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Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Fire in Frost (Crystal Frost, #1) in Books

Mar 20, 2020 (Updated Mar 20, 2020)

Fire in Frost (Crystal Frost, #1)

Alicia Rades | 2015 | Paranormal, Young Adult (YA)

9.3

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

"There's a fire growing inside of me. It's not the harmful kind that can kill a girl like Olivia. It's the kind that can save her."

CRYSTAL FROST tells herself she isn't crazy, but sane people don't see ghosts. As her psychic abilities manifest, Crystal discovers she can see into the future, witness the past, and speak with the dead. Add blackmail to the list of things she never thought would happen to her, and you basically have her sophomore year covered. After spotting her first ghost, secrets from her family, friends, and classmates begin to surface. Uncovering secrets can be dangerous, but giving up means someone will get hurt. Again.

What was refreshing with this YA was there was no teenage sexual tension drama!! It was a really well written story about a young girl discovering her special gift. It also raised awareness for domestic violence and that it's not acceptable at any age, Alicia Rades did this without coming across as preachy like some authors can. I was impressed with her style and looking forward to reading more by her.

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Awix (3310 KP) rated Break of Dark in Books

Aug 2, 2019

Break of Dark

Robert Westall | 1982 | Horror, Science Fiction/Fantasy

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

I must have been 12 or 13 when I first read this, and back then part of the fun came from the sense that these actually felt like adult stories, for all the book is advertised as being basically YA fiction: quite apart from the substantial quantities of profanity and sex, many the characters aren't typical YA identification figures: middle-aged seaside policemen, earnest young vicars, suburban couples, and so on. These are still hugely readable and satisfying stories even now many decades later.

But what are they about? Well, there are two stories of ghosts (a haunted Wellington bomber during the second world war, and a rather stranger tale of an unwitting medium), two of very atypical alien visitations (a cautionary tale of a young hitch-hiker, and a blackly comic one concerning a spate of peculiar crimes in a small resort town), and one of an inner-city vicar who stumbles onto something very creepy in the crypt of his church. All of them are engagingly and skilfully written, and immaculately paced. Good reads for all ages.