Why hello there. Here are SOME of this week’s (and last week’s) new books. (The rest are forthcoming.)

Lifegame, by Alison Allen-Gray (339 pages) – Fella and Grebe escape from the island to the outside world; a world, so they’ve been led to believe, has been subject to a cataclysmic disaster. But has it? Fella has a diary that belonged to his mother, who came from the Outside. Sci-fi thrill!

First line: ‘The baby was brought to the Orphanage straight from the car accident that killed his mother.’

Threads, by Sophia Bennett (254 pages) – A fairy tale about for London girls and fashion. There’s a website with more details! Interactive. ‘Girls will love it’, says Jacqueline Wilson.

First line: ‘We’re standing in a fashion designer’s studio in Hoxton, admiring ourselves in the mirror.‘

Crossing the Line, by Gillian Philip (267 pages) – Nick’s sister’s boyfriend was murdered; his father drinks and his mother is a religious maniac. He’s also in love with Orla, the sister of his murdered sister’s boyfriend. She (Orla) blames him (Nick) for his (the brother’s) death. Grim.

First line: ‘In this life you have to look after yourself.‘

Forbidden Island, Malcolm Rose (230 pages) – Mike and his pals explore an island off the Scottish coast. There are warnings! But they ignore them and find that the island is much, much more dangerous than other Scottish islands. Like Mull, Eigg, Yell, or even Fuaigh Mòr.

First line: ‘”There’s land ahead!” Mike shouted about the growl of the motor.‘

Morning in a Different Place, by Mary Ann McGuigan (195 pages) – ‘In 1963 in the Bronx, New York, eighth-graders Fiona and Yolanda help one another face hard decisions at home despite family and social opposition to their interracial friendship, but Fiona is on her own when popular classmates start paying attention to her and give her a glimpse of both a different way of life and a new kind of hatefulness.’ (Copied from the catalogue entry. Full credit!)

First line: ‘Now I know what invisible feels like.‘

You Are So Undead To Me, by Stacey Jay (265 pages) – Megan can communicate with zombies, semi-dead people who aren’t too troublesome. But someone in her school uses black magic and she and friend Ethan must team up to save homecoming from a ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!

First line: ‘The cold wind swept across the hill, whistling through the headstones that poked from the ground like dozens of crooked baby teeth.‘

Dreaming of Amelia, by Jaclyn Moriarty (519 pages) – Amelia and Riley have transferred to Ashbury, a rich kids’ school, from Brookfield High. They are brilliant and mysterious, and soon everyone at Ashbury is obsessed with them. However! They have dark secrets. And ghosts. Also, locked doors, femme fatales, madness and passion feature.

First line: ‘My first look at her was her name.‘

The Wisdom of Dead Men, by Oisín McGann (468 pages) – Berto is the head of the ‘rich and ruthless’ Wildenstern family. He and his younger brother, Nate, want to change the cruel ways typical to their family. Nate and his sister-in-law Daisy must also investigate a spate of spontaneous combustion – and the deaths mightn’t be the fault of a Wildenstern.

First line: ‘Vicky Miller stumbled dizzily out into the darkness, away from the house and the stranger who lay dead inside it – the man she had just killed.‘

Voices in the Dark : The Last Descendants Trilogy Book II, by Catherine Banner (455 pages) – From the reliable old catalogue, source of so many synopses: ‘Sixteen-year-old Anselm Andros’s world is turned upside-down when he learns the identity of his birth father, and this personal upheaval mirrors that of his country, Malonia, which is on the brink of another war after fifteen years of relative peace.’

First line: ‘I want more than anything to tell you the truth about my life.‘