Most Popular Books by Melvin Burgess

It was a love story. Me, Gemma and junk. I thought it was going to last forever. Tar loves Gemma, but Gemma doesn''t want to be tied down. She wants to fly. But no one can fly forever. One day, finally, you have to come down. Melvin Burgess’ most ambitious and complex novel is a vivid depiction of a group of teenagers in the grip of addiction. Told from multiple viewpoints, Junk is a powerful, unflinching novel about heroin. Once you take a hit, you will never be the same again. ''Everyone should read Junk'' The Times

Dino''s girlfriend won''t give him what he wants. Jonathon is afraid of what his mates will think of the girl he likes. And Ben is having extra lessons from his sexy teacher. Three seventeen-year-old boys discover sex for the first time: but do they really know what they’re doing?

The new hope of the Volson clan, Sigurd, battles a highly advanced, gold-hoarding dragon, resulting in his fall into the underworld. But hope remains as Sigurd encounters his true love, Bryony, and accepts his destiny to reunite England.

Tam is unhappy at home and often takes refuge in the ruins of Thowt It Farm. But then one day he is transported back to the Second World War. Alone and afraid, he makes friends with May, who has been rescued from a bombed-out house. She tries to persuade him to stay at the farm, but Tam is afraid of being trapped in the past forever.

PART II Fifteen-year-old Sigurd, son of King Sigmund, is the last surviving member of the Volson clan. His father''s kingdom -- the former city of London -- is gone. And his father''s knife, a gift from Odin himself, has been shattered to dust. Now, Odin''s eye is upon him. Armed with a powerful sword forged from the remnants of his father''s knife, Sigurd will face death, fire, and torment. He must travel through Hel and back...to unite his country once again.

A hunter determined to wipe out every wolf in England almost succeeds, but then finds himself the prey.

“This fantasy about a drug that gives users a perfect week, then sudden death, is compelling fiction—and nearly a masterpiece.” —The Guardian A new drug is on the street. Everyone’s buzzing about it. Take the hit. Live the most intense week of your life. Then die. It’s the ultimate high at the ultimate price. Adam thinks it over. He’s poor, and doesn’t see that changing. Lizzie, his girlfriend, can’t make up her mind about sleeping with him, so he can’t get laid. His brother Jess is missing. And Manchester is in chaos, controlled by drug dealers and besieged by a group of homegrown terrorists who call themselves the Zealots. Wouldn’t one amazing week be better than this endless, penniless misery? After Adam downs one of the Death pills, he’s about to find out. “A boundary pushing thriller. . . . Amid violent action, existential anguish, and the heightened appreciation for life that death can bring, Burgess has created a premise that readers will find hard to forget.” —Publishers Weekly “Viscerally exciting and emotionally engaging. . . . A clear winner from Burgess.” —Booklist “An exciting, dark story of sex, drugs, and revolution that is sure to grip readers.” —School Library Journal

If you gotta be a dog, be a bitch. "My tail was going bananas as I rounded the corner and headed into Platt Fields park. The pavement was alive; my nose was an eye that sees into the past. I speeded up. Oh, I was in love with Terry, but to run and sniff and feel my ears catching sounds out of the air! But what do you know? Only a dog could understand what I mean." Sandra Francy is seventeen and having way too much fun. Everyone wants to stop her but the problem is, she likes it. When she accidentally gets turned into a dog she''s horrified at first, but soon she starts to wonder if being human is worth the effort. Her attempts to hang on to her humanity are bizarre and often hilarious-but her life as a dog leads her to pleasures she hardly knew existed. Award-winning author Melvin Burgess brilliantly captures the realities of teenage life and hormone imbalance.

The Bloods are in control and they’re desperate to turn Britain into the world they want to see: right, white, Christian supremist. Anyone who they call abnormal is a target. Amidst the chaos of civil war the country is on the move as small militia groups fight each other and a sea of refugees escapes the cities and the pursuing Bloods. When her home is destroyed in a bombing raid, Marti must strike out on a mission of her own - to save her father and get his vital software into the right hands. But Marti is mixed race and trans and has her young brother in tow. Crossing into enemy territory could prove suicidal. Yet Marti''s enemies haven''t reckoned with her indomitable will to survive - and the gun she carries, which has three bullets . . .

Brandon is a boaster – he says he is brilliant at lots of things. Then he is challenged to count up to ten million. So Brandon starts: one, two, three . . . and before long he is up to one thousand. Everyone around him is bewildered and annoyed: his friend Waris, his teachers and Miss Hexx, the head. But Brandon can’t stop counting. And the higher he counts, the more everyone takes an interest, when Brandon reaches 30,000 he goes viral, by the time he gets to one million, he has a manager and a stadium full of fans counting with him. And then strange, impossible things start happening. The numbers are taking over everything . . . A fun and contemporary story about rise and fall of celebrity, and ultimately staying true to yourself.

After running away from their troubled homes, two English teenagers move in with a group of squatters in the port city of Bristol and try to find ways to support their growing addiction to heroin.

