The Ant Colony Jenny Valentine Published by HarperCollins ISBN 978 0 00 728359 0
Number 33 Georgiana Street is a rooming house in north London. The area has seen better days, and so has the house.
The present tenants are old Isabel, who thinks she owns the place and enjoys sticking her nose into other people's business, smarmy Steve the landlord, loner Mick, 30-something Cherry and her 10-year-old daughter, Bo.
Seventeen-year-old Sam, who comes to London from the country needs a cheap place to live where nobody will bother him. At first, 33 Georgiana Street seems ideal: he needs a fresh start and to vanish without a trace.
Award-winning author Jenny Valentine's new novel, The Ant Colony, will interest teenage readers who like to read about real people sorting out their lives. The inhabitants of No 33 are a mixed bunch, and Valentine easily draws us in to the mysteries of these characters' daily existence. She tells the story in alternating chapters from Sam and Bo's perspectives.
A mystery in Sam's past keeps up the pace, along with the hope something good will soon happen to Bo. She is a bright child who has never had a chance. Her mother is a selfish and hopeless woman who lives wherever she can and drinks. Bo has to feed herself on junk food as Cherry sleeps off her drunkenness. When Sam moves in, Bo sees someone who might become a friend. But Sam sees Bo as a nuisance to be avoided.