Shortlisted for the 2013 Leeds Book Awards age 11-14 Category
A review by Katy Poulter This book is nothing like I expected (in a good way)! When I looked at it, I didn't really think I would like it but when I read it, I loved it so much. It’s true what they say; don’t judge a book by its cover. When I was little, I used to think, 'What if this life is just a dream that I can’t wake up from? How can we ever know?' That thought always provoked a long think about life, the universe and everything and I would always try to wake up to see if I was right and never managed it so this book really appealed to me with the situation that Cal was in at the beginning and how if felt so real to him. It wasn't too slow that it was boring or too fast that it was confusing, it was just right and it was gripping. I don’t think Jax deserved what happened to him at the end, I think something miraculous could have happened at that point. I would definitely recommend Cracks to anyone who wants a good, page turner to read.
Katy Poulter is a member of the Lovereading4kids Reader Review Panel but she has reviewed this novel in the first instance for the Leeds Book Award as it is one of the 2013 shortlisted titles. The organisers have kindly agreed to let us also make use of Katy's review.
Amanda Craig on BBC Radio 4’s OPEN BOOK:
Recommending dystopian fiction for readers aged 10 to 12, Amanda described Cracks as ‘absolutely wonderful’ and later ‘absolutely fabulous’! She praised its ‘Matrix like premise’ in which 'the boy we think has been living an ordinary, if horrible life, wakes up to find he’s been in a coma for ten years.'
"I'm shaking all over. My brain feels like a computer whose hard drive is full. I can't take any more weirdness - I haven't got room in my head. I look around the kitchen and I know something is different but I can't put my finger on it."
Cat's discovering that his life is not as ordinary as he thought. That's scary. Particularly when it seems he's the very last to know. He needs to find out the truth - but, with lies, danger and deceit on all sides, is there anyone he can trust?
A powerful futuristic thriller from an exciting new writer
'If you devoured The Hunger Games, (this) will hit the spot. Green's fast-paced thriller is a standalone novel, and you're on her hero's side all the way...entertaining, funny and thoughtful.' Amanda Craig, The Times
'Caroline Green's thriller is taut and suspense-packed right up to the last page.' Financial Times
'Beautifully crafted, fast-paced thriller in which nothing is as it seems. More like this please.' The Independent
'A gripping story, impossible to put down. Green cranks up the tension with every page.' L.A. Weatherley
'Grabbed me from the very start. There were several scenes that had me holding my breath as I turned the page. An action-packed, stunning and gripping dystopian thriller.' Chicklish
'A tense teenage adventure which examines identity, friendship and loyalty, and questions corporate humanity and individual reality. Cal’s experience is both moving and terrifying.' Booktrust
'Caroline Green cranks up the tension masterfully, making you as breathless as if you were on the run. As with all good dystopia, the settings are familiar and yet strange … An action-fuelled, clever and engaging thriller.' Books, bonnets and full-frontal blogging
Author
About Caroline Green
Caroline Green is an experienced freelance journalist who has written stories since she was a little girl. She vividly remembers a family walk when she was ten years old when she was so preoccupied with thoughts of her new ‘series’ that she almost walked into a tree.
Caroline’s stories tend to grow from a particular atmosphere, in the case of Dark Ride, it was the image of a grotty and unloved seaside town in the middle of winter, where a lonely boy sat hunched on a bench, staring out to sea . . .
Caroline is a self-confessed ‘book geek’ and found that as her two young boys grew she began to take a serious interest in children’s and YA fiction. Her first writing in this genre won the teen category of a competition run by Little Tiger Press at the Winchester Writer’s Conference in 2009.
Finding time to write with two children and a job isn’t always easy but Caroline works on the principle that writing is a bit like knitting a scarf: if you just do a little bit whenever you can, before you know it, you’ll have something growing in a satisfying way before your eyes.
Caroline lives in North London with her husband, two sporty sons and one very bouncy labrador retriever.
