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YA AND MIDDLE GRADE ROUNDUP: 2022 CATCH-UP OF BOOKS MISSED FIRST TIME AROUND

30/3/2023

Over the last few months my reading has significantly outpaced the speed at which I review, so in this latest roundup I am herding together all the books published in 2022 I missed upon initial release or read further down the line.

Of the nine books featured I only consider two to be straight YA, the others are either crossovers with Middle Grade or purely Middle Grade titles, aimed at the age group nine to twelve. The Restless Dark is Erica Waters third novel, I am a massive fan of Erica who always has great LGBTQ+ representation in her fiction, although this was a decent read, it failed to reach the heights of her previous two novels. Monochrome is the highly impressive YA debut from adult crime from Jamie Costello, AKA Laura Wilson, a dystopian tale in which colour is drained from the world. This was very clever, original, and is highly recommended.

The crossover titles include the second book in Jonathan Stroud’s The Notorious Scarlett and Browne series and I preferred this instalment to the original which includes excellent world building and a promise of a third juicy part with big revelations. Stroud is the author behind the smash Netflix hit Lockwood and Co series of books and has a seriously good back catalogue which is worth investigating should you be unfamiliar with his work. I was also greatly impressed by Manon Steffan Ros’s quiet apocalyptic tale The Blue Book of Nebo which has been longlisted for the 2023 Carnegie Medal and was first published in Welsh a few years ago. Angharad Walker follows the excellent Ash House which we reviewed last year with Once Upon a Fever a dark fantasy set in an alternate version of London. Both were very enjoyable reads.

Middle Grade has great representation in this roundup, including Katherine Arden’s Empty Smiles which is the fourth book (but far from the best) entry in the Small Spaces series. I was impressed by Yvette Fielding’s second book in her Ghost Hunter Chronicles series, preferring The Ripper of Whitechapel to the original The House in the Woods which we reviewed in 2021. Book three The Witches of Pendle arrives later this year and I will definitely be reading that. Sequels are always big news in Middle Grade fiction and Kate Alice Marshall closes out her excellent Thirteens Trilogy (the Secrets of Eden Eld series) with the engaging Glassheart. We featured AF Harrold much earlier in his career and his latest The Worlds We Leave Behind is also included on the 2023 Carnegie Medal Long List and it is great to see this highly creative author getting the attention his very original and wildly inventive fiction deserves.

The novels are presented in alphabetical order by author.

Katherine Arden – Empty Smiles

Publisher ‏ : ‎ G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Empty Smiles is the fourth book in the Small Spaces Quartet which began back in 2018, all four novels feature the same characters, Ollie, CoCo, Brian and Phil and have a recurring supernatural villain, the dastardly ‘Smiling Man’. The books are probably best in correct order as the friendships developed in Small Spaces are strengthened over the sequels, with lonely Ollie overcoming the death of her mother through her new friendships. This series is a great example of small-town Middle Grade horror, they are not too scary and there is no swearing and the teen angst is generally kept just around the corner. Empty Smiles is a direct sequel to Dark Waters where the children battled with the Smiling Man after being shipwrecked on an island on a Vermont lake, with the ripple of the events of book three stretching into the Empty Smiles. If you like creepy clowns and dolls then jump right in.

In this latest book Ollie is trapped inside a weird carnival and is held prisoner by the Smiling Man whilst her friends do their best to help her escape. The problem is they do not know where she is until a boy who went missing at a nearby town reappears and gives them a message and they realise the carnival will soon be coming to their little town. Brian, Coco and Phil will risk everything to rescue Ollie, but they all soon realize this game is much more dangerous than the ones before and they have only until sunrise to beat him once and for all otherwise they will never see Ollie again and she will remain trapped with the Smiling Man. Although Empty Smiles was enjoyable it lacked a strong ending, it was incredibly abrupt, and I felt it missed a trick in revealing more about the villain considering the key role he had across the series. It is probably time to put this series to bed and it is a shame it did not do so with more of a bang.

AGE RANGE 10-13

Jamie Costello - Monochrome

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atom

I was extremely impressed by Jamie Costello’s debut Monochrome, set in a version of our world (initially London) where colour gradually disappears from the world’s population and everybody only sees in black and white or monochrome. The novel has a strong environmental twang to it and is reminiscent of Green Rising by Lauren James which also involves big business and government conspiracies with teens fighting back against ‘the man’ to save the planet. The world Costello paints was very convincing, how might things be if there were no colour? Many animals die, there are car crashes everywhere and the speed limits are reduced, depression is rampant, eating disorders increase as food becomes strangely unappetising and slowly but surely public services begin to grind to a halt. Monochrome was a thoughtful book which was cleverly restrained and does not go full out into the stereotypes popular in teen dystopian fiction. The main character, sixteen-year-old Grace, is a million miles away from Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games and is all the better for it. Strangely, this great book made me thing of the seventies Charlton Heston film The Omega Man, but I doubt any genuine teen readers will have seen it.

Monochrome starts with Grace waking up to seeing the world in black and white and after heading to the hospital her family realise this is happening all over the world and soon nobody can see in colour. The manner in which the shades of grey were described and the impact upon moods was vividly portrayed as the Greyout’ or the ‘Monochrome Effect’ continued to spread. Loss of colour vision is traced to polluted water systems; microplastics covered in harmful bacteria have been poured into the ocean for years. With failing harvests and stay-at-home orders in a world on the brink of a major ecological disaster, there appears to be no cure - until one day Grace sees a single flash of red. This leads us to the main part of the novel, teens who see flashes of colour become lab rats because of these ‘colour episodes’ and they realise the scientists are up to no good. Adult readers will realise where the plot is heading, which has a great message without ever getting patronising or worthy. Let the fightback begin! This was a great blend of science fiction, dystopia and political intrigue, there was virtually no swearing or sex so any strong reader might enjoy it.

