Twenty Questions for Gloria

By Author / Illustrator

Martyn Bedford

Genre

Adventure

Age range(s)

11+

Publisher

Walker Books Ltd

ISBN

9781406363531

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

04-02-2016

Synopsis

Two go missing. One comes back.

Gloria is tired of her ordinary life. She barely recognizes the free-spirited girl she used to be in the unadventurous teenager she has become. So when a mysterious boy bent on breaking the rules strolls into her classroom, Gloria is ready to fall under his spell. Uman is funny, confident and smart. He does whatever he likes and doesn't care what anyone thinks of him. The only people for him are the mad ones, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing but burn, burn, burn. He is everything Gloria wishes to be. He can whisk her away from the life she loathes and show her a more daring, more exciting one, in which the only limits are the boundaries of her own boldness. But Uman in not all he seems and by the time she learns the truth about him, she is a long way from home and everyone wants to know, Where's Gloria?

Reviews

Twenty Questions for Gloria: Two go missing. One comes back. Which already invites a couple of questions: who goes missing? Why does one come back? and for that matter which one comes back?This is a story about Gloria; tired of her ordinary life, starting to question the point of it all, the endless monotony of school and the tedium of existence. Cue mysterious boy. He enters her classroom and acts in a way she wishes she could. Unbound by convention, unconcerned by opinions of others. He's everything her life isn't, he breezes in with no explanation and breezes out - and the seeds of their friendship are sown. By the time she learns the truth about him, Gloria is a long way from home. The story starts in a police interview and flips between the interview and the events leading up to it. The narration is clever, holding back just enough at each turn to maintain the intrigue. It's a well-told, enjoyable story with rounded characters that I really want a happy ending for - and will gladly recommend! The proof copy had a guide of 12+ which I'd agree with. I struggle to place it in a genre, the blurb calls it a psychological thriller... 304 pages / Ages 12+ / Reviewed by Catherine Purcell, librarian.