Beside Me

by Carolyn Henderson

The ponies Corinne loves are for sale, the mysterious ability she doesn't understand and can't control is getting her into trouble, and it seems as if she can't get anything right. Then Luca, the boy every girl wants to know, singles her out. Corinne realises that you don't have to be a loner just because you don't run with the herd - and that friendship can come from the most unexpected quarters.

Hardcover

First published April 5, 2015

Reviews

[Mark]

Corinne is a teenager, an outcast by choice but ably backed up by her lovely best friend Sophie, with an older sister who’s training to be a hairdresser and a harassed Mum who works as a carer (Corinne’s dad was in the US Air Force and died in a motorcycle crash when she was very young). All her thoughts for the future centre on horses, especially The Meadows stables just outside Newmarket, where she helps out but which is about to be sold and all of the ponies she loves are up for sale. She’s also suffering with a mysterious ability that she doesn’t understand and can’t control, though it’s brought into focus by Luca, a Romany boy at school who every girl wants to know but he singles her out and takes her to meet his Gran, who also has something of a gift. I’ll be honest, this was a bit of a new direction for me, a ‘romance suspense novel for teens’ and I did wonder how I’d get on with the heroine being a teenaged girl, but I really enjoyed it. Told in first person present tense, the story is well structured, modern and full of nicely observed touches of humour and the writing is very good indeed, with Carolyn quickly setting the scene. The characters are richly described - from Sophie to Luca, Penny (the class bitch who isn’t at all what she appears to be) and long-suffering Mum Celia - and there isn’t a false note in the piece, as Corinne struggles with school-life, home-life, peer pressure and this nagging gift that ramps up when she meets Miss Meynell, who Celia cleans for. There are supernatural elements (though it’s not a supernatural story at all) and the set pieces are well set up (especially in the abandoned stables) but this isn’t really about that, it’s about being a teenager, finding yourself and the realisation that loss is an everyday part of life (there’s a wonderful sequence in a pet cemetery, with Corinne and Celia, that is beautifully melancholic). It probably helps if you like horses (Carolyn has written several non-fiction books about them and it shows, the sequences in the riding school are expertly put together), but if you’re looking for a well written YA mystery-drama, this could be just right. Highly recommended.

[Claire]

Just finished this book in two days and I absolutely loved it!

I'm 24 so I suppose not exactly the target audience but even so I stormed through it, intrigued by the mystery and completely taken in to Corinne and Luca's world of Romany gypsies.

Even though I'm not that horsey, I still enjoyed that particular thread of the storyline too. I wish there had been more books like this when I was younger - it reminded me so much of my teenage years.

A must-read!

[Teresa Driscoll]

Pitch Perfect!
A beautifully crafted and haunting story - pitch perfect for its target audience. Carolyn Henderson's clever mystery addresses themes important to teenagers, shining a light on that tricky journey to self-confidence - so huge in the life of the young who are either trying to "fit in" or working out why they don't need to.
Make yourself very popular (as I have) and buy this as a gift for a teenage girl who loves horses...and loves a great book too.

[Jenn]

Nice little book! Charming and well-written!