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Amelia is a fifteen-year-old checkout chick at Woolworths – or, as her trainer Chris likes to call it, the Land of Dreams. Chris is twenty-one and doing Arts at uni, which makes him a prime candidate to guide Amelia through her English class.

Unfortunately for all involved, Amelia is in love with Chris. Fifteen-year-old, shallow, puppy love. It’s perfectly naïve and frankly, a little irritating after a while. Luckily, the narrative jumps to Chris’ diary for a time, which provides much more depth and interest that Amelia’s relentless, “ChrisChrisChris. He’ssoperfect.”

Don’t get me wrong, the writing is very good. There is a fine line between poetic metaphors and purple prose, and Buzo has done an excellent job of navigating that line. It’s interesting and pulls you into the Land of Dreams, which turns into the Land of Broken Dreams for the poor lovesick Amelia (and Chris, in his own way).

Intriguing characters fill the story; unfortunately, Amelia is not one of these. She does have an interesting view on feminism – which, let’s face it, she’s right on the money with – but basically her existence seems to be about Chris. The conclusion to the story doesn’t quite wrap up well enough to make you feel like Amelia’s actually grown as a person. Which, frankly, feels like her entire side of the story was a bit of a waste of time.

Still a great debut novel from Buzo, hopefully she branches into the darker, more “Chris” stories as I feel like this is where her major talent lies.

Dan is a kid whose world is falling apart around him. His family goes broke; his dad announces that he’s gay; Dan and his mother move into an old house left to her by a great-aunt with very little to eat.

It wouldn’t be so hard starting again except Dan’s mum decides to start a wedding cake business … and she keeps talking the clients out of their weddings.

Dan is an angry fifteen-year-old who nevertheless maintains his sweetness. He wants to kiss Estelle, the pretty and enigmatic girl-next-door; he never wants to speak to his dad again; and he wants to get a job to help support his mum.

Wood does a good job getting into the mindset of poor Dan, who is possibly one of the most unlucky kid I’ve read about. Despite his poor choices and immature attitude, he is a lovable geek whom you just feel terribly sad for.

On the other hand, sometimes you just want to hit him around the head. As you do most teenagers, really.

While a good book and definitely readable, there was just something lacking in the writing or the story that I can’t quite put my finger on. I feel like it’s a good debut novel for the screenwriter but can’t wait to see how she develops as an author.

Set in a dystopian world, The Bridge refers to a crossing between the two cities; but they are divided by hate and fear as much as the metal and stone.

Nik and his friends are forced from their boarding school when a bomb tears it apart. Half their friends are lost, Nik is attacked the forces meant to protect them and Fyffe’s little brother Sol is kidnapped by traffikers. Together, Fyffe and Nik set off across the Bridge into Southside, the half of the city that the Breken occupy.

Told horrible stories about the Breken their whole life, the two know their only hope is Nik’s dark skin and ability to speak the language; together, they blend in enough to start their search for Sol.

But all is not what it seems and Nik slowly begins to realise that what they’ve been told their entire lives about the war and the “hostiles” might not be entirely true.

While the politics was sometimes hard to follow, The Bridge is a well-written story with developed characters and a great blend of action and quiet moments. Not every writer can accomplish this seamlessly, but Higgins pulls it off. While it perhaps could have been more suspenseful, it certainly holds your attention and has some important messages threaded throughout the engaging narrative.

I’ll get right to the point here: this book is great. It is genuinely funny and charming, the main character – sixteen-year-old Darcy – is a boy whose brain just can’t keep up with his mouth.

The title is exactly what the book is: snippets and little segments from Darcy’s life. Somehow, it works flawlessly and you feel like you have a real sense of who this boy is as a person. His family is great. There is little angst and you just get a sense of relaxed friendliness from this novel.

I finished this book in a few hours; that’s a testament more to its easygoing writing than my speed reading skills. It was fun to read and I just didn’t want to put it down.

It’s not emotionally impacting. It’s not a dark, intense look at a teenage boy. But sometimes you don’t want that. You want a cool kid who has a lot of fun with life, and you want to be a part of that for a short while. And when you want that, just pick up Slice: juicy moments from my impossible life. You’ll laugh, you’ll shake your head, you might even ‘whoop’, but you certainly won’t feel like crying.

Thirteen Reasons Why
This book has been recommended to me so many times, so I knew I’d read it eventually. I reserved it at my local library (which, conveniently enough, is also my workplace). However, I was reading several books by the time it came in so it got put on my shelf and more-or-less forgotten about.

When I realised it was overdue (only by a day or two, don’t stress) and two reservations on, I thought I better prioritise and see if I could get through it in a couple of days.

I started reading it when I got home from work at 6pm. I read it while I cooked tea; while I ate tea; while my boyfriend watched Top Gear. Then at 9:30pm I had to stop because he needed Girlfriend Support. I picked it back up this morning and read it while I was getting ready for work.

It’s now on its way to the next person. Much like Hannah’s tapes.

Thirteen reasons why is a one of the most powerful books I’ve ever read. It grips you from the first few lines and doesn’t let go … ever.

It’s helped along by the simplistic writing – and really, how many books can you say that about? The short sentences from Clay are completely in tune with how he’s feeling. No wishy-washy paragraphs about feelings here. And the book is better for it.

Even the idea behind the novel – a package of thirteen tapes with no return address appears on Clay’s doorstep, addressed to him. On the tapes is the voice of Hannah, a girl who committed suicide a few weeks earlier. She explains there are thirteen reasons – people – why she killed herself; if you received the tapes, you’re one of them.

I can’t even describe how this novel affected me. As someone who suffered depression and a suicide attempt … it’s powerful. Every teenager should read it. It should be in the curriculum at high schools, or maybe even upper primary (middle school). It shows the snowball effect of bullying and what might seem virtually innocent to the person doing the harassment can often be devastating for the victim.