Teen Books – Swimming in Books

Willow & Alma are thirteen-year-old best friends and joint owners of the ‘Wilma’ TikTok account where they video each other doing dares and challenges in the hopes of going viral and finding fame as influencers. When the basketball hoop challenge goes wrong they have to be rescued by the fire brigade, but the video is a huge hit and they get caught up in trying to do increasingly extreme challenges to chase the high of social media views. The chilli challenge and the duct tape challenge are marginally successful, but when Willow sees the fireball challenge she knows that it is their ticket to finally going viral. Alma is not convinced the fireball challenge is a good idea, she’d rather focus on her stage school audition, but she lets Willow talk her into it and the aftermath of that decision will change both of them forever.

This story is told from the perspective of both girls, and despite the fact that they both love acting, their lives are very different. Willow is the stronger character but her family is not as affluent as Alma’s, which means she has stronger motivation to seek internet fame as a means of escape from their small town. Alma is easily led by Willow, especially as she feels guilty for not telling Willow that she has applied to a stage school that Willow would never be able to afford.

‘I Dare You’ is the very definition of a cautionary tale. It is painful to watch Willow and Alma consistently make the wrong decisions over and over again, but also easy to understand how they are sucked into the relentless and addictive quest for social media affirmation. Once again Tamsin Winter proves her capacity to write for the teen category with authenticity, empathy and insight – a thought-provoking and frighteningly plausible read.

Thanks to Usborne & NetGalley for the digital ARC.

There are not enough teen/YA sci-fi books, and yet I often get requests in the school library for sci-fi, so I am sure that books about space, in particular, are due a resurgence of popularity.

Silver was born in a lab on a spaceship called Charybdis, and raised with all of the other infants to follow the rules of the founders. To be strong and obedient, and if they failed they would be cast into the ‘vortex’ to power the ship. Silver has been selected for a very special mission – to be the ‘First pioneer’ to infiltrate earth, possess a human, and relay her observations back to Charybdis in preparation for inhabitation and colonisation.

But Silver has always been a little different to the other cadets. She has a little more empathy and curiosity than the others, and an impulse not to follow the rules of the founders blindly.

When Silver arrives and takes over the body of a Polish dog walker, she finds herself part of a family for the first time including a boy called Finch, his mother Stella, and his little sister, Doodles. At first she follows orders and observes the family, but when she touches Finch, and it doesn’t cause pain, as the founders warned, she begins to question everything she’s been told. What else have the founders lied about?

Coincidentally, I recently read Ursula’s Le Guin’s ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ which has a similar theme, though obviously completely different in style. The only other book I could think of to compare ‘Silver’ to is ‘Hold Back the Stars’ by Katie Khan which is similarly romantic and devastating.

Though there is romance in this story, I wouldn’t describe it primarily as a romance as it also covers broader themes like colonisation, found family, and what it means to be human. ‘Silver’ is an epic and heartbreaking read – I loved it.

Thanks to Hot Key Books for the beautiful ARC.

Tag: Teen Books

‘I Dare You’ by Tamsin Winter

‘Silver’ by Olivia Levez