Cambridge High School Library 2024

 By: Kate Atkinson Location: FIC ATK Genre: Historical Fiction "I loved everything about this book. The dialogue is sharp, quick-paced, and witty. There are a ton of subtle literary references mixed in. I would describe Shrines of Gaiety as a bit of Peaky Blinders combined with Gatsby. Atkinson brings to the table exquisite writing and captivating characters." Meredith OK here is the worst line in any book I have ever read! “The library had not been a career choice. After all, who would choose to be a librarian?” London 1926. Roaring Twenties. Corruption. Seduction. Debts due. In a country still recovering from the Great War, London is the focus for a delirious nightlife. In Soho clubs, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time. There, Nellie Coker is a ruthless ruler, ambitious for her six children. Niven is the eldest, his enigmatic character forged in the harsh Somme. But su...

By: Taylor Jenkins Reid Location: FIC REI Genre: Tennis, Fiction, Historical Fiction “We live in a world where exceptional women have to sit around waiting for mediocre men.” In this powerful novel about the cost of greatness, a legendary athlete attempts a comeback when the world considers her past her prime—from the  New York Times  bestselling author of  Malibu Rising . Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular. But by the time she retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Grand Slam titles. And if you ask Carrie, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father, Javier, as her coach. A former champion himself, Javier has trained her since the age of two. But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a br...

 By: Kelly Andrew Location: FIC AND Genre: Fantasy, paranormal, Urban Fantasy "THE WHISPERING DARK is a complex web of chilling secrets and haunting tension that lingers well after you’ve closed its pages. Kelly Andrew has beautifully crafted a paranormal thriller laced with twists and revelations that will stop your heart and make your blood run cold." Aidan The Raven Boys  meets  Ninth House  in the most exciting debut of 2022 -- a dark, atmospheric fantasy about a Deaf college student with a peculiar connection to the afterlife. Delaney Meyers-Petrov is tired of being seen as fragile just because she's Deaf. So when she's accepted into a prestigious program at Godbole University that trains students to slip between parallel worlds, she's excited for the chance to prove herself. But her semester gets off to a rocky start as she faces professors who won't accommodate her disability, and a pretentious upperclassman fascinated by Delaney's unusual talents. ...

 By: Dana Schwartz Location: FIC SCH Genre: Gothic, Romance, Historical Fiction "Wow! Just wow! That’s so much than I expected: Alienist meets Frankenstein with Scottish romance vibes, hot love sessions and forbidden kisses at the graveyard! Yeap! Quirky, disturbing but also surprising, stimulating, intelligent! A great concoction for gothic thriller lovers who adore tough, bold, smart heroines!" Nelifer If there is an award for cover art in 2022 this book has to wi n!!! A gothic tale full of mystery and romance about a willful female surgeon, a resurrection man who sells bodies for a living, and the buried secrets they must uncover together. Edinburgh, 1817. Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry. Jack Currer is a resurrection man who’s just trying to survive in a city where it’s too easy to die. When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she ge...

 By: Leigh Bardugo Location: FIC BAR Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Mystery Galaxy 'Alex' Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale's freshman class. A dropout and the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved crime, Alex was hoping for a fresh start. But a free ride to one of the world's most prestigious universities was bound to come with a catch. Alex has been tasked with monitoring the mysterious activities of Yale's secret societies - well-known haunts of the rich and powerful. Now there's a dead girl on campus and Alex seems to be the only person who won't accept the neat answer the police and campus administration have come up with for her murder. Because Alex knows the secret societies are far more sinister and extraordinary than anyone ever imagined. They tamper with forbidden magic. They raise the dead. And sometimes they prey on the living …

 By: Colleen Shipley   Location: FIC SHI Genre: Historical Kiwi Fiction "Wrens Under the Radar is the kind of tale you can curl up with in a comfy chair - but be careful, it'll give you a hard pinch right in your empathy when you're least expecting it."  review by Kieran Written by a library colleague of mine!!! Im so proud of her mahi on this! War is declared on Germany, and Betty’s fiancé Fred enlists. Desperate to do her bit, Betty signs up with the Wrens, hoping to venture overseas. Instead, she finds herself on a top-secret mission in a farmhouse near Blenheim, along with seven other Wrens. As the women settle into their roles as telegraphers and classifiers, monitoring transmissions from Japanese submarines in the Pacific, close friendships develop and they support each other through times of loss. The Wrens attend dances and church services, mixing with the locals, but are sworn to secrecy about their work. When Betty receives terrible news, it hits her hard, ...

