
Startlingly original, this dark story is also strangely light and witty and leaves an unforgettable image lingering long after the last page. So when young Ivy realises that her obsessive love for her mother won't lessen, there's only one way to keep her for ever. The Rumbaugh Curse dooms its victims to love their mothers so much they can't bear to let them go, even in death. If this isn't the oddest book you'll read this year, then I'd like to know what is. THE LOVE CURSE OF THE RUMBAUGHS BY JACK GANTOS (Macmillan £5.99) Set firmly in Sarah Waters' Fingersmith territory, this Victorian thriller tackles the social dilemma of a 17-year-old girl who is intellectually, emotionally and sexually unconventional and pays the price by being tricked into a nightmarish lunatic asylum.Īlthough the outcome is well-signalled, the journey there is handled with pace, and the cruelty of the physical conditions balances perfectly with the suffocating mental torture of women who dared to be different. Share WILDTHORN by Jane Eagland (Picador £6.99) The intensity of feelings and tragic suddenness with which life changes will strike a chord with teenagers and the young at heart. This sensitively written story of the power of love and loss presses all the right buttons and will appeal to readers of Jenny Downham's Before I Die. But when her family dies in a car crash and she is left hovering between life and death, Mia must decide whether life is still worth living. Mia is 17 and has everything to live for: a loving family, an outstanding future as a cellist and a boyfriend in a band. IF I STAY BY GAYLE FORMAN (Doubleday £10.99) An impressive debut from a writer to watch. This is a gripping adventure involving child abduction, murder, chilling folklore and family breakup that maintains its tension throughout. Turning detective, she and her only friend follow clues - until another girl also goes missing. But even that stigma fades when she is the last person to see a schoolgirl who disappears without trace. Ten-year-old Pia lives in a small town in Germany and is haunted by a bizarre family tragedy. THE VANISHING OF KATHARINA LINDEN BY HELEN GRANT (Penguin £6.99)