AGE RANGE 12/13+

Yvette Fielding – The Ripper of Whitechapel (The Ghost Hunter Chronicles book 2)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Andersen Digital

Back in 2021 TV personality Yvette Fielding from the hit show Most Haunted released her entertaining Middle Grade debut The House in the Woods, which introduced three kids, Evie, Clovis and Tom, who were all obsessed with the supernatural. After fooling around with a Ouija board they found themselves in all sorts of trouble. The Ripper of White Chapel was a great sequel, which I preferred to its predecessor and shows the series has legs. I will certainly be hanging around for The Witches of Pendle, the third instalment, later in 2023. In this sequel the trio of very likable London kids, who all live on a housing estate, are thirteen and get sucked into another spooky mystery via Evie’s university lecturer uncle who is an expert on the supernatural and helps nurture their unorthodox passion. Mixed into the story are some of the personal problems the teens are facing, particularly Tom whose mother has recently left the family home and he gets on badly with his father. This is nicely mixed into the story and delivered with a light but convincing touch.

The Ripper of White Chapel concerns the ghost of Jack the Ripper and specifically the ghosts of two small children which are connected to him. Through Uncle Rufus the three find out there is a secret government organisation which monitors supernatural activities and they are asked to join. This sort of thing has obviously been done many times before but it added a new level to the story which blended action and mildly scary sequences nicely. However, friendship trumps all and it was the three kids which kept the story jogging along at a nice rip. A nice not-too-scary but fun series for younger readers.

AGE RANGE 10-13

AF Harrold – The Worlds We Leave Behind

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Children's Books

Many authors deserve way more recognition than they probably get, but none more so than the wonderful AF Harrold. He seems to be some sort of best kept ‘secret’ and in reality his Middle Grade fiction is so good it deserves to be front and centre in every bookshop than takes selling children’s fiction seriously. I’ve previously read or reviewed The Imaginary (2012), The Song From Somewhere Else (2016), and The Afterwards (2018) with Harrold now back with another beauty The Worlds We Leave Behind, which features on the Carnegie Medal Long List. All his books have a vaguely unsettling fairy-tale feel, often lonely children and pictures which are integral to the plot. They beautifully blend fantasy, childhood and more than a little taste of darkness and otherworldliness.

In The Worlds We Leave Behind Hex and his best friend Tommo are out fooling around in the local woods and let a younger tag along. When she is messing on the rope-swing Hex throws a stone and accidently hits her and she falls and breaks her arm. The two boys do not deal with the incident well and the story deals with the otherworldly repercussions as there is an old lady living in the woods which promises she can make things right again (but at what price?) At a certain point the story is seen from Tommo’s eyes and other realities are presented. I expect strangeness with Harrold and in this story it is pitched perfectly with the friendship between the two boys, who are obviously growing up at different speeds. A strange, moving and almost hypnotic tale of friendship and regret.

AGE RANGE 10-13

Kate Alice Marshall – Glassheart (Thirteens book 3, the Secrets of Eden Eld)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking Books for Young Readers

I have reviewed a number of Kate Alice Marshall’s novels and few authors move as effortlessly through Middle Grade to Young Adult fiction and she is equally skilled at writing for both age groups. Glassheart concludes the trilogy which began with Thirteens (2020) and continued with Brackenbeast (2021) and I would recommend reading them in order as these feature the same characters, town and bad guys. Book one opened with Eleanor moving to the weird town of Eden Eld where every few years thirteen-year-old kids disappear, after making friends with Pip and Otto, the trio go up against the supernatural being Mr January. Brackenbeast has the three children challenging Mr January’s sister Mrs Prosper and in this final part of the series must fight for survival to escape the People Who Look Away. Glassheart is a very cool conclusion to a perfectly pitched

Middle Grade series for kids who like their books scary, but not too scary.
For kids who like paranormal plots mixed with mystery then this trilogy, which is packed with unexpected turns, is hard to match. Also, the character development over the three-book period was also nicely pitched as the trio are sucked into another world and must decide what they must sacrifice in order to survive. Throw in some dangerous curses, accidentally disrupting the flow of time and malicious fairy tales that take people over and erase their memories there is a lot going on. However, never for a moment did I think that Eleanor, Pip and Otto would not come good in the end and I would not have it any other way.

AGE RANGE 10-13

Manon Steffan Ros – The Blue Book of Nebo

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Firefly Press

The Blue Book of Nebo first appeared in Welsh back in 2019 and picked up both acclaim and a few prizes. The English translation followed in 2021 and when it featured on the Carnegie Medal Long List I decided to give it a go. The book is set in a rural part of the Welsh island Anglesey and is mainly set eight years after there was some kind of nuclear conflict, much of which goes unexplained. The story revolves around fourteen-year-old Dylan and his mother Rowenna jointly who narrate the book, partially via an empty journal, with flashbacks to the period before ‘the lights went out’ which is a recurring theme revisited in the story and Dylan’s fascination with what went before.

I found The Blue Book of Nebo to be a very gentle and moving book, which tackles very tough subjects with great sensitivity and honesty. Considering it is a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel (of sorts) it goes out of its way to avoid any stereotypes and noise associated with that type of story. There are very few characters, you could argue that not a lot happens, but on the other hand it was a poignant character study of a teenager and mother trying to live the best life they could. I loved that it ended with some hope and the fact that the aftereffects of the war remained in the middle distance. A thoughtful teenager, or younger, could find much to ponder in this deceptively simple but rather excellent book.

AGE RANGE 10-13

Jonathan Stroud - The Notorious Scarlett and Browne: being an account of the fearless outlaws and their infamous deeds

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Walker Books

I am a massive fan of Jonathan Stroud and a new book of his is always something to savour. If you have never come across him, I highly recommend both the Bartimaeus series (which begins with The Amulet of Samarkand) and Lockwood and Co (which opens with The Screaming Staircase) and has recently been a hit show on Netflix. The Notorious Scarlett and Browne continues the story which began in 2021 with The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne and from the ending a third instalment is assured. The setting is a post-apocalyptic south England which is part of the Seven Kingdoms, in which very little information is revealed on the cataclysmic event which led us to where the books are set. It’s a weird kind of dystopia which has cars and guns but has regressed in many other ways and there are cannibal monsters called ‘the Tainted’ roaming the forests and teenagers with untrained psychic powers, mixed into a lawless feuding landscape.

