A literary journal for all things to do with Teen and Young Adult Literature
We are delighted to chat to author Sheena Wilkinson about ‘Writing the Teen Voice’, hosted by Belfast Book Festival. This Saturday at 3.30pm! We hope to see you there – virtually! Book your FREE ticket today
To celebrate, we’re offering a flash sale of 15% off issues 3 and 4! Order now, before they’re gone!
We are delighted to co-host the Teen Short Story Competition with Tertulia Books in Westport, Co. Mayo.
Our theme for this competition is ‘Waves’. Put your thinking caps on and start writing!
The competition closes on August 1st, at 6 PM.
Submit your short story to: competition.paperlanterns@gmail.com
In the body of your email, please include:
Our guest judge will read and select the winning pieces (one from each age group) from the shortlist.
The winners will be published in Issue 6 of Paper Lanterns.
The winners will receive a cash prize sponsored by Tertulia in association with Spot-Lit EU.
The winners will also receive a copy of Issue 6.
Guidelines:
The Game Weavers
Rebecca Zahabi
ZunTold, 2020
Paperback, 326 pages, £9.99
ISBN 9781916204225
In this compelling novel we follow the life of Seojun Kuroaku, adopted alongside his brother Minjun, from an orphanage in South Korea. From a young age, Seo has excelled in Twine, the popular, but high-stakes, national sport. Competing alongside some of the world’s best players, Seo crafts fierce creatures to battle his opponents from across the globe, as thousands watch.
Living in a conservative society, Seo is outed by the media, causing great outrage in the Twine community. As Seo struggles to deal with the aftermath with the help of Minjun and his partner Jack, he must also prepare to play one of his toughest matches yet.
This book is written with a multi-narrative, which really enables us to identify with each character as the story unravels. Seo is a reserved and unrevealing character, and this leads to frustration from the other characters as they try to understand what he is thinking. Minjun has a very strong relationship with his brother, and their love is an important theme throughout the book. We also have the contrast of the confusing, complex relationship between Seo and Jack as they both try to understand their feelings for each other.
The Game Weavers is an intriguing tale that explores love, passion, and the struggle with identity, as well as dealing with topics like homophobia and sexism. It blends our world with an exciting, futuristic society, making it a great read for teenagers and young adults.
Brónagh Davis, teen reviewer
The Last Girl
Goldy Moldavsky
Electric Monkey, April 2021
Paperback, 431 pages, £7.99
ISBN 9780755501526
This one is not for the faint-hearted. Rachel Chavez moved to New York to put her past behind her, burying herself in her beloved horror films to forget her own fear. At her elite high school, Rachel doesn’t fit in — until she stumbles across the Mary Shelley Club and joins in on their game. The rules of the game are simple – come up with the best Fear Test, and win. In the Mary Shelley Club, Rachel has finally found her place. But she can’t outrun her past forever, and when it catches up to her, the game becomes deadly.
Moldavsky has knocked this one out of the park. Weaving together a tightly plotted, unpredictable story, she effortlessly captures what it feels like to be a modern teenager, on the outside, and desperately searching for a sense of belonging. The characters are rounded and real, and the writing jumps off the page with authenticity.
I was entirely immersed in Rachel’s narration; believable and relatable and compelling. This book tackles some complex ideas, about owning fear, human nature, and what it means to belong, with a deliciously dark undertone that perfectly matches the pacy plot. One thing is certain — the Mary Shelley Club is addictive. Drawing on popular horror tropes, The Last Girl borrows the meta-horror from Scream and sets it against the high-stakes lifestyle of Gossip Girl. I recommend it for fans of Karen McManus and Chelsea Pitcher, as well as anyone who enjoys a tense, nail-biting chiller-thriller that’s going to stick with them for days after reading.
Deirdre Power
Circle of Shadows
Evelyn Skye
Balzer + Bray, 2019
Paperback, 451 pages, $10.99
ISBN 9780062643735
Ten years after the Blood Rift Rebellion devastated Kichona, Sora and Daemon, newly graduated taigas (magical warriors), receive their first mission — to survey the area around the village of Tanoshi. While there they discover a mysterious encampment and its familiar leader. A magic (ryu) stronger than any the taigas have seen before controls the camp’s inhabitants. Sora and Daemon overhear the leaders plans to murder Empress Aki and race to warn the Council. When the Council don’t believe them Sora and Daemon are forced to return to the camp and face the new enemy themselves.
Blending elements of Japanese and European folklore, Skye brings us a familiar and rounded civilisation in Kichona. Each chapter alternates between young and old characters, giving us a wide view of the world. At times this distracts from the story and flattens the pacing, especially when a character’s viewpoint only appears two or three times, and the reader is left wondering what their purpose is. The use of magic veers between being straight forward spells (taiga magic) and manipulating the environment (ryo magic), accentuating the differences between the two groups of fighters and making the eventual confrontation feel a little one sided. Though, as this is book one in the series this is undoubtedly deliberate. This is a story of love, loyalty and revenge and it is the conflict in the main characters that drives it forward, leaving us wanting to discover more about them as they discover themselves.
Patricia Hayes
The Island
C.L. Taylor
HQ, January 2021
Paperback, 288 pages, £7.99
ISBN 9780008240592
The Island is a thrilling psychological suspense action-packed novel that has you at the edge of your seat, unable to put the book down until you have devoured every page bit by bit. The Island tells the story of six teenagers who go on holiday to Thailand with their families as they have done since they were babies. The six get a Bear Grylls survival-type experience on a deserted island. What could possibly go wrong?
