The Book Plank

Mara by Veronica Bane, Unusuals #1 For years, Mara Tucker has used her power of manipulating flames to punish those who have done her wrong. But things are changing in the town of Jericho. Rampant disappearances have forced Mara to seek out others with special powers. In a story that confronts the violence and turmoil of adolescence, Mara and a group of other "unusuals" like her grapple with new alliances and the villains pressing in all around them. I have been finishing some superhero books recently and when I went through them on Goodreads I was recommended to read the novella Mara . When I read the synopsis of the book I was more than eager to dig into it. It somehow reminded me a bit to Firestarter from Stephen King. The promise that the synopsis holds for Mara is more than proven true, more than once Veronica Bane managed to surprise by the power of her story, it's far from ordinary. Mara is Veronica Bane's debut novella and features as an opener i...

Author interview with Catherine Webb / Claire North Author bio: Catherine Webb is a Carnegie Medal-nominated British author. Her debut, Mirror Dreams , was completed when Catherine was just 14 years old. The book was published under her own name in 2002 by Atom Books. The novel garnered comparisons with Terry Pratchett and Philip Pullman. Catherine went on to publish a further seven young adult novels under her own name, earning extensive critical acclaim and two Carnegie nominations for her novels Timekeepers and The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle . Under the open pseudonym Kate Griffin, Webb has published a further six fantasy novels for adults. Dubbed the Matthew Swift and Magicals Anonymous novels, these books are set in an alternate modern-day London saturated with magic. A lifelong Londoner, Webb describes herself as a fan of big cities, urban magic, Thai food and graffiti-spotting, and she is endlessly fascinated by such questions as wh...