Award-winning author Melvin Burgess''s thrilling new ghost story for younger readers. David screamed and the ghostly boy opened his mouth and screamed back. But his scream wasn''t the scream of a child—it was the scream of an old, old man. "Come back, come back," screamed the ghost in his cracked old voice. "Don''t leave me. Don''t go!" Twelve-year-old David lives with his dad in a big old apartment building called Mahogany Villas. When he discovers he can climb through the vent pipes in the building and get into other apartments and play tricks on people, he simply can''t resist. His main victim is Robert Alveston, a forgetful man in his nineties who is afraid that he is losing his mind. But David''s nasty pranks soon disturb more than his elderly neighbor. One day he comes face-to-face with a ghost, at first friendly but more and more terrifying as it becomes clear that he has a particular grudge against Mr Alveston. Soon both the old man and David are in great danger. "An ultimately poignant adventure that will captivate British author Burgess'' fans." - Booklist

Everyone says fourteen-year-old BILLIE is nothing but trouble. A fighter. A danger to her family and friends. But her care worker sees someone different. Her classmate ROB is big, strong; he can take care of himself and his brother. But his violent stepdad sees someone to humiliate. And CHRIS is struggling at school; he just doesn''t want to be there. But his dad sees a useless no-hoper. Billie, Rob and Chris each have a story to tell. But there are two sides to every story, and the question is . . . who do you believe?

Bea has started to hear and see things that no one else can – creatures, voices, visions. Then strangers visit Bea and tell her she is different: she has the rare powers of a witch. They warn her she is being hunted. Her parents think she is hallucinating and needs help. All Bea wants to do is get on with her life, and to get closer to Lars, the mysterious young man she has met at the skate park. But her life is in danger, and she must break free. The question is – who can she trust? Carnegie Medal-winner Melvin Burgess returns with a powerful, thrilling fantasy for young adults about magic, myth and following your instincts.

From the critically acclaimed and best-selling author of Smack comes a middle-grade tale of adventure and cunning in the spirit of Treasure Island Victorian London in the 1850''s: Jamie, Ten Tons and Davies are young "mudlarks"--scavengers who eke out a meager existence by reclaiming bits of coal, rope, and anything of value from the muddy banks of the River Thames. Anything they find might keep them from starving for one more day. When they see a massive roll of copper fall off a ship, the trio comes up with a daring plan to retrieve it and make their fortunes. But can three small boys alone retrieve the impossibly heavy copper from the bottom of the Thames? They resolve to find a way--or die trying.

Captures the immense power that the image of the witch wielded over early 17th century English minds. 10 yrs+.

With the trickster, Loki, as your guide, journey to the ancient forests of Scandinavia and bear witness to the legends of Norse mythology. Starting with the Norse creation myths, the trickster god Loki takes the reader on a wild ride through Norse mythology, from the era when the gods—the founders of Asgard—defeated a race of monsters, and then hurtles through legendary stories, including Odin hanging himself on the World Tree, the theft of the corrupting gold ring, and the murder of Baldr, the god of love and the sun. Born within the heart of a fire in the hollow of a tree-trunk, Loki arrives in Asgard as an outsider. He is a trickster, an unreliable narrator, the god of intelligence and politics. In spite of his cleverness and sparkling wit (or, perhaps, because of this), Loki struggles to find his place among the old patriarchal gods of supernatural power and is constantly at odds with the god of thunder—Thor. Alongside the politics of Asgard, the novel charts the course of Loki''s many loves and families, from his mothering of Odin''s famous horse to his intense, turbulent, and, eventually fatal relationship with Baldr the Beautiful—a tender and moving story of a love that goes wrong. This is a retelling that is contemporary in tone, at once amusing and relatable. It is a heartfelt plea to overthrow the old gods of power and authority and instigate a new era ruled by love and intelligence.

Fame, beauty, and face transplants Sara wants to be famous, and when legendary rock star Jonathon Heat offers to take her under his wing and pay for her cosmetic surgery, it''s like a dream come true. But beauty comes with a hidden price tag. Is Sara willing to pay?

When fourteen-year-old Nicholas Dane''s mother dies, social services sends him to a home for boys where intimidation and violence keep order. After a number of fights and brutal punishments, Nick thinks that life can''t possibly get any worse . . . until he realizes that the home''s respected deputy head, who has been grooming him with sweets and solace, has something more frightening in mind. Acclaimed writer and truth-teller Melvin Burgess brings us, with Dickensian scope and compelling narrative drive, his most ambitious book yet.

Someone mad was screaming at them from the upstairs window of a house next to the station. It was a girl. ''Oh, that''s April. Don''t mind her...Deaf and dumb, see.''Abandoned by his father to a life of poverty, Tony is angry with everyone, and desperately lonely. April Dean, the deaf girl, needs friends too. But their growing relationship arouses deep prejudices which threaten to engulf not only Tony and April but also the whole village. This moving and powerful love story is about two very different people, worlds apart.

Billy''s mother is dead, and his father and brother are fiercely involved in a bitter miners'' fight that has split the local community. Billy''s father wants his son to learn boxing, like he did and his father before him. But Billy is fascinated by the grace and magic of ballet and is determined to dance his way to a different future...

When Jarvis buys a robin from the mysterious Birdman with plans to free it, he finds it harder to let the lovely bird go then he thought.

1914: war has broken out across Europe and beyond. Nothing will ever be the same again for those caught up in the conflict. This collection of short stories explores how the First World War changed and shaped the lives of women forever. A courageous nurse risks her life on the Front Line; a young woman uncovers a spy in wartime London; and a grief-stricken sister comes to understand the heroism and sacrifice of the forgotten Indian soldiers. Through these and other tales, War Girls presents a moving portrait of loss and grief, and of hope overcoming terrible odds. Cover art by Garry Walton