!Queen of Teen Shortlist!

MFB is ridiculously proud to bring you some fab PR news from the Queen of Teen award creators:

Queen of Teen is royally delighted to announce the shortlist for the fiction world’s most glamorous award. Thousands of heartfelt nominations have been received from teenagers across the country and voting is now open to find this year’s Queen of Teen.

The ten fabulous authors who have made the shortlist are as follows:

• CathyCassidy
• Maureen Johnson
• Sarah Webb
• Joanna Nadin
• Cathy Hopkins
• Samantha Mackintosh
• Chris Higgins
• Hayley Long
• S.C. Ransom 
• James Dawson <- !! it's a boy !! 

The award will be presented at a glittering award ceremony in July 2012, when the writers of the best nominations will be invited to mingle with their favourite authors, invited journalists and other special guests. The ceremony is to be held at Queen of Teen HQ in leafy Surrey and will be superbly pink and sparkly – a truly majestic celebration of this thriving and important genre!

Teens and tweens can now vote for their favourite author from the shortlist by visiting www.queenofteen.co.uk. 

Queen of Teen has attracted tens of thousands of votes from young readers across the globe and last year resulted in the fabulous author of the Chocolate Box Girls books, Cathy Cassidy, being crowned Queen of Teen. On being crowned Cathy said: “I've had lots of fun since being voted Queen of Teen... it's an amazing award because it's all about YOU, the super-cool reader gals out there. Your votes and views really DO count!”

Not heard about Queen of Teen? 

The Queen of Teen competition was launched to acknowledge the hugely significant part that fiction can play in the teenage years, and to encourage girls to turn off their computers and mobile phones and pick up a book instead. Queen of Teen has a dedicated website www.queenofteen.co.uk with information about the award’s history, details on how readers can vote for their favourite authors and pictures of the last two award ceremonies.

You can also find Queen of Teen on Facebook and follow us on Twitter: @QueenofTeenUK #QOT2012

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

Synopsis

Sixteen-year-old American girl Rory has just arrived at boarding school in London when a Jack the Ripper copycat-killer begins terrorising the city. All the hallmarks of his infamous murders are frighteningly present, but there are few clues to the killer’s identity. “Rippermania” grabs hold of modern-day London, and the police are stumped with few leads and no witnesses. Except one. In an unknown city with few friends to turn to, Rory makes a chilling discovery… Could the copycat murderer really be Jack the Ripper back from the grave?

I'm a big lover of creepy, gritty urban stuff so I'm not sure why I didn't rip this from the shelves as soon as it was released. I kept seeing great reviews of it and wondering why I hadn't bought a copy. Anyway, I put that right and sat down on Sunday and was instantly drawn into this modern-day London world that Maureen Johnson had created. I was pretty much sold as she walked her character Rory down the streets of the East End. I don't really know anything about Jack the Ripper apart from the usual facts like no-one knowing who he was and so on. However, I learnt that most of what I thought I knew was in fact untrue.

Rory (or Aurora which she hates being called) has always wanted to come to London to study and gets her chance when her parents move to England for work. I loved how Rory adapts to everything and she has such a wry sense of humour that even in the darkest moments she could be replied upon for a great comment. Before she even arrived in London the first "Ripper-esque" murder has taken place and the capital has gone mad. By the day of the second murder Rory has made great friends and is sneaking out to watch events unfold from a nearby roof. What happens on her return journey I found more than a little chilling.

There's so much to love in this book. Rory has great friends, I adored quiet but determined Jazza with her tea obsession. I joined with both of them in their hatred of Charlotte the head girl. One of my favourite characters was Jo and there's a really poignant scene between her and Rory which I read again as soon as I'd finished the book. The way that Rippermania grips the country is brilliantly done with the attitude of the public, the reliance on the BBC and the way that the hysteria builds. There's also a great deal of fascinating history seamlessly blended in about "dead" underground stations and war-time tragedies. I'm being deliberately woolly about the plot as I don't want to give even the tiniest thing away.

For me this was almost a perfect urban fantasy and I'm so glad this is part one of a series (Shades of London) so that I can immerse myself back into the mysterious, weird and creepy world that Maureen Johnson has created.