John Dies at the End felt very much like a book that was written in pieces without a particular goal in mind, with weird episodic sections that didn't always tie together too neatly.  This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It comes together much more tightly, with a plot that's (mostly) coherent and character motivations that make a little more sense.

After the events of the previous novel, things haven't really settled down much in the town of "Undisclosed".  It's still a terrible town, with nothing much to recommend it.  David and John still are useless layabouts.  Only now, and infestation of weird spider-like parasites are taking over and zombifying people.  With humans mutating into super-killers and a government unable to quell the fears of the nation, the infected are quarantined in the hospital where they think the outbreak began.  Obviously David and John know better.

This book is slightly less insane than the first, but what it loses in crazy it picks up with a better story, even if it feels like a messed up comedy version of the Walking Dead.  There are still the swears and the reference to drug use as in the first, but it feels tamer, more accessible.  You certainly need to have read the first book to understand why John and David are special, and why David's dog Molly seems unusually clever.

One day in the near future, plans for a dimensional transporter are released for free on the internet, something so easy and so cheap that children can build it.  When you flip the switch, you move over to another Earth, almost exactly the same as ours except people never evolved leaving it in its unadulterated state.  Flip it again and you go to the next one, on and on.  You can go in two directions, sort of like the number line with positive and negative numbers.  This instantly solves most of Earth's resource problems and overcrowding issues.  There are some minor inconveniences: you can't bring iron in metallic form, and you get pretty nauseous for a while after "stepping". But other than that, the worlds are there for the taking.

There is one man who can do this without a device, totally on his own, and he is famous for having stepped farther than anyone else, thousands of Earths away.  When he gets back to the "real" Earth, his is commissioned by a Tibetan mechanic reincarnated into a supercomputer to go on the longest expedition yet.

They find more than they expect.  There are others out there moving towards our Earth, and they are running from something...

The Long Earth has a classic science fiction feel: this is a story of exploration.  There is no action set pieces, no major violent incidents with lasers and giant spaceships.  (There are in fact no spaceships, though there is a resourceful super-robot.)  This is the first part of a two-part story, and it shows.  It feels like the authors are leading up to something that never quite arrives, but a planned follow up should satisfy those points.  As a reader familiar with Terry Pratchett's work, I can tell which bits are his, but this is nothing like his usual work.  I can't speak to Stephen Baxter's contribution, though this may lead me to read some of his stuff.

Lisa McMann, author of the popular teen series The Wake Trilogy, moved into the kidlit world with her Unwanteds series. The first book, which came out in August 2011, introduced us to a town called Quill where creativity is forbidden and anyone showing signs of it will be named an "unwanted" and sent to die at the Death Farm. Alex, one of the Unwanteds, thought he's going to die at the age of 13, unlike his twin brother Aaron, who is going to attend a prestigious university to be trained to be a government official. Instead, Alex discovered the secret world of Artime, right next door to Quill but cloaked by magic, where residents embrace their creative powers, train them up and transform them into combat skills. At the end of the first book, with the archvillain defeated and the Quill government overthrown, there's no need to hide Artime anymore.

The second book begins with Alex struggling with his new responsibilities and believing in himself, being singled out as a possible successor to his mentor Marcus, the creator of Artime. Meanwhile, his twin Aaron, who has lost all power because of the co-existence of Quill and Artime, is plotting his revenge against his brother and all of Artime by inciting all the disgruntled Quill residents.  And in the midst of the brewing conflict are a boy and a girl, who came to Artime unconscious on a sinking raft, each of them wearing "a thick band made of metal thorns that weave(s) in and out of the skin around their necks". Where did these mysterious visitors come from?

Even though the promo quote on the cover says this book is "Hunger Games meets Harry Potter", the magical part is more prevalent throughout the two books. Awesome covers and generous spacing between lines will appeal to readers who like fantasy but don't want to feel overwhelmed, and once the story is set into motion, it is non-stop action and chaos and you can't read fast enough to find out what is going to happen next and who can be trusted. It does take some time for things to get started, but I think the characters are likable enough that you wouldn't mind getting to know them a bit more. Eagerly waiting for the third book.

