Bookish and Feint

by  Cat Clarke   Jem Halliday is in love with her gay best friend.   Not exactly ideal, but she's learning to live with it. Then the unspeakable happens. Kai is outed online ...and he kills himself. Jem knows nothing she can say or do will bring him back. But she wants to know who was responsible. And she wants to take them down… ------------- First off, I think it prudent to mention that given of some of the themes that run throughout it may not be suitable for younger teens or more sensitive readers, although as ever use your own judgment. I absolutely fell in love with Jem - what a fantastic main character! Abandoned, broken and filled with a kind of Shakespearian vengeance, Jem had me simultaneously relishing the dark satisfaction of a dastardly scheme and weeping in frustration at the madness of it all. It was an emotional rollercoaster. I was completely unprepared for how engaged – how downright opini...

by Ashley Edward Miller  and Zack Stentz I read and reviewed this a while ago but I've been re-watching the TV programme  Elementary,  which for those who don't know, is a modern incarnation of the literary Holmes and Watson dream team, and I always think fondly of the eponymous Colin Fischer whenever Sherlock Holmes pops up, so I thought I'd put it up here. ------------- 'Colin Fischer cannot stand to be touched. He does not like the color blue. He needs index cards to recognize facial expressions. But when a gun is found in the school cafeteria, interrupting a female classmate’s birthday celebration, Colin is the only for the investigation. It’s up to him to prove that Wayne Connelly, the school bully and Colin’s frequent tormenter, didn’t bring the gun to school. After all, Wayne didn’t have frosting on his hands, and there was white chocolate frosting found on the grip of the smoking gun…' ------------ Colin Fischer   is marke...

by  Alice Oseman 'Charlie and Nick are at the same school, but they've never met ... until one day when they're made to sit together. They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn't think he has a chance.  But love works in surprising ways, and Nick is more interested in Charlie than either of them realised. Heartstopper  is about love, friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.' __________ Heartstopper ,   Volume 1 , collects together the first two chapters of Oseman's LGBTQ+ webcomic about teens Charlie and Nick, whom readers may recall if they have previously read Oseman's earlier YA novel,   Solitaire .   Solitaire   focuses on Charlie's sister Tori, but in   Heartstopper   Tori becomes a background character whilst Charlie ...