Three Strikes

By Author / Illustrator

Lucy Christopher

Genre

Adventure

Age range(s)

11+

Publisher

Firefly Press Ltd

ISBN

9781910080863

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

11-10-2018

Synopsis

A chilling collection of three novellas from YA authors Lucy Christopher, Kat Ellis and Rhian Ivory. Three Strikes is a collection of three novellas from three star YA authors: 'The Darkness' by Lucy Christopher: Everyone has disappeared. Ebony writes by candlelight. Is she the only one left? Then she spots a red light blinking at her from the darkness. A camera? 'The Twins of Blackfin' by Kat Ellis is a prequel to the popular Blackfin Sky. Every evening Bo visits her best friend Sky's grave. One night she hears a girl's voice. Following it leads her to a journal and a crypt. 'Matchstick Girl' by Rhian Ivory is a modern YA retelling of The Little Match Girl. Out busking, runaway Nia is mugged and left badly hurt in a tunnel. All she has is three matches, and she starts seeing pictures in the light... A story of grief, love and music.i?1/4i?1/4i?1/4

Reviews

Three Strikes is a collection of three different stories aimed at YA. All three are very different and may not appeal to everyone but all have a chilling and eerie theme. The Darkness is about a group of young people who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law, they have joined 'The Tribe' which is an immersive psychological programme based on a tropical island, but all is not how it seems. When Kasha realises they are not actually on reality TV and people start disappearing, it is a race against time to escape. The story covers current themes like drug and people trafficking. The Twins of Blackfin was my favourite of the three stories, simply because I do like my fiction a little darker. Bo is a young girl who lives in the town of Blackfin where many unexplained events happen, but no one questions why. She is grieving the recent death of her best friend, Skye, and has taken to visiting the cemetery late at night when she first notices that people are acting strangely. She decides to investigate which brings her into contact with the mysterious and ghostly twins, Edina and Bruno. The woods are out of bounds and there is a Penny Well which snatches coins from your pockets if you get too close to it, but Bo has to break the rules to find out what's really going on. The last story, Matchgirl, is based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl. 'Matchgirl' Nia lives with her father and they are both struggling to cope with the death of her mother in a car accident. Nia's father has eliminated all traces of her mother from the home and bans Nia from playing music; her mother was a talented singer and musician. When Nia gets in trouble for bunking off school, her dad stops her attending the choir Winter Festival Tour. This makes Nia determined to get away from him and reclaim her place on the tour. Her best friend Sol has reluctantly been storing her mum's guitar at his house and Nia uses it to busk whenever she is sure that her dad isn't around. However, things don't work out as planned and Nia realises that her dad has her best interests at heart. These stories would appeal to older girls and boys who enjoy thrillers and stories with a dark edge to them. I would recommend it for ages 14+. 320 pages / Ages 14+ / Reviewed by Amanda Allen, school librarian.