The two main outlaw characters return Scarlett McCain and Albert Browne who survives by robbing, thievery and traveling around the wasteland, with this second book building its plot around the character backstory absent from the first. Both books blend a Robin Hood with Wild West style vibe with the pair robbing the dodgy establishment church-based Faith Houses and in turn being hunted by the villains from the first book. In this sequel both Scarlett and Albert deal with the trauma from their past and even though it did feel slightly like a middle book it was a fun fantasy adventure novel loaded with heists, underground cities, double dealing, bandits, monsters and larger than life characters. I also enjoyed the manner in which Scarlett and Albert’s friendship does not go anything beyond that, even though there is obvious tension there. And watch out for those man size owls which roam the wastelands! I preferred this sequel to the original but would still recommend reading book one first.

AGE RANGE 11+

Angharad Walker – Once Upon a Fever

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chicken House

I was a massive fan of Angharad Walker’s 2022 debut The Ash House, which also featured in our ‘Best of Middle Grade’ end of year Christmas list. Angharad returns with another very thoughtful winner, which blends dark fantasy, dystopia, and mystery and is aimed at Middle Grade and more accessible YA. Once Upon a Fever is set in an alternate version of London, perhaps reminiscent of Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights where the world has fallen sick and emotions are blamed for these scary illnesses and have resulted in the two leading characters mother being in a coma. The elder of the sisters Payton wants to be a methic (a doctor) like her father, working on a cure for her mother’s sleeping fever. Ani, however younger and more headstrong, thinks the remedy for all illness might be found in the green wilderness or herbs beyond the hospital walls.

The sisters live with their methic father and have the run of the Hospital of King Jude’s whist he is obsessed with finding a cure. Early in the novel Ani stumbles upon an imprisoned boy whose arm has turned to gold and her world is soon turned upside-down when she realises he is a lab rat and begins to uncover deeper secrets about the illness threatening the land. I thought Once Upon A Fever had excellent world-building and in the final third the novel got exceptionally dark, much darker than I thought it would go as the girls investigated a possible cure. Adult readers of stuff like I Am Legend will realise where the cure lies, but not the consequences or the possible sacrifices. Like with The Ash House Walker does not particularly follow the blueprint of what you might find in a YA fantasy novel and does not rely upon loud action sequences or magical bangs, instead things are much more low-key, realistic and ultimately very intense.

AGE RANGE 10-14

Erica Waters – The Restless Dark

Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperTeen

For a book published by big boy publisher Harper Teen I seriously struggled to locate a copy of Erica Water’s third novel The Restless Dark in the UK. I was a massive fan of her two earlier books Ghost Wood Song and The River Has Teeth, with the latter being a deserved winner of the HWA YA Bram Stoker Award. Although The Restless Dark was a solid read it failed to have the same impact as its two predecessors, mainly through a plot which even though it had potential never really left first gear. The story revolves around three girls involved in a challenge to find the body of a serial killer (the Cloudless Killer) who jumped into a waterfall, with his body never being discovered. The event is being sponsored by a popular true crime podcast (which is strangely absent through most of the story) and has attracted rime buffs and a wider collection of weirdos. I found this whole premise, and the way the story was framed to be slightly unbelievable, with a bunch of crime amateurs stumbling around a huge canyon looking for a body the police were unsuccessful in finding.

The cover of The Restless Dark has three female faces and the story has first person narratives of two of them: Lucy who was almost the Cloudkiss Killer’s final victim and is there under disguise and Carolina who fears her own rage and has a lot of religious baggage in her backstory. However, the fact that the plot did not include the third in the group Maggie in the narrative was an incredibly obvious red flag that there was something dodgy about her. Hopefully genuine teen readers will not find it as blatant as I did. Erica Waters always has great LGBTQIA+ representation in her novels, but on this occasion I did not feel the novel has the correct balance as the few male characters the plot did feature were portrayed as an obnoxious moron or was so far in the background they were anonymous. For the most part the dynamics of the novel follows the developing friendships/relationships of the young women and the fallout of another being seriously injured. Along the way the reader questions whether the Cloudkiss Killer is really dead or not, but in the end I was not too bothered either way. A decent read but falls short of the standard set by the author’s earlier work.

AGE RANGE 13/14+

Tony Jones

THE HEART AND SOUL OF YA AND MG HORROR BOOKS

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YOUNG ADULT (YA) FEBRUARY 2023 HORROR ROUNDUP

5/3/2023

Young Adult (YA) February 2023 Horror Roundup

In our latest roundup we have seven YA novels (no Middle Grade this time I’m afraid). There is an exciting new generation of UK authors writing terrific dark YA fiction, with Naomi Gibson following the excellent Every Line of You (2021) with an intriguing second novel Game Over Girl, like its predecessor technology plays a big part in her latest. Cynthia Murphy also continues her impressive run with her third novel The Midnight Game and having reviewed Last One To Die (2021) and Win Lose Kill Die (2022) Cynthia is one of the queens of fast paced page-turning horror thrillers.

Back in 2018 we reviewed the amazing debut novel of Rebecca Schaeffer, Not Even Bones, which kicked off the Market of Monsters trilogy and if you have not read this I cannot recommend it highly enough. Rebecca is back with the first part of a new duology, City of Nightmares, which is just as quirky and original as her debut trilogy. In 2021 we featured the incredibly bleak debut of Sara Walters The Violent Season (which made our top ten of 2021) and Sara is back with another pitch-black teen drama, Missing Dead Girls. Back in 2020 we reviewed Little Creeping Things, the debut of Chelsea Ichaso and although I missed Chelsea’s second and third novels, she returns with another dark thriller They’re Watching You.

The final two books are by authors new to me, Tess James-Mackey’s Someone is Watching You (another British newbie and Vietnamese American writer Trang Thanh Tran’s She Is a Haunting, both of which were eye catching debuts.
The books are reviewed alphabetically and are all published in either January or February. Do get in touch if you think you have something we might like and I’ll try to get around to it.

Naomi Gibson - Game Over Girl

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chicken House; 1st edition

Game Over Girl: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder meets virtual reality

I was a major fan of Naomi Gibson’s debut Every Line Of You and was a member of the librarian committee which nominated it for the YA section of the Trinity School Book Award. In that book an AI developed by a teenage girl with personal problems interacts with the girl in a manner which took the novel into the areas of science fiction. Game Over Girl also has a prominent technological theme but is much more of a dark drama than its thriller predecessor, although both novels are similar in that both narrators are both seriously troubled. In Game Over Girl Lola moves to a new school and is chosen to play a highly advanced virtual reality game called ‘Better Than Live’ (readers of my age will instantly recognise that there was a VRG of the exact same name in the cult nineties SF show Red Dwarf) where the graphics are so real it is like actually being there. It is also some kind of scientific or therapeutic experiment and the story follows Lola’s progress in the game and what happens when she breaks the rules of the game.

