She becomes a ‘dramatherapy’ teacher at the Unit, a service providing part-time education and therapeutic support to children who have been expelled or temporarily excluded from other schools. Some stories are historical, some are infused with the mystical and magical, some have threads of fierce commentary and some are laugh-out-loud funny. So when her friend Robert offers her a job in a new town away from the pain she is having living in London she takes the job. The Amber Fury is a book I remembered fondly and have long considered a favourite, despite the fact that my review at the time – published on my now-defunct blog – contained quite a lot of criticism.

Margaret Atwood, Susie Boyt, Eleanor Crewes, Emma Donoghue, Stella Duffy, Linda Grant, Claire Kohda, CN Lester, Kirsty Logan, Caroline O’Donoghue, Chibundu Onuzo, Helen Oyeyemi, Rachel Seiffert, Kamila Shamsie and Ali Smith – introduced by Sandi Toksvig. The teens –Ricky, Jono, Carly, Annika, and particularly Mel, an astute and intelligent deaf girl whose diaries punctuate the book – are inspired by the ancient tales of guilt, vengeance and self-discovery. Her goal is to use drama therapy to help them “to find ways of talking about terrible emotions and difficulties, without focusing on their own lives all the time. Although a medical examiner listed 33 injuries to Smith’s body, including bite marks, when a police investigator was asked on the stand about the severity of her injuries, he said, “Honestly, I mean, I would have thought there would be more.A story of a woman going beyond the path laid out for her and risking herself for her people and her future despite great fear. VIRAGO ~ CN Lester a fascinating approach to the topic of trans histories and gendered identity in history and the patriarchal confines of medical pathologies in history. It highlights how, from a cellular level, the most basic minute way, we were indoctrinated to make ourselves occupy as small a space as possible because that is how the world is. I’m not quite sure what I found so appealing about Alex, who, this time, I experienced as a rather bland character. The blurb said something about all ‘the teenagers weaving their own tragedy’, but Mel was the only one that seemed to be involved in this not so tragic tragedy.

This is a sad day for me as an avid reader and book lover of John Connolly and Charlie Parker series. Kaggsy of the Bookishramblings kindly sent it to me after receiving and reading this review copy (she noted it on her blog with a link to her review on Shiny New Books). Honestly, it could have had a lot of potential, but I put this book down after I was finished reading with great disappointment. I wasn't surprised that Mel killed her, to get revenge for Luke on Alex's behalf, but I really loved the twist nearer the end where Alex finally finds out Mel didn't just push her, but stabbed her while she pushed her: Alex had held on to the idea of it having been an accident, so to find out it had been a true murder after all, was delightfully shocking. My mother spent the last thirty or so years of her life there, having fallen in love with the city (and my dad) during her time at Edinburgh University, so I got to know the place reasonably well during many family visits.I am not being paid in any way to voice certain opinions of this book as this is an honest review written in my own words. and the contrast between the Festival weeks, with all the Fringe lunacies, and the somewhat staider betweentimes.

I felt for her in many ways, cause she is quite lonely (especially after her friendship with Carly starts to waver) and her parents are both, in their own ways, not great parents for her – I can understand why she would become so obsessed with this teacher who treats her as if she is a smart young woman with a lot of potential instead of a frustrating daughter or a troubled kid. The books featured on this site are aimed primarily at readers aged 13 or above and therefore you must be 13 years or over to sign up to our newsletter. Furies is a short story collection pulled together to celebrate 50 years of Virago as a feminist publishing house.The Furies” of Flock’s title are three women who “took matters into their own hands,” defending themselves “in places where institutions failed to protect them. First of all, I am not entirely sure myself why this particular novel captured my imagination the way it did – but it really really did.