Review #31 - The Boy in the Smoke by Maureen Johnson

This will be a short review as this is a very short book. In fact it's a World Book Day (not to be confused with World Book Night) novella. It is a prequel to The Name of the Star, the only book that made me scared to go to sleep in a room full of people.

World Book Day is a day where primary school children dress up and every student in full time education gets a £1 book token, which you may think is not much as every book is £7 rrp, but they release several books for £1 each, and this was one of them. It is YA because it is quite haunting (it's not Children's).

This was much less tense than The Name of the Star as The Name of the Star had this big build up, from the least scary thing you've ever read to the scariest. This wasn't as scary but that could be to do with it's limited page number. I did find the bit in the house pretty haunting though.

I love the British elements of culture and I adore the fact it's set in London. It just talks about A Levels and places that I know. Out of all the books I've read, this is the one that captures my British upbringing the most.

This had a good backstory and it was fast moving but a good pace, even for the short length of the book. The emotions were captured really well.

I would recommend this if:
You want more Name of the Star
You want a lighter ghost story
You need a book for your goodreads reading challenge

Despite it's short length I enjoyed it. I gave it three stars.