Although the story was rather slow moving, it never genuinely felt like a science fiction novel and the blurring of reality between the VRG and our world was nicely handled. Lola was a classic unreliable narrator and I realised very early on that you had to take everything she said with a pinch of salt, and then some. Nothing was what it seemed, but it cleverly fitted together in the end with a huge revelation. Other teens involved in the game were added into the story and older readers will find much to enjoy. The novel also has much to say about mental illness and also tackles tough subjects like abuse. Game Over Girl was definitely a change of pace from Every Line Or You and was a stylish and thoughtful read for mid-teens.

AGE RANGE 13/14+

Chelsea Ichaso – They’re Watching You

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sourcebooks Fire

We reviewed Chelsea Ichaso’s impressive YA dark thriller debut Little Creeping Things for Ginger Nuts of Horror back in 2020 which the author followed with two other titles in the same ballpark. Her fourth novel They’re Watching You does not stray too far from the same teen blueprint, except for this story being set in an exclusive American boarding school which has a powerful secret society pulling the strings in the background. Although They’re Watching You was an enjoyably fast paced thriller it was derivative of many other similar stories set in boarding schools. However, its content will undoubtedly be much fresher to genuine teen readers than it was to myself, as I’ve read many of such titles. The main character Maren does not come from the same rich background as many of her classmates at Torrey-Wells and her life takes a major jolt when her best friend and roommate Polly disappears. The police believe she has run away, but Maren had seen changes in her friend prior to the disappearance which she suspects is to do with a secret society. She often spoke of ‘chess’ which was perhaps code for something else.

Most of the novel revolves around Maren’s investigation into what happened to her friend and after she finds an old invitation to the Gamemaster’s Society she is off and running, with the conspiracy running deep. They’re Watching You does not do anything at all I did not expect it too and the games of dares, chance and having your wits about you were clever and took the normally quiet Maren out of her comfort zone. This novel could definitely have gone darker, but was still an enjoyable conspiracy thriller, with a love triangle thrown in, with a number of very unlikable privileged fraternity type rich kids to dislike. Some of the twists and riddles were fun, it was tricky to know who to trust and if you enjoy novels where institutionalised privilege is weaponised They’re Watching You will hit the spot. AGE RANGE 12/13+

Tess James-Mackey - Someone is Watching You

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hodder Children's Books

Tess James-Mackay’s debut Someone is Watching You blends toxic friendships, dumb teenage decisions and a dare which gets horribly out of control into an entertaining page-turner which blends thriller and horror. Even though the book is populated by unpleasant characters (the main teen Nia is equally hard to like) the reliance on social media to feel popular came across as very authentic and even though the story was far-fetched, it was not beyond the realms of possibility. Events kick off with an insecure Year 10 girl Nia desperate to win the approval of Scott, her popular boyfriend who is a year older. All of Scott’s friends are dismissive and deeply unpleasant to Nia, but as she has cut her ties with her other friends puts up with their veiled insults, bullying, and put-downs. Someone is Watching You is set over an intense few hours when Nia, her seven-year-old sister Kayla, and mum visit a soft-play centre which has opened in a recently closed prison. Being dared by her friends, in particular Olivia, Nia finds a way into the abandoned part of her prison, accompanied by her little sister, to take photographs of what lies in the shadows and closed rooms.

Facing dark tunnels, distant noises and creepy mementoes left behind by incarcerated criminals Nia continues to explore, whilst egged on her social media friends, meanwhile when distracted her little sister disappears and she finds herself trapped and isolated. What follows is an entertaining thriller, which has a few good twists and turns, particularly when Nia realises she is not alone. Although this was a compelling read it was hard to feel much sympathy for Nia, as she was so unpleasant to her little (half) sister, but it will certainly have genuine teen readers questioning who their friends are, especially in the online world. Even though the plot developments were slightly far-fetched it did result in an intense action sequence where Nia is taken miles out of her comfort zone into a fight for survival which went far beyond the realms of an Instagram post. It also vividly shows how nasty teenagers can be in the name of friendship and tackles other issues such as sexual coercion and teenage insecurities.

AGE RANGE 12/13+

Cynthia Murphy – The Midnight Game

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scholastic Fiction

Cynthia Murphy is one of the UK’s rising stars for dark fiction and horror, following Last One to Die (2021) and Win Lose Kill Die (2022) with a third very enjoyable thriller, The Midnight Game. Murphy specialises in delivering easy-to-read and engagingly fun page-turners with believable characters, sharp use of social media and a convincing blend of the supernatural and thriller. For the most part The Midnight Game keeps the reader nicely on the hook about whether there is anything supernatural afoot with a bunch of bored teenagers trying to amuse (or scare) themselves in a closed primary school. It must be said I did not find setting a horror novel in a primary school a very convincing location (but as Murphy worked as a teacher I will give her a pass!) and as a result it could have had a few more scares, and ‘The Midnight Man’ himself could have contributed more to the novel beyond the game. You will have to read it yourself to find out if he was genuinely real or not, and as I reader I was genuinely invested for the big reveal.

The Midnight Game is seen from multiple points of view: Ellie, Mei, Callum, Toni, Hugo and Reece who all meet up to follow a ritual to summon a demon known as The Nightmare Man. They are using fake names and have not previously met, except online where they set up the big meeting. There is an alternative narrative set online on ‘Detttit’ (instead of Reddit) where they plan the visit to the primary school, but on the forum they also use aliases and you will have fun trying to figure out who is who and match the different timelines. The novel does not come across at all as preachy, but obviously the dangers of meeting people who you only know online comes through loud and clear. There is also an earlier narrative which takes in another girl who may have played a similar game and of course if you don’t follow the rules bad things are going to happen. The Midnight Game is set over a single night and is very good fun, it is not especially deep, but the nice mix of characters with different strengths and vulnerabilities keep it jogging along nicely.