With each day that goes by, everyone gets on everyone’s nerves, secrets are unfolded, lies are told, trust is fractured beyond repair and no one is who they really say they are. Alone on an island, the six must look after themselves after a tragedy occurs to their former guide. The only dilemma I faced when reading this book was it was slightly complex
to remember who was whom but as the story progressed it was easier to identify them. I feel as though the author could have given everyone’s point of view at least once, but it’s certainly not the end of the world.
The writing style of the author is impeccable, with clues and details beautifully maneuvered into the storyline. This story is perfect for fans of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy. The Island features important topics such as death, mental illness, and obsession. Perhaps this book might not work for younger teens or people suffering from mental illness, as it could potentially be a trigger. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to cosy up to a good mystery.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Jefna Shaijo, teen reviewer
11 Paper Hearts
Kelsey Hartwell
Underlined, January 2021
Paperback, 320 pages, $9.99
ISBN 9780593180075
Ella Fitzpatrick is a friendly and bubbly young girl, and her life was going great until she got into a terrible car crash and lost all her memories from 11 weeks before the accident. Almost a year later, she still can’t remember any of it — specifically why she broke up with her then boyfriend. Since her accident she has had mixed feelings toward her lifelong friends. When someone mysteriously starts sending her paper hearts with clues and messages on them, she tries to hunt all the clues down, hoping her lost memories will return to her. There are 11 hearts in total; one for each
week of lost memories.
Ella finds it hard to fit in and return to her normal life after the crash. She wants to live her life to the fullest and do normal teenage things again, so this book will resonate with young readers. Her relationships with her friends and sister grow throughout the book which helps you empathise with her character.
This book is an easy, fast, heart-warming read with a feel-good factor. I thought the book was a bit predictable but that didn’t stop me from reading until the end to see the outcome. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in light-hearted, romantic comedy. I hope there is a sequel to this book and I will be interested in what Kelsey Hartwell will write next.
Saoirse Davis, teen reviewer
The Magic Fish
Trung Le Nguyen
Random House Graphic, 2020
Paperback, 256 pages, £18.99
ISBN 9781984851598
The Magic Fish is, among other things, a great tribute to storytelling and its ability to bring people together. Tiến is a son of Vietnamese immigrants who are struggling to learn English. Due to the language barrier, he cannot find the right
words to share his secret with them. As they navigate their new lives, will fairy tales be enough to bring them together?
This graphic novel is a powerful story in itself, exploring a variety of complex life issues that many people will be able to relate to. Tiến is an adorable character, motivated to find his own identity, even in the face of hardship. His life is a mixture of struggle and joy and the entire novel is a blend of the past, future, and fantasy, cleverly differentiated
with the use of colour. The fairy tales explored in the narrative are oldtime classics we all know and love with an added 
new spin, highlighting different but important lessons. The author connects the fairy-tales and Tiến’s story well, creating an enjoyable flow to the novel. However, towards the second half, certain storyline aspects appeared to have happened out of nowhere, in one or two instances.
Despite that small issue, every page of The Magic Fish was a welcomed surprise. It is done tactfully and with great care, with a powerful storyline and characters, making for a lovely combination. This novel should serve as a reminder that we are the authors of our own stories.
Joanna Kleibauer
We are so excited to launch our fourth issue this Thursday March 25th at 7pm!
We would be thrilled if you joined us to celebrate the amazing new work that we have coming up this issue. Our launch will be held virtually on our YouTube channel here.
We will be joined by some of our contributors who will be reading some of their work and talking about their pieces. We will also be chatting about submissions for issue five and our new book club! It’s gearing up to be a fantastic night. To make sure you don’t miss out, you can even set a reminder on our YouTube channel so that you’re notified when the launch premieres! Click here to check it out.
And don’t forget, you can pre-order issue four now!
We’re really looking forward to the launch and hope you can join us!
A Vow So Bold And Deadly
Brigid Kemmerer
Bloomsbury YA, January 2021
Paperback, 416 pages, $18.99
ISBN 9781547602582
A Vow so Bold and Deadly is the last book in a trilogy. It is a ‘Beauty and the Beast’ retelling set in the world of Emberfall. This book starts us off with the kingdom of Emberfall and the kingdom of Syhl Shallow. They are fighting over which one of their rulers is the true heir to the throne.
The story is told from four of the characters’ perspectives, Rhen, Harper, Lia Mara and Grey. One character, Harper, has cerebral palsy and I feel like that representation is very good, because not many authors write about it as a characteristic of a main character. The characters are very well-developed, and each perspective made me feel like I was them and I had to make the decisions they were making. The plot was really fast-moving and no part of the book felt slow to read.
A good bit of the book was only leading up to the main action. This might not be a bad thing for some, as I really enjoyed reading about every one of the characters and how they spent their day-to-day life. It gave me an insight into how they think, feel, and how they react in situations. Brigid Kemmerer knows how to write her characters to be enjoyable. Another thing that Kemmerer does very well is writing relationships, for example brotherhood. I loved how Rhen and Grey’s relationship develops over time. The end action was a tiny bit rushed for me and I would have liked more detail about what happened after all of it came to an end. The ending, when you find out about a plot twist and everything starts connecting, was very satisfying and very well-written. This was a very beautiful book and it gripped me from the start. I definitely recommend reading it.
Maya Silasi, teen reviewer
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