Collins Flamingo – serie

Compelling drama in which 17-year-old Ellis comes to terms with the meaning of death…Ellis is an ordinary 17-year-old; someone who’s planning to finish school and go to university like any other teenager. The difference is that four months ago, his best friend Simon killed himself. Still – that was four months ago. Ellis has now ‘got over it’.Except, of course, he hasn’t. Returning to his home town, he gets drawn into a situation in which the ‘old’ Ellis would never have become embrangled. He gatecrashes a party and persuaded to ‘rescue’ two sisters – Ursa and Leo, driving them back to the Land of Smiles – the ex-motel where they live.From that moment on, nothing is the same again. The story is narrated hour-by-hour, as Ellis packs a life-time of experiences into the next twenty-four hours. Giving in to high spirits and booze, Ellis wakes next morning in a strange bed, with a stonking hangover and a shaven head! He learns that a child has been kidnapped, and is persuaded to help in her rescue…This is a bizarre, surreal and powerful novel in which the reader is taken on the same roller-coaster ride as Ellis.

Guilt, murder, ghosts – will David and Lily ever escape the past?Recently acquitted of accidently killing his girlfriend but still crucified with guilt, 17-year-old David has moved to Massachusetts to complete his senior year of high school. His aunt and uncle have offered him shelter. His attic apartment in their house is full of ghostly shadows at night, his aunt is cold, and his 11-year-old cousin Lily is hostile. As Lily's behaviour becomes more threatening towards him, David wonders what secrets lurk within Lily. The more he thinks about Lily, the more he is forced to deal with his own past. Is Lily a killer too?

Revenge for a tragedy, a fire twenty-five years ago which killed twenty-two children. Must Denny live forever with his father’s fatal mistake?On Hallowe’en years ago, 16-year-old Denny’s father was involved in a tragic accident that killed 22 children. And it seems one of those children can’t forget.Denny wants to be like other kids his age, but he’s not allowed to drive or answer the phone and his family moves so often he’s always the new kid in school. Then there are the phone calls: every year, they wake Denny up in the middle of the night. And every year, Denny’s father calmly answers. But this year it’s different. It’s been 25 years since the accident.When Denny defies his parents one afternoon and answers the phone, he finds himself drawn into a highly-charged relationship with the mystery caller, someone who haunts his days and nights and threatens a deadly revenge.In this chilling novel, which examines the consequences of a young man’s rebellion against his father’s past, Robert Cormier once again shows himself to be a master of suspense.

16-year-old heiress Marnie’s inability to communicate with the people around her leads to a terrifying ordeal at the hands of an insane kidnapper…16-year-old Marnie Skyedottir is tremendously wealthy and totally alone. The daughter of a superstar who died years ago, Marnie refuses to take part in her oppressive boarding-school community. She would rather burrow away in the dark, comforting world of her favourite Internet adventure game. Especially now that she has started chatting online with one of the other players, an intriguing rogue who calls himself the Elf.But closing herself off from everyone around her doesn't mean that she's safe, as Marnie soon discovers. Kidnapped, locked inside an empty basement cell, Marnie is forced to confront painful truths about herself and her famous mother as she desperately tries to escape her jailer. Oh, how little her cyber-adventure game has prepared her for this real-life dungeon! And how she longs for just one more battle of wits with her mischievous Elf…

Frances Leventhal’s brother Daniel has committed suicide at the exclusive Pettengill School. But there is more to his death than meets the eye…16-year-old Frances Leventhal, half Japanese, half Jewish American, can't bear to look at herself in the mirror. She has hidden from herself and everyone around her for years, and now that her brother Daniel has committed suicide by taking a massive heroine overdose, she can't help thinking that it's all her fault. If she hadn't been so caught up in her own insecurities, maybe she would have noticed her brother's pain. It's time to stop hiding – to reach out to Daniel's friends at their private school, where they were both scholarship pupils. Daniel had been deeply involved in Unity Service, the charitable group famed across the country for its work through schools, and Frances is determined to join the group and somehow make amends.But something's not right about Unity, and soon Frances finds herself in the middle of a puzzle too ominous to ignore. Exactly what are the Unity members trying to conceal? This time, Francis isn't hiding. The memory of her brother is at stake.

It isn't easy dating a prince, especially when that prince is Hamlet. In fact it drives Ophelia to madness… Or does it?Since the death of his father, Hamlet has descended into deep depression. To make matters worse, the Danish court is filled with lies and deceit. Was Hamlet's father murdered by King Claudius? Is Polonius truly the father of Laertes? Who can be trusted as a friend, and who is to be feared as an enemy? Ophelia, with the help of her friends, has to find a way to save her prince and herself. (And all Hamletophiles who read it may well be surprised at the outcome!)

The story of Aisha, teenage mother of two from the New York Projects, who is going nowhere. But when her welfare benefits are stopped, she has to find a job. Chill Wind charts Aisha’s struggle as she transforms herself from workshy teenager to TV star.Aisha is nineteen with two children and a no-good boyfriend. Her idea of the good life is hanging with friends, dancing and chilling to music. But things get a bit too ‘chilly’ when she receives sixty days’ notice of termination of her welfare benefits. No way is Aisha going to do menial work for WorkFare. Then she sees a TV advert for BigModels. Aisha is pretty enough, and big enough, is this the way out for her?

Mesmerising, moving novel from exceptional new author about one girl’s struggle to cope after being wrongly admitted to a boot-camp-style rehabilitation centre. A powerful and page-turning read.Justine is trying to cope with the desperate loneliness she feels now her twin brother, Joshua, no longer lives at home. After trying to drown her feelings with her first ever experiment with alcohol, she is woken early by her mother one Sunday morning. Bundled into the car by her livid parents, Justine is driven to Come Clean, a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts and alcoholics. Confused, vulnerable and covered with vomit from her first hangover, Justine is forcibly admitted to cure her “addiction”.There she begins a strict boot-camp routine of humiliation and discipline, where they attempt to strip her of her identity in order to rebuild her a better person. Justine escapes the daily torture at the centre by talking to Joshua in her head, reflecting back on their childhood and trying to puzzle out why her brother was a tortured soul… and why he chose to leave her.Because of the intensely personal nature of the narrative, this book engages the reader instantly and, however tough the subject matter, it is a real page-turner. At its heart, Come Clean is about a girl's inability to deal her grief and her family’s ignorance of her pain. Justine shows strength, resilience, courage and hope while living a nightmare reality.This is a book which should and will attract controversy, as teenagers and society struggle to identify the problems and the treatment for drug and other teenage addictions.

Catherine isn’t sure who she is. The hardworking student? The dutiful daughter? Or someone else entirely? Catherine, Cat, Cath – which is the real person? A gripping study of teenage pressure and identity.Catherine is a typical A-grade student from a middle class, high-achieving family, who suddenly, on entering the sixth form, loses her way. She stumbles from one situation to another, unable to work and turning to alcohol to take her mind off her problems. As she searches for answers through the varied and offbeat characters she meets, she learns a great many truths about life. Can she cope with the biggest truth of all – her own personality?Written in the first person, each chapter is addressed to someone different in Catherine’s life – her mother, a teacher, a schoolfriend etc, and reflects how Catherine is different to different people. It brilliantly reflects the pressures on young people today in a world where they haven’t got the time to grow up at their own pace. Is the face we present to the world our true self, or a carefully maintained construct?