AGE RANGE 12/13+

Rebecca Schaeffer – City of Nightmares

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hodder & Stoughton

I was a massive fan of Rebecca Schaeffer’s debut Not Even Bones and the sequels which concluded her awesome Market of Monsters trilogy, which cleverly blended horror and urban fantasy. City of Nightmares is the first part of a duology, with Cage of Dreams following later this year. I thought this was a great, very quirky and highly original read and am definitely sold on the prospect of the second book. Like, Not Even Bones, City of Nightmares has a great main hook which should be an easy sell to teenagers: for the last hundred years or so when somebody has a nightmare, there is a very good chance they will turn into whatever their nightmare is, which becomes real in our world. For example, early on in the story we find out that the main character Ness’s (short for Vanessa) little sister some years earlier turned into a giant spider monster which then ate their father and a couple of other people. The beast was eventually killed by an organisation, a bit like the police, that track, monitor, and kill nightmares. Once you get your head around how things work in the very weird town of Newham (where nightmare have been becoming real for a century) the book gets easier to follow, as there are clear rules which make survival possible.

The story is cleverly built around the fact that Ness is a coward, the long term and complex effects of losing her family, who is scared to get close to anybody in case they turn into a nightmare and murder her. However, in Newham everybody takes medication which suppress dreams, but once in a while somebody forgets and something nasty nightmare appears. Once turned into a nightmare this cannot be reversed or turned again into a further nightmare, so this might mean that if a nightmare is not dangerous a person might spend their entire life with gills or pincers for hands! (depending on what their dream/nightmare featured). The main thrust of the plot puts poor cowardly Ness into the spotlight after she is one of two survivors of a deliberate bomb blast on a boat, involving her in a conspiracy which takes her close to a friendly vampire and the original cause of the nightmares, which will obviously be explored in the second book. The world building in City of Nightmares was refreshing, original and bold, being so good it matched Frances Hardinge, and if you enjoyed her Unravelled you will love this. It was outstanding to have such an atypical heroine who had a captivating narrative with big personal revelations as the plot moved on. Very cool stuff.

AGE RANGE 12/13+

Trang Thanh Tran - She Is a Haunting

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury YA

She Is a Haunting was a fascinating novel aimed at older teens which I enjoyed in patches but found frustrating in others. The narrator is seventeen-year-old Jade Nguyen who is American Vietnamese and a lot of the story deals with her internal conflict over how she sees herself. She does not speak fluent Vietnamese and when she visits the home of her family for the summer feels disconnected and less than. As the same time she has been hiding the fact that she is bisexual from her family and she is particularly concerned how her mother will react when she finds out. So even before we get to the supernatural element, the story has a major focus on Jade, who is also struggling with a messy relationship she left behind in America with another girl. Combine all these factors together and She Is a Haunting becomes a very angsty book, maybe too much so, which some readers might find a touch frustrating. However, the Queer representation is excellent and readers who have personal struggles in coming out will be sure to identify with Jade’s internal monologue.

Jade has a complex relationship with her family, she has been promised funding for college if she helps restore an old house in Vietnam her father has bought and is looking to open as a hotel. However, the house has a dark history and at times inserts itself in the narrative and the story also dips into the colonial aspects of the house and the local area. The supernatural story did not particularly grab me, with Jade suffering from sleep paralysis and sees ghosts from the house’s history. As nobody believes her, she attempts to fake hauntings and I found this part of the story slightly strange. Along the way a new romance develops, following the pattern you might expect in a coming-of-age novel. The haunting and the house had some good ideas with the use of insects and body parts, some of which was a bit gory. This was an ambitious and quite challenging novel which might make an impression on stronger readers looking for a thoughtful read, but it is definitely not for all tastes. AGE RANGE 14+

Sara Walters – Missing Dead Girls

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sourcebooks Fire

Ginger Nuts of Horror reviewed The Violent Season, the exceptionally bleak YA debut of Sara Walters back in 2021 and it also featured in our ‘best of 2021’ annual YA roundup. Walters returns with a dark friendship based high school drama and although Missing Dead Girls is not as grim as her debut it does not pull any punches and is clearly aimed at older teens. The novel has an outstanding opening and then backtracks into how the plot arrived at a digital photograph being sent to everybody in school of the dead body of Madison, with the tag claiming she was killed by Tillie. The accused, Tillie narrates the story and arrives at the quiet suburb of Willow Creek due to an unspecified incident at her previous school in Philadelphia. Missing Dead Girls explores some very dark areas and the narrator clearly has trauma in her past, which is slowly revealed via the current narrative.

Missing Dead Girls has a convincing LGBTQIA+ at the centre of its coming-of-age story which focusses on the developing friendship of new girl Tillie and the very popular Madison, after they meet at the swimming pool where Tillie works as a lifeguard. The developing relationship is intense, full of secrets and expands into a more complex web which involves broken promises, abuse and the code of silence which often protects popular high school pupils (even though this part of the story was pretty obvious). Overall Missing Dead Girls tackles very serious subjects via convincing blend of emotional drama, the dynamics of toxic relationships, and thriller where many of the characters are psychologically damaged. The story shows trauma is clearly very hard to leave behind and older teens will find this to be a tough but ultimately rewarding read. AGE RANGE 14+

Tony Jones

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THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR DISSECT THE NOVELS ON THE YA STOKER PRELIMINARY AND FINAL BALLOTS

2/3/2023

The Ginger Nuts of Horror Dissect the Novels
on the YA Stoker Preliminary and Final Ballots

Every year Young Blood, the YA section of Ginger Nuts of Horror, reviews all the books on the Preliminary Ballot for the YA Bram Stoker Award. By the time you read this article the HWA voting procedures will have whittled their list down to those on the Final Ballot. In previous years some weak books have won this award, but thankfully for 2022/3 the overall standard was very good.

Sadly, the list lacks any British or international involvement and there were virtually no books featuring male narratives, the lack of boy characters in YA dark fiction is a worrying trend which seems to be worsening. The lack of international author representation (horror does not begin and end in America) will be addressed in a future accompanying article where the Ginger Nuts of Horror counterbalance this all-American list with an all-British selection. This will be published much closer to the HWA awards ceremony.

