Furious Thing (Shortlisted For Costa Children'S Book Award)

Description: Anger was something to believe in when the world let her down. Furious Thing roars with justifiable anger at an unfair world, as one girl fights to claim back the spaces that belong to her and battles to be heard . . . Lexi's angry. And it's getting worse. If only she could stop losing her temper and behave herself, her step-father would accept her, her mum would love her like she used to and her step-brother would declare his crushing desire to spend the rest of his life with her. She wants these things so badly she determines to swallow her anger and make her family proud. But pushing fury down doesn't make it disappear. Instead, it simmers below the surface waiting to erupt. There'll be fireworks when it does.

Review: This book is furiously brilliant * Holly Bourne *
Breathtakingly good * Lisa Williamson *
A wise, gripping and skilfully told story . . . It gives permission to rage where fury is warranted * Sunday Times' Children's Book of the Week *
A painfully enthralling, fiercely feminist account of emotional abuse and appropriate rage * Guardian *
Masterpiece * Financial Times *
Piercingly well-observed * Financial Times *
Powerful * Observer *
Best Books of the Year 2019 * Financial Times *
Best Books of the Year 2019 * Sunday Times *
Best Books of the Year 2019 * Irish Times *
One of the best YAs I have EVER READ. Full of feminist righteousness, this is a book I wish I had read when I was 16 * Charlotte Eyre *
It shows how we all have the power to protect ourselves, to stand together, to stand for what's right if we embrace our anger and fury, and refuse to let despair and sadness win * Happiful Magazine *
The sort of YA that the industry should be aiming for * Minerva Reads *

Prizes: Short-listed for Costa Children's Book Award 2020 and YA Book Prize 2020. Long-listed for UKLA Book Awards 2021.

Author Biography: Jenny Downham trained as an actor and worked in community theatre for many years, using improvisation techniques to take stories to young people who wouldn't normally have access to them - in prisons, hospitals, youth clubs, housing estates, anywhere that theatre rarely existed - she spent many years putting herself in imaginary situations and playing all sorts of people she would never normally be cast as. It was a perfect apprenticeship for writing. Her first novel, Before I Die, is an international bestseller. It won the Branford Boase Award for most promising debut, the Australian Silver Inky Award for best international novel, was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and was made into the blockbuster film, Now Is Good. Jenny's second book, You Against Me, won the inaugural Waterstones Teenage Book Prize, and her third novel, Unbecoming, was shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and won the Stonewall Honor Award from the American Library Association. Jenny lives in London. She hopes that this story encourages more girls to make a noise so that their voices can be heard.

Bestselling author Jenny Downham (Before I Die) has created a timely masterpiece that captures the true feelings of a teenage girl in a difficult, troubling and all-too-common situation.