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LATEST ISSUE OF
Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus talks to Chris Pavone about The Accident, his latest thriller in which ordinary lives are thrust into spectacular jeopardy.
Kirkus Star
THE KIRKUS STAR
Awarded to Books of Exceptional Merit


Books by Melvin Burgess

THE HIT by Melvin Burgess
TEEN
Released: Feb. 25, 2014
by Melvin Burgess
"Refreshingly rooted in the issues of the day, Burgess' near-future thriller stands out. (Dystopian thriller. 15-18)"
After 20 years of economic recession, the gaps between England's rich and poor are wider and starker than ever. Read full book review >
NICHOLAS DANE by Melvin Burgess
FICTION
Released: Dec. 7, 2010
by Melvin Burgess
"A small note of hope ends this gripping but harsh tale. (Historical fiction. 15 & up)"
Coming from England, this bleak, violent, slang-inflected street saga exposes the machinations of power and villainy in Manchester's social services and criminal underworld. Read full book review >
SARA’S FACE by Melvin Burgess
FICTION
Released: May 8, 2007
by Melvin Burgess
"Read in daylight. (Fiction. YA)"
A fictional "novelist doing a journalist's job" maintains stunning suspense as he conducts interviews with the secondary players in a world-famous gruesome crime. Read full book review >
DOING IT by Melvin Burgess
FAMILY AND GROWING UP
Released: June 1, 2004
by Melvin Burgess
"The point is that this, like sex, is all about good dirty fun. (Fiction. 12+)"
A trio of British teens fantasize, agonize, masturbate, grope, kiss, feel up, and shag their way through one seemingly endless school year in which traditional teen-novel concerns are entirely thrown over for sex. Read full book review >
THE GHOST BEHIND THE WALL by Melvin Burgess
FAMILY AND GROWING UP
Released: April 1, 2003
by Melvin Burgess
"Whether the device of the ghost truly moves beyond artifice is questionable—but the loveliness of the relationship between the young and the very old, and the very real meeting of the minds therein, is spot-on. (Fiction. 9-12)"
A bored boy finds diversion and danger in the ventilation ducts of his apartment building. Read full book review >
BLOODTIDE by Melvin Burgess
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
Released: Nov. 1, 2001
by Melvin Burgess
"Relentlessly inventive."
Burgess won the Carnegie Medal for Smack (1998), his searing fiction about adolescent drug addiction, but his perhaps best-known work is the novel (made into the recent film) Billy Elliot. Read full book review >
LADY by Melvin Burgess
ANIMALS
Released: May 1, 2001
Kirkus Star
by Melvin Burgess
"It is that reader who must wonder and decide which side of the evolutionary fence to inhabit and therefore benefit from this intensely observed cautionary tale. (Fiction. YA)"
"A dog's days are short, but his moments are pure." Read full book review >
SMACK by Melvin Burgess
FICTION
Released: May 1, 1998
by Melvin Burgess
"Based on actual people and incidents, this harrowing tale is as compellingly real as it is tragic. (glossary) (Fiction. 13-16)"
In a Carnegie Medal—winning novel (under the UK title, Junk) that cuts to the bone, Burgess puts a group of teenage runaways through four nightmarish years of heroin addiction. Read full book review >
THE EARTH GIANT by Melvin Burgess
FAMILY AND GROWING UP
Released: Oct. 13, 1997
by Melvin Burgess
"The giant, in her silent relationship with Amy, is a marvelous creation, and the story rockets to its exciting conclusion with a gleaming sense of otherworldliness. (Fiction. 8-12)"
 A wonderfully cinematic adventure about a small girl and the giant she discovers under a tree, and the reuniting of that giant—only a child herself—with her parents. Read full book review >
AN ANGEL FOR MAY by Melvin Burgess
FICTION
Released: June 1, 1995
by Melvin Burgess
"Thoroughly satisfying. (Fiction/fantasy. 10-14)"
 A well-crafted time-travel novel. Read full book review >
THE CRY OF THE WOLF by Melvin Burgess
ANIMALS
Released: Oct. 21, 1992
by Melvin Burgess
"There's more food for confusion than for thought in this savage hunt and its ambiguous outcome. (Fiction. 11-13)"
 A boy lets slip to a stranger known as ``The Hunter'' that there are wolves near his family's Surrey farm. Read full book review >