I rated and ranked the books long before the Final Ballot was announced and I strongly recommend voting members check out Tiffany Jackson’s The Weight of Water as it was a genuinely outstanding YA horror novel which could also be enjoyed by adults (even more so if they have read Stephen King’s Carrie). However, the next three highest ranked on my list by Kate Alice Marshall, Vincent Tirado and Ann Fraistat were also impressive reads, Marshall has been on the Final Ballot previous for Rules for Vanishing and would be a very worthy winner.

Robert Ottone’s The Triangle was one of the weaker books on the Final Ballot and I presume this has been voted onto the ballot by the HWA members and because of that might be considered a favourite. I hope this book does not win though as it is just not strong enough to be a flagship novel in a major ‘international’ horror award. VE Schwab is clearly the biggest ‘name’ on the Final Ballot and most well-known out with the hardcore horror community, but Gallant does not rank alongside her best work, even if it has picked up a big mainstream audience.

Tiffany D Jackson – The Weight of Blood   9.5/10   (FINAL BALLOT)
Amy Christine Parker – Flight 171       8.5/10
Kate Alice Marshall – These Fleeting Shadows   8/10   (FINAL BALLOT)
Andrew Joseph White – Hell Followed with Us    7.5/10
Vincent Tirado – Burn Down, Rise Up       7/10   (FINAL BALLOT)
Ann Fraistat – What We Harvest       7/10   (FINAL BALLOT)
Nicole Lesperance – The Depths           7/10
V.E. Schwab – Gallant               6/10   (FINAL BALLOT)
Robert P Ottone – The Triangle           5.5/10   (FINAL BALLOT)
Lily Anderson – Scout’s Honor           5/10

The books are presented alphabetically by author.

Lily Anderson – Scout’s Honor (5/10)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ St Martin's Press

Various blurbs compare Lily Anderson’s Scout’s Honor to Bully the Vampire Slayer and although I’m not sure how many teens of today know much about Buffy I found this comparison to be a little off the mark. This novel attempts to blend comedy, drama, science fiction and horror and probably tries to do too much as it was not particularly successful at any of them. The Buffy style character is sixteen-year-old Prudence Perry who is a Ladybird Scout (rather than a Vampire Slayer) is born into a family of hunters sworn to protect the human race from weird creatures called mulligrubs, which are interdimensional parasites who feast on human emotions like sadness and anger. I found these creatures to be totally underwhelming and for the most part extremely easy to despatch and not particularly threatening. In Buffy speak this ‘Big Bad’ was very dull and the story could have had significantly more bite if the enemy to the Ladybird Scout movement had sharper teeth.

Four hundred pages was way too long for a book that suffered from a serious sag in the middle and because of the light tone lacked convincing action sequences. Every chapter starts with a quote from the Ladybird Scout manual, which are not so different from what you might find in the official Scouting (minus the supernatural) manual. When the book opens Prudence is suffering from PTSD from an earlier encounter with the grubs (but does not show much evidence of it) and gets involved in training other Scouts where the story kicks off and she has to come to terms with her past and losses. I struggled with this book and if not reviewing it would have given up on it, however, young teens who like a blend of fantasy, girl power and a light read will surely enjoy it more than I did.

AGE RANGE 12+

Ann Fraistat – What We Harvest (7/10)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Delacorte Press

Ann Fraistat’s debut What We Harvest was an engaging blend of dark fantasy, horror and teen drama. The story is set in the small town of Hollow’s End which, historically, is known for its fabulous crops attributed to the high quality of soil. Tourists travel miles to marvel at its miracle crops, including the shimmering, iridescent wheat of main character Wren's family's farm. However, the drama starts five months after an unexplainable disease has started to kill the crops, but this was only the start and the Quicksilver blight which then moved onto the animals and eventually people. This was all very cleverly done, infected livestock and wild creatures staggered off into the woods by day, only to return at night, their eyes fogged white, leering from the trees. Effectively when people start disappearing (including Wren’s parents) she knows if they return they will definitely cause her harm and will no longer be human.

On one level the book is about Wren’s battle to save her farm (the wheat in particular), whilst trying to discover the cause for the Quicksilver blight. Along the way she turns to her ex-boyfriend Derek for help (who lives on a local farm) and together them team up whilst there is unresolved relationship tension in the air. Having thick silver sludge bleeding from the earth was vividly described and I had fun finding out where the blight came from and particularly how it affected people. An eye-catching debut.

AGE RANGE 13+

Tiffany D Jackson – The Weight of Blood (9.5/10)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Katherine Tegen Books

The Weight of Blood was the first time I had some across Tiffany Jackson and I was totally blown away by this intense riff on Stephen King’s Carrie, with an additional kick-ass racial social commentary. Interestingly, the readership of this superb read is probably thirteen to sixteen with the majority unlikely to pick up on the blow-by-blow similarities to the King masterpiece. In her afterward Jackson does say “Speaking of which…. To Mr King, you are one of my greatest inspirations”. And what Jackson does with the original is nothing short of inspirational, adding a whole new layer regarding the legacy of racism in a small Georgian town, beautifully blended into a story of an isolated and bullied teenage girl developing telekinetic powers. Think of what the old Howard Hawks film Rio Bravo with John Wayne and Dean Martin being circled by relentless bad guys and how this was effectively remade by John Carpenter in Assault on Precinct 13 as a way of comparison. The Weight of Blood does something similar, instead takes the bones of the King story and sets it in a high school where Black students are in the minority, where Black kids have separate proms and where blackfacing is still seen as funny and an acceptable form of fancy dress. Undercurrents of institutionalised racism throb throughout the book, but it is nicely balanced by an engaging teen storyline and a second podcast radio style story strand set ten years later, which cleverly mirror the style in King’s Carrie.

The main character is Maddy Washington, who has hidden the fact that she is biracial from her classmates, predominately because her fanatical father controls every aspect of her life. She has no friends and is relentlessly bullied and this is before the fact she is half-Black is revealed. After another student films classmates throwing stuff at her afro-style hair the film snippet ends up on the TV news and the fact that the town still has separate proms ends under the spotlight. Right from the start we know something very nasty is going to happen at the first integrated prom as the second narrative of the documentary “Maddy Did It” makes this abundantly clear, but the fun is in how events play out. For large chunks of the book The Weight of Blood reads like a teen drama, taking in other characters, including Black football star Kenny who effectively ignores the racism and almost pretends he is white. I do not know exactly when segregated proms ended, or whether they carried on in secret, but The Weight of Blood balanced the social commentary, with the teen drama and the horror exceptionally well, with the location of Springville being a ‘Sundown Town’ years earlier. Maddy was a pitiful character and I found myself feeling more for her than I did the original ‘Carrie’ and Tiffany Jackson should take that as a serious compliment. I totally loved this book and it fully deserves to win the YA Stoker and is a novel the HWA could shout about from the rooftops.