Will and His father have a strange pastime -- they like to dig. All their lives they have dreamed of uncovering something spectacular and of great archeological significance-- and perhaps even become famous in the process. But Will realizes that their seemingly harmless pastime may be more dangerous than they think when his father suddenly goes mysteriously missing. Will thinks something suspicious is going on -- especially with all the strange pale-faced men in dark coats walking around his neighbourhood. So Will and his friend, Chester, begin where his father is most likely to have gone: underground. It is then that they find a hidden underworld governed by the Styx, a murderous subterranean race who want to extend their rule to the world above. Unfortunately Will and Chester are captured before they can return home. 

The book is slow to start (which might lose some readers), but once Will finds the underground world, the pace picks up and there are plenty of chase scenes, fights and tense moments. I found the tone quite dark and serious, which made things suspenseful and more scary. Gordon does a good job of creating the underworld and the bad guys. I've always felt the antagonist(s) of a story play a large part in making the plot exciting. If they're not evil enough, why would you care if the characters got away or not? In this case, the Styx were terrible enough to keep me rooting for Will...

I wouldn't recommend this to readers looking for immediate action since it takes so long for the excitement to start, but those who don't mind sticking around longer will probably get hooked on the series, as it really does have a good plot and ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. And while it's categorized as children's fiction, the dark storyline would probably make it suitable for young teens too.

This is the first in the series of six books (five have been published so far). Visit the Tunnels website for info on the sequels, plus special documents (e.g. Will's journal) and deleted scenes.

(We're going to take a reader's suggestion (thanks!) and start reviewing books for the preteen crowd too. Here's our first review.) 

"It was over coffee and biscuits that Grandma Ives offered to return Cameron’s father from the dead."
Okay, who can resist and is not be intrigued by a first line like that?

When his dad was found dead by the beach, Cameron went to live with his grandma, whom he's met maybe once or twice. Before they get to know each other, she offers to resurrect his dad.
Grandma Ives is not your ordinary grandmother type. There is nothing warm and fuzzy about her, but she does know about The Daemon Parallel, a hidden world that co-exists with Edinburgh, and she knows spells that can raise the dead. That's just what Cameron needs. He misses his dad, and he wants to figure out the cause of his mysterious death, but first, we'll have to see if Cameron has inherited the special powers that will enable him to travel back and forth between the two worlds, to deal with the daemons, and to help his grandma get the right ingredients to complete the resurrection spell.

This impressive debut novel has just the right blend of action, mystery, adventure, magic, supernatural, humour and character development.  Most of all, I was surprised at how "right sounding" the voice of Cameron is. The things he said are exactly the kinds of stuff I'd expect a kid to say. Despite the title and perhaps the cover, the book doesn't rely on just grossness or goriness to carry the story, even though you will encounter many daemons in the book, and underneath all the fantastical elements is a boy who is trying to figure out if he's doing the right thing or not. And what a gutsy ending! Not going to spoil it for you, but throughout the book, I was thinking, is the author really going to do that? No way. It's just a red herring I'm sure. No, wait, he's really going there. Nice.

I don't know if you can ever get used to seeing dead people, but after so many years, Callum at least knows to expect them and not be too surprised by their appearances.  You know what is scarier than seeing ghosts though?  It's not seeing them all of a sudden. Callum was walking home through the forest and there were always ghosts gathering there, but today, nothing. It's dead silent. Then as he tried to hurry home, he heard a piercing howl. He had no interest in finding out what could be so terrifying that even the ghosts had to hide.
Callum started running.
When he got inside and had calmed himself down, he thought perhaps he'd imagined it all.  Afterall, it could just be all that murder talk he'd been hearing about all day.  The kids were discussing the gruesome details today...something about the victims' eyes being torn out and stuff. He's sure a good night sleep would make everything better, but of course, you already know that is not going to happen.
The cover, as you can see, is a bit over the top, but it is a decent page-turning horror story, which is hard to come by in books for that late elementary / early high school group. The "hunt" begins almost right away, and it's hard to stop reading as you watch this nightmare unfolds for Callum, his grandma and his new friend Melissa. The murders are pretty gory, but the scariest scene is definitely when Callum literally comes face to face with the hunter with just the window of his house between the two. It's bone-chilling scary.  The characters are okay, but I'm sure character development is not the key here,which is just fine for this type of story.