 By: Axie Oh Location: FIC Oh Genre: Fantasy, Mythology “Stories are both an escape from the truths of the world and the only way to see them clearly.”   Deadly storms have ravaged Mina’s homeland for generations. Floods sweep away entire villages, while bloody wars are waged over the few remaining resources. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curses them with death and despair. In an attempt to appease him, each year a beautiful maiden is thrown into the sea to serve as the Sea God’s bride, in the hopes that one day the “true bride” will be chosen and end the suffering. Many believe that Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village—and the beloved of Mina’s older brother Joon—may be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is to be sacrificed, Joon follows Cheong out to sea, even knowing that to interfere is a death sentence. To save her brother, Mina throws herself into the water in Cheong’s stead. Swept away to the Spirit Realm, a magi...

 By: Paddy Crewe Location: FIC CRE Genre: Historical Fiction, Western With its colorful description of people and places, comic backbone, and compelling narrator,  My Name Is Yip  is a bold adventure––a gripping tale of courage, struggle, hope, and brotherhood––that reckons with the seductive pull of the American South and its dark and complex histories. A bold, revisionist take on the Western novel set in the Georgia gold rush, for readers of Charles Portis and Cormac McCarthy, by a powerful debut novelist with an original voice It’s 1815 in the small town of Heron's Creek, Georgia, when Yip Tolroy––mute, medical anomaly, and social outcast––is born. His father has disappeared under mysterious circumstances, so he is raised by his mother: a powerful, troubled, independent woman who owns and runs a general store. She struggles to manage his needs, leaving Yip to find the means of asserting himself in an unforgiving, hostile environment. With the help of a retired doctor, ...

 By: Paula McLain Location: FIC MCL Genre: Mystery, Thriller https://youtu.be/J4nE2o2rfLE   A note from the Author about this book! A town like this feels so safe and apart from the outside world. You start to wonder if it’s dangerous.” “The fairy tale of it, you mean?” “Right. False security. You stop looking over your shoulder, because the picture feels real. Nothing bad can happen when there’s a moat around the whole town, right? Battlements. Guards at the gate. But the dragon shows up anyway.” Anna Hart is a seasoned missing persons detective in San Francisco with far too much knowledge of the darkest side of human nature. When tragedy strikes her personal life, Anna, desperate and numb, flees to the Northern California village of Mendocino to grieve. She lived there as a child with her beloved foster parents, and now she believes it might be the only place left for her. Yet the day she arrives, she learns that a local teenage girl has gone missing. The crime feels frighte...

 By: Ava Glass Location: FIC GLA Genre: Mystery Thriller "But every man everywhere, no matter how much you train him, underestimates a smiling young woman." She's on her first major operation with a shadowy government organisation known only as 'the Agency', assigned to track down and save an innocent man wanted by the Russian government. All Emma has to do is bring him in to MI6 before sunrise, and before an assassination team gets to him first. But the Russians have hacked the city's CCTV cameras. There are spies all over London searching for them. And Michael Primalov doesn't want to be rescued. As London sleeps, a battle is taking place on its streets as Emma fights to keep Michael alive. Along the way she finds she has more enemies than she realised. And more strength than she suspected. But what sort of reception awaits them if and when they do get to MI6? And why do the Russians seem to be ahead of them every step of the way?   Review by Yvonne I do...

By: Paula McLain  Location: FIC McL Genre: Mystery, Thriller Anna Hart is a seasoned missing persons detective in San Francisco with far too much knowledge of the darkest side of human nature. When tragedy strikes her personal life, Anna, desperate and numb, flees to the Northern California village of Mendocino to grieve. She lived there as a child with her beloved foster parents, and now she believes it might be the only place left for her. Yet the day she arrives, she learns that a local teenage girl has gone missing. The crime feels frighteningly reminiscent of the most crucial time in Anna's childhood, when the unsolved murder of a young girl touched Mendocino and changed the community forever. As past and present collide, Anna realizes that she has been led to this moment. The most difficult lessons of her life have given her insight into how victims come into contact with violent predators. As Anna becomes obsessed with saving the missing girl, she must accept that true coura...

 By: Katy Warner Location: FIC WAR Genre: Young Adult, Music A contemporary young adult novel about musical theatre, first romance and standing up for yourself from the brilliant Australian YA author Katy Warner. At the prestigious performing arts school Arcadia Grammar, the theatre kids and the musical theatre kids have just one rule: you DO NOT go for each other’s lead roles. But Edie is about to throw the rulebook out the window – and all hell is going to break loose. Edie Emerson is a triple threat: she can sing and dance and act. But despite being the lead in every musical at Arcadia, she knows her future on the stage is uncertain. At least until the infamous director Toby Swan agrees to stage Romeo and Juliet at the academy. This show could launch Edie’s career – except she doesn’t do ‘theatre’. And she’s already agreed to star in a new musical written by her best friend, Will. So when Toby casts the annoying-but-hot Noah Winters as Romeo, and he insists on Edie for Juliet, i...

