Showing results by author "Melvin Burgess" in All Categories

A new drug is on the street. Everyone's buzzing about it. Take the hit. Live the most intense week of your life. Then die. It's the ultimate high at the ultimate price. Adam thinks it over. He's poor, and doesn't see that changing. Lizzie, his girlfriend, can't make up her mind about sleeping with him, so he can't get laid. His brother Jess is missing. And Manchester is in chaos, controlled by drug dealers and besieged by a group of homegrown terrorists who call themselves the Zealots. Wouldn't one amazing week be better than this endless, penniless misery?

Melvin Burgess revolutionised children's literature with the infamous cult novels Junk and Doing It. In his first adult novel, Loki, he breathes new life into Norse myths. Starting with the Norse creation myths, the trickster god Loki takes the listener on a wild ride through Norse mythology, from the time the gods—the founders of Asgard—defeated races of monsters, and hurtling through famous stories, including Odin hanging himself on the World Tree, the theft of the corrupting gold ring and the murder of Baldr, the god of love and the Sun.

An ambitious and complex novel with a multi-faceted and vivid depiction of a group of young people in the grip of drug addiction, told in many different voices, from the addicts themselves to the friends watching from the outside who try to prevent tragedy. It was a love story. Me, Gemma and junk. I thought it was going to last forever. It was the biggest adventure of my life. Tar loves Gemma, but Gemma doesn’t want to be tied down - not to anyone or anything. Gemma wants to fly. But no one can fly forever. One day, somehow, finally, you have to come down.

"Everything is free. That's the secret. The only thing that isn't free is you. You do as you're told; you sit in your seat till they say, 'Stand.' You stay put till they say, 'Go.' Maybe that's the way you like it. It's easy. It's all there. You don't have to think about it. You don't even have to feel it. I sometimes wonder how this planet keeps on sticking to my feet. They did everything they could to pin me down: my mum, my dad, school. They put me in homes with kind guys and they put me in homes with bastards."

Dino, Jon, and Ben have each got problems; a girlfriend who won't put out, a girlfriend who won't give up, and a predatory teacher...just for starters.

Brandon is a boaster - he says he is brilliant at lots of things. Then he is challenged to count up to 10 million. So Brandon starts - one, two, three...and before long, he is up to 1,000. Everyone around him is bewildered and annoyed - his friend Waris, his teachers and Miss Hexx, the head. But Brandon can’t stop counting. And then strange, impossible things start happening. The numbers are taking over everything....

The Bloods are in control, and they’re desperate to turn Britain into the world they want to see - right, white, Christian supremist. Anyone who they call abnormal is a target. Amidst the chaos of civil war, the country is on the move as small militia groups fight each other and a sea of refugees escapes the cities and the pursuing Bloods. When her home is destroyed in a bombing raid, Marti must strike out on a mission of her own - to save her father and get his vital software into the right hands. But Marti is mixed race and trans and has her three-year-old brother in tow.

Bea has started to hear and see things that no-one else can - creatures, voices, visions. Then strangers visit Bea and tell her she is different: she has the rare powers of a witch. They warn her she is being hunted. Her parents think she is hallucinating and needs help. All Bea wants to do is get on with her life and to get closer to Lars, the mysterious young man she has met at the skate park. But her life is in danger, and she must break free. The question is - whom can she trust?

Tam often takes refuge in the ruins of Thowt It Farm when he is unhappy at home. One day he follows an old beggar woman and her dog to the farm and is transported back to the Second World War. There he makes friends with May, who has been rescued from a bombed-out house and now refuses to eat or sleep indoors. When Tam gets into trouble in the town, May comes to his rescue.

A new drug is out. Everyone is talking about it. Death. Take it, and you have one amazing week to live. It's the ultimate high. At the ultimate price... Adam is tempted. Life is rubbish; his girlfriend's over him, his brother's gone. So what's he got to lose? Everything, as it turns out...

It was a mistake for Ben to tell the Hunter that there were still wolves in Surrey. For the Hunter was a fanatic, always on the lookout for unusual prey. Driven by an ambition to wipe out the last English wolves, the Hunter set out on his savage quest.

Dino really fancies fit, sexy Jackie, but she just won’t give him what he wants. Jonathan likes Deborah, but she’s a bit fat - what will his mates say? Ben’s been secretly shagging his teacher for ages. He used to love it, but what if he wants it to stop? Three lads discovering sex for the first time. But do any of them really know what they’re doing?

Everyone says 14-year-old Billie is nothing but trouble. A fighter. A danger to her family and friends. But her care worker sees someone different. Her classmate Rob is big, strong; he can take care of himself and his brother. But his violent stepdad sees someone to humiliate. And Chris is struggling at school; he just doesn't want to be there. But his dad sees a useless no-hoper. Billie, Rob and Chris each have a story to tell. But there are two sides to every story, and the question is... who do you believe?