Books aimed at Mid Teens+
Age 15 and upwards
Style: Average
Attitude: Objectionable
Sequel to "The Chocolate War": Archie Costello still runs the Vigils and therefore the school; Brother Leon is headmaster.
There's little positive to say here; Jerry, while convalescing on his uncle's smallholding in Canada appears to find solace in God, but it is clear that this relies more on the peace of the church than anything else.
Gritty, School
Style: Outstanding
Attitude: Objectionable → Unobjectionable
Set slightly into the future when a decaying Britain is controlled by large criminal clans.
Powerfully written story based on Icelandic sagas. Disturbing vision of a future very pagan Britain ruled by brutality and where strength and cunning prevail. Christianity is reduced to an undistinguished sect.
Fantasy, Gritty, Mythical
Style: Average
Attitude: Objectionable
Trinity is a contemporary Catholic boys' high school in the States, run by an order of brothers.
A Catholic school dominated by a shadowy group of masterful students, vice-happy and with no fear of authority.
Gritty, School
Style: Good
Attitude: Take Care
Sam, a Bradford student, gets to know Jenny, a Kingston schoolgirl when he uses her father's camera.
Unexceptional boy-meets-girl story; some references to Sam's previous sex.
Romantic
Style: Good
Attitude: Take Care
A story of moles keeping their system going against all manner of adversity.
Animal, Fantasy
Style: Average
Attitude: Take Care
Matt, a child clone of an artificially ancient rich drug baron, has to come to terms with the way the world sees him as he grows up and discovers the truth behind his way of life.
Growing-Up, Moral Issue, SciFi
Style: Average → Good
Attitude: Take Care → Positive
Genry is the envoy from "The Ekumen", a federation of human planets originating from Earth, to the world known as Winter, cold all year round and where everyone is ambisexual: sexually latent for most of the month, but able to mate for a few days when one or other sexual characteristic will dominate.
An intriguing story, suitable only for mature teenagers or adults, which explores the issues in a world where everyone is both male and female, sexually latent for most of the month, but open to mating for a few days. Contraception and other sex-related drug use along with kemmer houses for the recourse of the sexually active. Stoic bravery and endurance by the lone envoy who is committed to his cause of welcoming a new planet to the federation. Two characters taking many risks for friendship's sake. Some prophecying.
SciFi, Thought-provoking
Style: Average
Attitude: Take Care
Rose & Diana are left unchaperoned after their aunt is taken ill, but decide to hide the fact from their actor mother, off on a tour, as they feel old enough to look after themselves.
A sexual encounter between a young unmarried couple. Scorn for society's treatment of unmarried mothers.
Growing-Up, War
Style: Good
Attitude: Take Care
Jane is pregnant by an actor with whom she had a brief holiday affair.
Coping with, Moral Issue
Style: Good
Attitude: Positive
Sets of twins are mysteriously born in a village and turn out to have strange powers.
SciFi
Style: Good
Attitude: Unobjectionable
Sir James Monmouth returns from 35 years abroad to England, the land of his birth, which he left when he was five.
Spooky
Style: Good
Attitude: Take Care
In 1900 Australia, a part of teenage girls from a College for Young Ladies goes on a trip to Hanging Rock.
Classic, Historical, Spooky
Style: Good
Attitude: Positive
John Hilliard rejoins his battalion near the front in World War I.
Friendship, Historical, War
Style: Good
Attitude: Unobjectionable
The Duke of Avon, a French-English aristocrat, rescues Leon, a Paris street urchin from his brother's abuse by employing Leon as a page.
Historical, Romantic