Nieve

The first in a projected trilogy of novels, Nieve is the long-awaited new work for young adults by the award-winning author of the Cat's Eye Corner Trilogy. Business has never been better for Nieve's parents, professional weepers, but despite the perks - better desserts, a new lime green T-shirt - even Nieve wonders why so many more people seem unhappy. Then there are the signs that she can't ignore that they are coming. There's the dark fry which have taken over her back pond, moving as if following a single thought, the spiders which come to cover everything, right down to her toothbrush, the black weeds which strangle all colour out of the garden. And why has everyone become so forgetful? When two strangers, Wormius and Ashe, come to town trailing a perpetual gloom behind them, and then people, including Nieve's best friend Malcolm, go missing, it falls to Nieve and a couple of unusual companions to try and save them. