A dark and demanding read for older teenagers

Chris Lynch is a daring and challenging writer of teenage fiction and his latest novel, Freewill, is an edgy, contemporary tale that young adult readers will find fascinating and memorable.

It tells the story of Will, an emotionally damaged young man who is lost in a hopeless state of limbo where everything has stopped making sense. Every day is a struggle to understand what life is doing to him.

Once, not too long ago, Will knew exactly where life was leading him. He was going to become a pilot, and he knew he could make it. But then fate took a hand and ruined everything. Will's father and stepmother were killed in a car accident that might have been suicide or even murder. His life fell apart and he had to move in with his grandparents.

Before he realises what was happening, Will is attending a school for teenagers with emotional problems where he spends his time in therapeutic wood-work classes making furniture and carving figures. How has it all come to this? Will is confused and he can't find any answers.

At school, Will is totally removed from reality and the people around him. He begins to carve weird totem-like figures in his classes and he doesn't know where these carvings are coming from. Is it really him producing these bizarre wooden shapes?

But just as Will is almost giving up hope about himself, another tragedy occurs that sends him spinning deeper into confusion.