Arabesque [Paperback]

This is going to be a fairly short review (honest!). Not only because I am trying to cut back on the length of my ramblings, but also because I have some frustrations regarding this book that I can't go on about too much as I would be creating massive spoilers.

I haven't (yet) read Colin Mulhern's debut YA novel, Clash, although on the strength of this one I am definitely going to try to find the time in the not-too-distant future. Crime is definitely becoming one of the genres of the moment for young adults, and Colin Mulhern is up there with the rest of the crowd as far as the quality of his writing and his characters are concerned. Arabesque is a gritty crime thriller that if televised would sit very well as a post watershed drama. It has a cracking fast-paced storyline, and I absolutely loved the main character Amy May.

Amy has been brought up by her father to be someone who strives to be the best at whatever she does. This does not just include her promising career as a potential Olympic gymnast - in the early chapters of the book we are given hints that her father has for some reason brought her up to be able to look after herself, be it through hand-to-hand combat or even with a firearm. Initially we can only guess as to why this might be, but as the story progresses we are drip-fed occasional morsels of information that add to Amy's slightly unusual upbringing.

A botched crime leads to Amy and her best friend Mia being kidnapped. Unfortunately for the girls, the group that kidnap them are more than a little inept, and they very quickly find themselves at the mercy of Andrew Galloway, a far more ruthless career criminal. Galloway has plans for Amy, and in order to ensure that she follows them he separates her from Mia, who is taken away to a place where more than her life is at risk. Amy has to decide - will she try to protect her friends by carrying out Galloway's diabolical plan? Or will she forget Mia and try to save her own skin?

I mentioned at the start of this review that I harboured a number of frustrations regarding Arabesque. Before I go on to them I just want to state that I loved the majority of this book. I found it exciting and tense, and think it would make a great read for older teens - it does deal with some fairly adult themes that would make it unsuitable for younger teens. However, there were also one or two things I took issue with. The first of these was a major coincidence that enters the story a handful of chapters before the end. Some might call it a major twist (I saw it coming a mile off), and following some time reflecting over it I can just about accept it, and on its own I think it would have gone pretty much ignored in this review. However, something happens at the very end of the book that in my opinion just does not make any sense at all. I'm trying to explain myself a bit more without creating spoilers, and I think the best I can say is that a character ends up somewhere that they really should not be. There is just no reasonable explanation for this character's presence at this stage of the story. Unless of course, I have missed something completely in the earlier part of the story.

And that's all I can say about it. Please read the book - it is well worth your time - but I would love to know if anyone out there shares my opinion.

Quite honestly I loved this book. I always find catnip titles are a little bit different with unique ideas and more than one thing that makes them special and this offering is no exception.

I really enjoyed meeting and getting to know the main character Amy. She is a gymnast who has the potential to be Olympic standard once she turns 16 and has both a quiet confidence and enough humility to know that she has to to work hard if she wants to continue to to achieve at a world class standard which comes from a mantra her father drilled into her about being her best.

The book starts dramatically with Amy and her friend Mia being kidnapped by a crew of criminals who a desperate to extort cash from Amy's mother. I enjoyed seeing how Amy overcomes all panic to focus clearly on doing what needs to done to keep her and Mia alive whilst thinking outside the box to try and make the most out of any opportunity that might arise to get free.

Despite their best efforts to escape Amy and Mia end up split up by their captors with Amy being forced into participating in the theft of an expensive painting and Mia ends up in a seedy house where the girls are involved in some kind of seedy photographing business. What I really liked about this book was that it wasn't afraid to pull its punches. The story gets gritty and nasty in places which is something some YA authors can shy away from. I was actually left feeling incredibly uncomfortable at places but I loved that the book was able to make me feel that way.

The story itself throws out loads of twists and turns once the action gets going and I didn't see any of them coming at all. The action was jaw dropping and the end left me a sobbing mess.

Think Liam Neeson's Taken for a YA audience with a young gymnast as the main character. A cracking and surprising read which I thoroughly enjoyed.

If either Martina Cole or Lynda La Plante wrote Young Adult fiction, this is the kind of book they would produce. I 'm serious, it was like watching one of the BBC dramas unfold on television where as each layer of the story is revealed, an unsuspecting surprise pops out catapulting the story into a completely different direction. I went without sleep to read this book and that very rarely happens these days. I want to petition the BBC to make it into a film, with Ray Winstone as a definite candidate for one of the main characters.
If I had a hundred copies of this book, I would be handing it out like candy. It really is a must read that will have you gripped and breathless. This book is like entering an East End version of the Twilight zone. You start with one kind of story and whoosh in a downward spiral into another which you are totally unprepared for. I couldn't have predicted how this story would end in a million years. I have to give the author immense praise for such an excellent well written book.
I loved Amy! I thought she was an amazing and strong willed character who could take on any of the kiss ass fantasy heroines presently slaying their way through the fiction world at the moment. Amy is calculated - everything she does is carefully thought through in the first place - there are many layers to this character and you watch in amazement as her real personality shines through. Amy reminded me of Catherine Zeta Jones in Entrapment; she had that calculated view of life.
I refuse to mention any of the plot as I would end up giving away spoilers. This book is best served without prior knowledge of the plot!
This book is a really gritty read and very compelling, even shocking at times. I was so drawn into the drama I often found myself skipping words and sentences as I was desperate to find out what happened in the end.
I went through a roller coaster of emotions which left me gasping for air by the end. I can't gush about this book enough. It is definitely one of my favourite reads this year.