AGE RANGE 13+

Nicole Lesperance – The Depths (7/10)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Razorbill

Nicole Lesperance’s fascinating and atmospheric The Depths is undoubtedly aimed at strong confident YA readers as it is probably too slow moving for those readers looking for a thriller or easy scare. This literary gothic horror is targeting more thoughtful readers attracted to strong characterisation, beautiful but threatening landscapes and slow burning romance. One of the main strengths of the novel is its main character seventeen-year-old Addie, who narrates the action, until a serious accident she was one of the world’s best free-divers, being able to sink to the depth of a 19-story-building without an oxygen tank. When the novel opens Addie is still convalescing from the accident where she drowned and was clinically dead for eight and a half minutes. Her recovery is slow, and an important part of the novel as she has restricted mobility and coughs up blood and remains in touch with her two best friends who are also free divers.

The setting and location were also key to the success of the story. Addie arrives on the remote Eulalie Island with her mother and new husband preparing to play gooseberry and regain her strength. The island is almost presented as a character in itself and is vividly described from the trees to the winds, the sand and the shades of the water. Soon Addie meets Billy, the son of the island keepers, and slowly the supernatural element of the story is introduced with local legends and ghosts which live on the island, which have their own agenda for Addie. As the story moved on there were some great underwater scenes and Addie realises Eulalie Island might not want her to leave. It was relatively easy to see which direction The Depths was heading, but it was an engaging and thoughtful read for those who enjoy immersive fiction.

AGE RANGE 13+

Kate Alice Marshall – These Fleeting Shadows (8/10)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking Books for Young Readers

These Fleeting Shadows is another complex read from the outstanding Kate Alice Marshall which blends the supernatural, dark family drama, LGBTQIA+ love story and twister of a thriller. Helen Vaughan’s grandfather dies and she returns with her mother to the expansive ancestral home of Harrowstone Hall for the funeral where she discovers she is the major beneficiary in the will. However, to claim the fifty million inheritance and estate she must live in the house for a year, without leaving the grounds and function as ‘Mistress’ to the house. The novel is built around the fact that this is no normal house and the fact that a supernatural presence called ‘The Other’ lives in the house and that Helen also has visions connected to a troubled past childhood.

The story concerns Helen’s year in the house as she negotiates the family members, some of which want her to succeed and other see her fail. However, it is much more complex than that as the house is intrinsically a part of the family and soon Helen finds herself getting deeper into a supernatural family drama, not to mention the witch she befriends who lives on the grounds. Although the book might be too slow for some and does not rely on jump scares or violence more discerning and mature readers and guaranteed to be sucked into its intoxicating revelations and drama.

AGE RANGE 14+

Robert P Ottone – The Triangle (5.5/10)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Raven Tale

I really wanted to like Robert P Ottone’s The Triangle more than I actually did, as it blended many areas of action fiction I enjoy, dystopia, environmental disasters, a blast of science fiction and a throwback to the monsters of Lovecraft. Although it was a solid read, it lacked the spark required to turn a good storyline into a genuine page-turner. Set in a lawless future after the Polar icecaps have melted with rising water levels, many people turned into scavengers of old technology to buy, sell and barter in order to survive.

The story revolves around a father and daughter who scavenge in the Caribbean, living in a flotilla community called Coral Cove, which was a cool setting for a story. The main character’s father is sent looking for a missing scout party which has disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle area, unknown to him his daughter Azlynn (Azzy) and her friend have stowed away on board. Although nobody knows much about the original myth of the Triangle, everybody feels there is something unnatural about the area and the book is built around what nastiness lurks there and the power it wields. YA fiction is full of dystopian and environmentally themed fiction and this book fell short of the best of them and I found the action sequences slightly stilted and could have done with more bang. The Triangle is the first part of a trilogy (book two is already out) and there are plenty of unanswered questions and cliff-hangers left for future instalments.

AGE RANGE 12+

Amy Christine Parker – Flight 171 (8.5/10)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Underlined

In 2023 few genuine teen readers will know what Point Horror is or how popular this series was back in the late eighties until the mid-nineties, with nostalgia still being a big thing for adults of today who grew up reading this generation of gateway horror novels. Once in a while I read a new YA novel which pleasantly reminds me of Point Horror, in that it gives the same vibe, is fast paced and has an easy read page-turning style. Back in 1994, working in my first school library, we had to keep the Point Horror books in a special cupboard as they were always stolen! Amy Christine Parker’s Flight 171 is one of those kind of books, and I sped through this edge-of-the-seat horror thriller, which is almost entirely set on a four-hour flight, which quickly turns into a nightmare when a supernatural creature gives a group of high school students a sinister ultimatum. It is neither deep, complex or have any profound message, but it was superb escapism and tremendous fun. If you are looking to get a kid who has not been reading much back into books, this nasty little twister might be the ideal candidate.

When the plane takes off we realise everybody has secrets, which is one of the main themes of the book, and this haunts main character Devon Marsh, whose twin sister was killed in a hit and run accident the previous Halloween. Devon is wracked with guilt because she had an argument with Emily before her fateful car journey and has vowed to identify the killer and suspects one of her classmates. However, the way the secrets are uncovered was pretty wacky, an old woman has a spat with one of the flight attendants which results in her (not really an old woman) effectively cursing the teens: choose one among them to sacrifice before the end of the flight. Or the plane will crash. And then the clock begins to tick and the secrets begin to drop as everybody begins to try and save their own skins (some of which are pretty worthless). Flight 171 was built around a terrific story hook, which was in the same style as something you might have seen in an episode of The Twilight Zone decades ago. This was an addictive blend of horror, teen drama and thriller, with an evil entity which reminded me of the old woman in Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell. I have already bought a copy for my school library and I hope it does not get nicked like my old Point Horrors!

