I have been publishing speculative fiction for over thirty years and the Beatrice Beecham Young Adult series since 2005. During this time, my appetite for quality fiction has never waned and, as readers will see from the recommended titles here, my reading is broad and spans not only entertaining, escapist fiction, but also that which has a profound message to tell. As a mentor for the Horror Writers Association (HWA) I have used my experience and passion for writing to help other writers develop and hone their craft and was humbled to be a recipient of the ‘HWA Mentor of the Year Award’ in 2023. In short, I know what makes a good story!
Set in a world that is at once familiar, yet without grounding in time or space, Daniels’ fable of an anonymous girl who escapes to reclaim her life after many years in the belly of a great snake, is fanciful and spellbinding.
It is a story that guides the reader through dark themes such as loss, grief, abuse, denial, and isolation; capturing the very essence of detachment that is the uneven road to recovery from great trauma. Daniels’ prose is beautiful and eerie, and her protagonist’s journey from victim to survivor is nothing short of sublime.
After twelve years trapped in the throat of a serpent, a girl escapes. She returns to her village naked with a monstrous snakeskin trailing behind her. One decision at a time, she reclaims her life. Each character she encounters by land and sea—brute, healer, orphan, mystic, lover—reflects an unhealed aspect of herself and plots her recovery through symbolic milestones. Serpent’s Wake is intended for adults and young adults exploring how, once fractured, we may mend. A tale that weaves around your heart in your darkest times…and points to the greatest lesson of all—that in suffering lies freedom. – Erin L.…
The first book in Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy introduces a rich multiverse that draws theological parallels with Christianity and the inferred contradictions of humanity, morality, and social order.
These contradictions are firmly embedded in protagonist Lyra Belacqua, whose main skill is to use complex and convoluted untruths to protect herself. During the series, Lyra adapts her craft of artifice so that others may benefit, and in this act gives readers an insight into how subterfuge can change, depending upon the moral compass the character who applies it.
Lyra’s character is feisty yet incredibly intelligent, providing a robust role model, who is not completely wholesome, but is driven by the powerful will to help her friends, and deliver justice.
The first volume in Philip Pullman's groundbreaking HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy, now a thrilling, critically acclaimed BBC/HBO television series. First published in 1995, and acclaimed as a modern masterpiece, this first book in the series won the UK's top awards for children's literature.
"Without this child, we shall all die."
Lyra Belacqua and her animal daemon live half-wild and carefree among scholars of Jordan College, Oxford.
The destiny that awaits her will take her to the frozen lands of the Arctic, where witch-clans reign and ice-bears fight.
Her extraordinary journey will have immeasurable consequences far beyond her own world...
Bacon is a masterful storyteller known for creating surreal and obtuse landscapes and characters.
Broken Paradise is an intriguing tale of deception and sibling rivalry, featuring gods and magi, who engage in a cat-and-mouse battle beneath the oceans of the world. The primary message of the book leaves the reader questioning the strength of families, be that the power of unity, or its propensity for self-destruction.
The protagonist is Samaki—the goddess of water—who must divide herself into four parts to escape the wrath of her murderous brother. As Samaki hides, so she must learn to protect herself, growing and honing her powers under the tutorage of Mae, the enigmatic owner of her submersible home.
After falling out with her brothers, Samaki the goddess of water flees to Earth where she must mask her trace by splitting into a quadruplet of magi.A quadruplet is perfect, but all things are never equal. Dissonance arises when the magus Umozi breaks the quadruplet.Only the newness of a child magus can restore balance and save a broken paradise-with the help of a goddess mother.
Collins’ hugely successful trilogy was given solid foundations in this, the first outing.
As with all memorable dystopian books, detailed and solid worldbuilding is in abundance; where differing sections of future society (or in this case, districts) are pitched against each other in a television fight-to-the-death, with the champion winning food for their famished communities.
Katniss Everdeen, principal protagonist, and reluctant champion, is staunch and principled, determined to undermine the games that cause so much pain to participants and society overall. As the series progresses, Everdeen’s rise from Hunger Games champion to hardened freedom fighter, is one of the most satisfying story arcs in YA dystopian fiction ever!
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. But Katniss has been close to death before - and survival, for her, is second nature. The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever...
An extension of Maberry’s Rot And Ruin zombie series for Young Adults, Broken Lands tells the story of the ongoing search for a cure in a world overrun by undead hordes, and very human monsters.
Protagonist Gabriella ‘Gutsy’ Gomez and a wide variety of memorable characters ensure the reader becomes totally immersed in the series from the get-go. Maberry is a master of the action set-piece, making sure that this is a book that will not only have people rooting for the characters, but also leave them breathless from the fast-paced narrative and action sequences.
There are also moments of poignancy that will also have the reader asking philosophical questions as to the fluidity of morality, and what it means to be human in a changed, dysfunctional world.
New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry returns to the world of Rot & Ruin with this first novel in a series that's more thrilling and filled with exceptionally terrifying adventures.
Ever since her mother's death, Gabriella "Gutsy" Gomez has spent her days flying under the radar. But when her mother's undead body is returned to her doorstep from the grave and Gutsy witnesses a pack of ravagers digging up Los Muertos-her mother's name for the undead-she realizes that life finds you no matter how hard you try to hide from it.
The coastal town of Dorsal Finn is no stranger to the fantastic and the bizarre. A dark heart beats beneath its cobblestone skin and the rhythm is a beacon for all things devious and evil. Only its reluctant sentinel, Beatrice Beecham, keeps the town free from the terrible entities that it attracts.
Now Dorsal Finn has four new visitors. They look like a regular gang of youths, yet they are anything but human. Masters of manipulation and skilled in deception, these beings have their own agenda. Their tools to move their plans forward include an esoteric device and a terrifying cosmic creature with deadly intent.
And, unless she can stop them, the ritual sacrifice of Beatrice’s best friends.
Curiosity is certain she saw fairies at the bottom of the garden. Little does she know . . . they saw her first.
Emotionally abandoned by her mother and infatuated by a figurine of a fairy ballerina she discovers in an old toy shop, eight-year-old Curiosity Portland steals the figurine, unleashing strange and frightening happenings around her home, which, in turn, reveals a disturbing family history.
Curiosity is certain she saw fairies at the bottom of the garden. Little does she know . . . they saw her first.
Emotionally abandoned by her mother and infatuated by a figurine of a fairy ballerina she discovers in an old toy shop, eight-year-old Curiosity Portland steals the figurine, unleashing strange and frightening happenings around her home, which, in turn, reveals a disturbing family history.
