Fireborn: Twelve and the Frozen Forest

Aisling Fowler's Fireborn: Twelve and the Frozen Forest is a snowy fantasy adventure for 11 year olds about a girl who's handed over her own name and has no intention of making friends.

What happens

Twelve lives at the Hunting Lodge, where children from all seven clans train to fight monsters and keep the peace. To get in, you give up your family, your past and your name. You're given a number instead, and you only choose a new name once you've earned it.

Twelve is brilliant with her two axes. She's also scowly, sharp-tongued and scary enough that nobody wants to spar with her (except Seven, who's hopeless with a sword and very kind). When Five calls her a cave-creeper behind her back, Twelve shoves over a case in the armoury and every rack in the row goes down after it. Oops!

So she and Five are sent to the dungeons for the night. That's when the lodge, which hasn't been breached in a thousand years, is attacked from underneath.

Goblins, ogres and winter wolves come pouring in, and then something far worse. There's also an enormous stone dog that tears itself out of the wall. A small girl gets carried off, and Twelve seems to be the only one who wants to go and find her. Somewhere out there is the Frozen Forest, where students are sent for their Blooding (if they come back).

What makes this more than a monster book is Twelve herself. She's SO prickly! She pushes everyone away, feels rotten about it, then does it again. Anyone who's ever snapped at the one person being nice to them will recognise that feeling. And you slowly work out there's a very good reason she keeps people at arm's length.

Her squirrel, Widge, is a joy too. He fetches a cell key through the bars, which is more than Five manages.

Be warned, though. This gets dark, and it gets there quickly. Twelve's family were murdered before the story begins and she can't stop thinking about it. The attack on the lodge is properly violent, with blood across the training ground and Hunters frozen solid by a creature that feeds on warmth. A reader who's easily frightened by monsters might want to wait a while.

For one who loves a fierce heroine and doesn't mind a fright, it's a brilliant wintry read.

What to read next

If they fall for Twelve, try Skandar and the Unicorn Thief next. Skandar is thirteen, short of friends and desperate to be chosen as a rider of unicorns that are nothing like the fairy-tale kind.