AGE RANGE 12+

V.E. Schwab – Gallant (6/10)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Titan Books

Victoria Schwab needs no introduction as a dark fantasy author who is equally skilled (and successful) writing for children, teens and adults. Her books often have supernatural and elements of horror which are nicely blended with urban fantasy aspects of dark fairy tales. Gallant comes across as more of the same and although the setting, main character and atmosphere was wonderful the plot was rather bland and I felt I had been here many times before. The story is initially set in a boarding school for girls (which was a great location) until it is revealed fourteen-year-old Olivia Prior has family who have been seeking her from her birth. Olivia is the classic outsider, who has no friends, sees ghosts, and longs for the family she never knew she had, until she is plucked from the Merilance School for Girls and taken to her new home, where the majority of the book is set. I had hoped we might return to the orphanage.

Although the estate of Gallant was a fascinating location not enough happened at the house to get the pulses racing. The very withdrawn Olivia finds herself in an unfriendly house where she is not wanted, which is top loaded with secrets regarding both her parents and her mysterious uncle. And from that moment on Olivia is on a journey of self-discovery into her family history, with a few ghosts along the way. Given a strange set of rules to follow, Olivia soon realises our world is not the only one. Gallant was a solid dark fantasy, but it lacked spark and did nothing to stand out from a crowded marketplace dominated by girls just like Olivia.

AGE RANGE 12+

Vincent Tirado - Burn Down, Rise Up (7/10)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sourcebooks Fire

Burn Down, Rise Up is a fascinating debut from Vincent Tirado set in the Bronx area of New York which nicely puts Black and Latino characters front and centre. It also has a convincing LGBTQ+ vibe with a gay lead character who has a crush on one of her oldest friends. The problem is her best friend (Aaron) also has a thing for the same girl, Charlize. The first half of the novel sets the teen scene and in the second things go full-blown supernatural. When the novel kicks off there have been a spate of disappearances which have been connected to a mysterious urban legend, a challenge called the Echo Game which soon sucks sixteen-year-old Raquel, Aaron and Charlize into its orbit, connecting to an alternative version of the Bronx from the 1970s.

A cousin of Charlize was also rumoured to have been playing the Echo Game, which leads to a mysterious Illness which Raquel’s mother catches. Looking for a cure and answers they have to play the game themselves, taking them to a sinister world beneath the city connected to a dark chapter in New York’s past. Raquel was a great central character and teen readers will have fun following her on her dangerous adventures in taking on the Slumlord, a nasty character who lurks in the shadows of the book.

AGE RANGE 13/14+

Andrew Joseph White - Hell Followed with Us (7.5/10)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Peachtree Publishers

Hell Followed With Us has to be one of the strangest YA fantasy horror novels I have read in ages and will probably make more sense to American audiences, due to its heavy use of religion, which might pass UK audiences by. It also has terrific LGBTQ+ representation, with most of the characters falling under that banner due to the complex nature of the story. The main character is a transgender boy called Benji who is on the run from a cult (a type of Evangelical Christians) who unleashed Armageddon through a virus which Benji is connected to, leading to very gruesome body horror as the infection can turn him into a dangerous bioweapon. Whilst looking for a place to hide Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the Acheson LGBTQ+ Centre, known as the ALC and the wide range of gender representations in the centre and the pronouns they use to identify themselves.

Teens who are interested in gender are sure to get a lot out of this book as it goes out of its way to be inclusive and builds a highly original, and wildly inventive story, around Armageddon. However, readers not so interested in these kind of gender scenarios might find it plays too big a part in the story. Benji’s sexuality was nicely explained, from his days in the church to how he likes to dress, going into detail about breast binders and menstruation etc. It was also heartening to have an autistic character Nick) lead the ALC, who realises the truth about Benji and his inner monster. This was a very gory book, which will have several triggers for readers who might have had similar problems as Benji and Hell Followed With Us is a rage filled blast at conformity, told from a unique perspective. At times it was not easy to follow but you will rarely see such a large and unapologetically queer collection of characters as in this wild end of the world romp.

AGE RANGE 14+

Tony Jones

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Katherine Arden – Empty Smiles

Jamie Costello - Monochrome​

Yvette Fielding – The Ripper of Whitechapel (The Ghost Hunter Chronicles book 2)

AF Harrold – The Worlds We Leave Behind

Kate Alice Marshall – Glassheart (Thirteens book 3, the Secrets of Eden Eld)

Manon Steffan Ros – The Blue Book of Nebo

Jonathan Stroud - The Notorious Scarlett and Browne: being an account of the fearless outlaws and their infamous deeds

Angharad Walker – Once Upon a Fever

Erica Waters – The Restless Dark

Naomi Gibson - Game Over Girl​

Chelsea Ichaso – They’re Watching You​

Tess James-Mackey - Someone is Watching You​

Cynthia Murphy – The Midnight Game​

Rebecca Schaeffer – City of Nightmares

Trang Thanh Tran - She Is a Haunting

Sara Walters – Missing Dead Girls

Lily Anderson – Scout’s Honor (5/10)

Ann Fraistat – What We Harvest (7/10)​

Tiffany D Jackson – The Weight of Blood (9.5/10)​

Nicole Lesperance – The Depths (7/10)​

Kate Alice Marshall – These Fleeting Shadows (8/10)​

Robert P Ottone – The Triangle (5.5/10)

Amy Christine Parker – Flight 171 (8.5/10)​

V.E. Schwab – Gallant (6/10)​

Vincent Tirado - Burn Down, Rise Up (7/10)​

Andrew Joseph White - Hell Followed with Us (7.5/10)​

Archives

Jamie Costello - Monochrome

Naomi Gibson - Game Over Girl

Chelsea Ichaso – They’re Watching You

Tess James-Mackey - Someone is Watching You

Cynthia Murphy – The Midnight Game

Ann Fraistat – What We Harvest (7/10)

Tiffany D Jackson – The Weight of Blood (9.5/10)

Nicole Lesperance – The Depths (7/10)

Kate Alice Marshall – These Fleeting Shadows (8/10)

Amy Christine Parker – Flight 171 (8.5/10)

V.E. Schwab – Gallant (6/10)

Vincent Tirado - Burn Down, Rise Up (7/10)

Andrew Joseph White - Hell Followed with Us (7.5/10)