The 'X Isle' factor

YOUNG ADULTS: IF REVIEWING books teaches you anything, it's that you really should never judge a book by its cover – or its blurb.

Steve Augarde's new book, X Isle(David Fickling Books, £14.99), comes with an ugly cover with a blurb so cheesily melodramatic it should be declaimed by that man with the booming voice who narrates film trailers. The novel itself is much more interesting. Set in a very near future in which catastrophic floods have submerged most of Britain, it's the story of a boy called Baz, who gets a chance to go to the "island", a supposedly safe place run by salvagers. But the island turns out to be a harsh place, run by the messianic Preacher John and his cruel family, who force the boys who live there to work like slaves. It's a gripping and often unsettling tale, and it's suffused with a sense of genuine loss; amid all the action the characters are still grieving for their families and suburban lives.

There's more death and destruction in Bernard Ashley's No Way to Go(Orchard Books, £5.99), the story of a teenage girl who suspects her brother's fatal fall from a tower block was not an accident. Set in a south London filled with gangs and violence, it's a taut thriller, and with its gritty subject matter and clear prose it could win over reluctant readers.

Or if that's too gloomy, you can always head to Egypt with LJ Adlington's The Glittering Eye(Hodder, £5.99). Amy is there visiting her father, an archaeologist who presents a popular television show, when she discovers an ancient tomb. But what is the connection between the tomb and Shabti, a boy who wakes up without a memory and discovers he is a slave working for a mysterious lady? What originally looks like a conventional time-slip novel takes some unexpected, and intriguing, turns into Egyptian mythology.

Teenage siblings Zach and Annis are also far from home in A Trick of the Dark(Bloomsbury, £7.99), an uneven supernatural thriller by BR Collins. Following the revelation of their father's affair, the whole family has decamped to the French countryside in an attempt to restore familial harmony. But when Zach is trapped under a fallen building and emerges unscathed, Annis realises something very strange has happened to the brother she has always worshipped. Why can he no longer feel pain? And why is he being followed by a mysterious boy whose face is never quite visible? The chapters in which Annis tries to figure out what exactly is going on are compelling and deliciously creepy, but the revelation of what has happened to Zach is disappointing, and the book slowly starts to run out of steam. However, the relationship between the siblings is well observed, and the conclusion packs an emotional punch.

Family relationships of a very different kind are at the heart of Irish author Oisín McGann's entertaining new novel, The Wisdom of Dead Men(Corgi, £6.99), the second book about the murderous Wildenstern family. Set in a Victorian Ireland in which Cylon-esque living machines – the delightfully-named engimals – are commonplace, it sees the few non-violent members of the Wildenstern clan investigating the spontaneous combustion of women around Ireland, all of whom seem to have connections to the family. As a rollicking steampunk adventure it's great fun; as a historical novel it's less successful. References to Fenians and tenant-farmer evictions aren't enough to create a convincing Victorian world. Nevertheless, despite the odd cringe-inducing moments, I couldn't put it down.

Bali Rai's City of Ghosts(Doubleday, £12.99) is a historical adventure of a very different kind. It's 1919, and political tensions are brewing in the Indian city of Amritsar. The demand for independence grows, and the British Raj is prepared to respond with force. Young orphan Jeevan is drawn to the rebels, while his best friend, Gurdial, is besotted with an unreachable girl. And Bissen Singh, a recently returned first World War veteran, is also more concerned with love than revolution. While Rai's prose is sometimes a bit leaden, the subject matter is fascinating, especially the glimpses into the lives of Indian soldiers in the Great War. A worthy but worthwhile novel.

Anna Carey is a freelance journalist