The Otherlife
Publisher: Andersen Press
Ben goes to a high-achieving private school, where competitive parents and pressured teachers push students incredibly hard to get top results. He's also suffering from an eye injury - and self-medicating - which may or may not be causing him to experience strange visions of the 'Otherlife': a kind of portal into another realm, where the Norse gods reside.
Unlike many of the other boys at school, Ben's family aren't super rich - and when he meets the sociopathic Hobie, he's fascinated by the other boy's privileged lifestyle, despite Hobie's less-appealing personality traits. But Ben has something Hobie doesn't: access to the Otherlife. And Hobie will do anything to get it.
An intelligent and insightful read, this YA novel manages to merge Norse myth, competitive parenting, bullying, class issues and exam pressures into a taut and chilling thriller. Perfect for fans of Sarah Govett and Neil Gaiman.