 By: Kara Lee Corthron Location: FIC COR Genre:  Fantasy, Historical Fiction This book is written in an easy to connect to dialect and though there's violent trauma there's the joy of discovering new love, embracing your family for all that they are, and discovering yourself. The themes of finding your power resonate. Mrs WOC Reader From the award-winning author of  The Truth of Right Now  comes a “lyrical” ( PopSugar ), grounded fantasy in the vein of  Dread Nation  that follows a black teen as she finds her place among a family of women gifted with magical abilities. In the Jim Crow South, white supremacy reigns and tensions are high. But Evalene Deschamps has other things to worry about. She has two little sisters to look after, an overworked single mother, and a longtime crush who is  finally  making a move. On top of all that, Evvie’s magic abilities are growing stronger by the day. Her family calls it jubilation—a gift passed down from gener...

 By: Blake Crouch Location: FIC CRO Genre:  Sci Fi, Fictio n An ordinary man undergoes a startling transformation—and fears that all of humanity may be next—in the mind-blowing new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of  Dark Matter  and  Recursion “You are the next step in human evolution.” At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep. But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways. The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy. Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger ...

 By: Abbas Nzazri Location:  NF 920  NZ Genre: From Refugee to Fulbright Scholar The heart-rending story of a child  'Tampa'  refugee who grew up to become a Fulbright scholar, highlighting the plight and potential of refugees everywhere. When the Taliban were at the height of their power in 2001, Abbas Nazari's parents were faced with a choice: stay and face persecution in their homeland, or seek security for their young children elsewhere. The family's desperate search for safety took them on a harrowing journey from the mountains of Afghanistan to a small fishing boat in the Indian Ocean, crammed with more than 400 other asylum seekers. When their boat started to sink, they were mercifully saved by a cargo ship, the  Tampa . However, one of the largest maritime rescues in modern history quickly turned into an international stand-off, as Australia closed its doors to these asylum seekers. The  Tampa  had waded into the middle of Australia's nati...

 By: Diana Urban Location: FIC URB Genre: Thriller Let’s play a game. You have 24 hours to win. If you break my rules, she dies. If you call the police, she dies. If you tell your parents or anyone else, she dies. Are you ready? When Crystal Donavan gets a message on a mysterious app with a video of her little sister gagged and bound, she agrees to play the kidnapper’s game. At first, they make her complete bizarre tasks: steal a test and stuff it in a locker, bake brownies, make a prank call. But then Crystal realizes each task is meant to hurt—and kill—her friends, one by one. But if she refuses to play, the kidnapper will kill her sister. Is someone trying to take her team out of the running for a gaming tournament? Or have they uncovered a secret from their past, and wants them to pay for what they did… As Crystal makes the impossible choices between her friends and her sister, she must uncover the truth and find a way to outplay the kidnapper… before it’s too late. Author of...

 By: Miranda Luby Location: FIC LUB Genre: Youth Fiction, Mental Health "There is a lot going on in this book, and I loved it all. I loved Sadie, her plucky nature, her kindness and her constant striving to be a better friend but not always getting it right. She's a loveable, likeable girl and I wanted the best for her. A really great read." Bridget Sadie Starr is obsessed with starting over. A new year, a new diet, a new social media identity. Anything that gives her a chance to be a better version of herself. So when her dad’s job moves the family interstate, Sadie’s excited for a fresh start. It’s also the perfect excuse to leave behind the mess she’s made with her best friend and secret crush, Daniel, whose advances she rejected – for fear of screwing things up. But at her new school, life gets complicated fast. She meets glamorous Alexa and her pink-badged girl gang, on a mission to ‘support women’, and outcast Jack, who the girls say has been stalking fellow student...

 By: Dan Hanks Location: FIC HAN Genre: Fantasy Horro r Swashbucklers is a fun, fast-paced and insane adventure! While technically a fantasy story, I would personally recommend this one to horror readers looking for a light, entertaining read to break up their disturbing horror books. Such a fun escapist read! When Cisco Collins returns to his home town thirty years after saving it from being swallowed by a hell mouth opened by an ancient pirate ghost, he realises that being a childhood hero isn't like it was in the movies. Especially when nobody remembers the heroic bits - even the friends who once fought alongside him. Struggling with single parenting and treated as bit of a joke, Cisco isn't really in the Christmas spirit like everyone else. A fact that's made worse by the tendrils of the pirate's powers creeping back into our world and people beginning to die in bizarre ways. With the help of a talking fox, an enchanted forest, a long-lost friend haunting his dreams...

 By: R F Kuang Location: FIC KUA Genre: Fantasy Babel  was absolutely impressive, ambitious, and intelligently crafted. As unbelievable as it sounds, R.F. Kuang has triumphed over  The Poppy War Trilogy —which I loved so much—with this one book. “Language was always the companion of empire, and as such, together they begin, grow, and flourish. And later, together, they fall. Traduttore, traditore:  An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he'll enroll in Oxford University's prestigious Royal Institute of Translation — also known as Babel. Babel is the world's center of translation and, more importantly, of silver-working: the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation through enchanted silver bars, to magical effect. Silver-working has made the Brit...