Enthusiasm for reading spirals

It’s been almost a month since term resumed and there is a lot of enthusiasm for reading so the Library is being kept busy and lots of books are being issued. That’s why I think it essential that I know the content of the books that the library stocks so I always read a LOT especially over the summer. Most of my summer reads this year were quite mediocre (they were all very good, but for me, personally, they weren’t exceptional) and I was beginning to give up hope of finding something that really stood out. Then I picked up a title that was published in 2012 – ‘Shift’ by Em Bailey. It’s a physiological thriller and I was very confused by it… at first…until that page-turning moment when I realised that I didn’t want put it down.

“Olive can only watch as new girl Miranda latches on to her old best friend, Katie. Soon Miranda is talking like Katie, dressing like Katie – even going out with Katie’s boyfriend. And then Miranda turns her attention on Olive. She makes life so much fun that soon they are best friends. But what price will Olive have to pay for this new friendship?”

The plot doesn’t sound great and it is a little predicable in places but there is a twist which is quite creepy and disturbing and it’s definitely senior fiction (for our Year 9 upwards). Last week I recommended it to one of our keen Year 10 readers who read it in a couple of days and rated it 5/5.

Mrs Cassell, Librarian