The Middler - Kirsty Applebaum

Eleven-year-old Maggie lives in Fennis Wick, enclosed and protected from the outside world by a boundary, beyond which the Quiet War rages and the dirty, dangerous wanderers roam.

Her brother Jed is an eldest, revered and special. A hero. Her younger brother is Trig - everyone loves Trig. But Maggie’s just a middler, invisible and left behind. Then, one hot September day, she meets Una, a hungry wanderer girl in need of help, and everything Maggie has ever known gets turned on its head.

The Middler had been sat on my imaginary to be read pile for a looooong time. Imaginary because it's full of the books I don't own but have already read reviews of and those that I'm desperate to get my hands on. So when I spotted a copy on offer in Morrisons of all places I snapped it up immediately.

The Middler follows the story of Maggie, a middle child (hence The Middler), forever jealous of the eldests - the older children who are sent off to war to help fight for the town and are always held in highest esteem by all. As Maggie's older brother, Jed, is sent away, she begins to question her own place in society and how she too can make her mark in history.

The Middler is set in a world which reminded me a little of the horror film The Village, in that there is a boundary which the villagers cannot pass for fear of the wanderers and what horrors they might bring. Thankfully the similarities end there, and Maggie soon comes to realise that actually the wanderers may not be as evil as they were first made out to be and that something closer to home may be the real problem.

Maggie's adventure is certainly a relatable one for all middle children out there and this truly is a coming-of-age story in which she begins to step out of the shadow of her older brother. I loved the constant action and I really did feel the same dilemmas as Maggie did in regards to who she could trust within the town.

This is a perfect UKS2 read for those who like darker fiction and I have now added Kirsty's new book Troofriend on to my imaginary to be read pile...

A page-turning mystery that leaves you wondering if everything is always as it seems.

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