaborate prank, as most people would, but one night decides to test its supposed powers; he chooses to kill a criminal shown on the news, someone no-one would care about. After forty seconds, like the Death Note’s rules dictated, the man dies of a heart attack and Light realises the power he holds... However, Light is not a normal person, scared neither of the Death Note’s powers nor their consequences, instead he chooses to cleanse the world he believes has rotted, eliminating those that oppose his vision of a perfect society with himself ruling as its god. Needless to say, all these criminals dropping dead of heart attacks attract the attention of the police and soon the world’s greatest detective, L is on the case. These killings also attract the attention of the public, giving Light’s godly persona a name. Kira. So the tale begins...

Very few books are on the side of the story’s villain, with Light we can see his intent as a noble goal yet there is always something wrong about what he does but we cannot help but sympathise with him. Much of DeathNote’s narrative occurs in the characters’ thoughts, most notably the two genii L and Light as they wage a silent war against one another, this makes the book a very interesting read since many of the complex ideas play out so beautifully when explained by these characters.

 Light is observed in his everyday actions by Ryuk, a Shinigami or Death God, in fact the one who dropped the Death Note purely because he was bored and thought a human could provide a little entertainment. Ryuk has a love of apples, apparently having an addiction to them in a similar way to a human with nicotine, the withdrawal symptoms making him perform handstands and curl up like a pretzel (something Light says he never wants to have to see).

Psychologically all the characters are anything but two dimensional, in a psychology based storyline they can’t afford to be, even Misa Amane, the model who appears at the end of the second volume appears to have thoughts beyond the obvious despite her airhead nature.

Admittedly I had guessed at the ending of the series correctly but that made it no less enjoyable to read as the final showdown took place. I will warn you, as the title may suggest, there are a lot of deaths; however the only ones we see tend to be heart attacks, the default mode of killing for the Death Note.

P.S. I have a spare volume 7 of Death Note if anyone wants it at a discount.

Wolf Brother series by Michelle Paver

Robert Mould

wolf brother is part of a series called chornicles of ancient darkness, and the seris is a boy called Torak tries to eacape the dreaded soul eaters a group of people who are stone age doctor type pepole who turn bad and try to take over the forest. so he tries to kill all the soul eaters and stop them returning and trying to take over the forest.so he journeys to the far north to try and stop them opening a gate which will realease a hord of demons which will totally destroy the whole forest, but a few of them eascape and run into the deep forest where the clans are at war, so torak and his trusted compainion a wolf who he met in the book wolf brother just after his father died he met a puppy wolf who pack die when a rivers banks burst and destroyed there den. and he tries to say his friend- a girl called ren- from the raven clan.
but when he is trying to save her a soul eater trys to kill him to get one of torak posesion and they have a fight on a tree to stop him saveing his freind but the bad guy falls and dies and torak saves ren and returns some peace to the deep forest... the next and last book in the series is ghost hunter which comes out in september 09.

Shadow forest is a tale of of a boy who is haunted day and night by scaly gray skinned creatures possesed by the evil changemaker. together him his sister and aunt Eda must battle loads of creatures such as evil fairies trolls and most deadly of all Huldres.Watch out for anything without a shadow!

Written by Jack Chapman

My Swordhand Is Singing

My Swordhand Is Singing is a terrific tale of terror by Marcus Sedgwick. In seventeenth century russia in in a dark desolate forest evil is stirring. In the small isolated town of chust something petrifying is about to happen. Now a father and son, along with help from nomadic travellers must battle strange supernatural beings that are about to rise.in this time of terror one weapon can destroy the living dead one slash and the undead are dead once more.

We read this book in Ms. Orton's English class and we would recommend to anyone, especially over 5 as it is quite scary and there are some complicated words and some swearing.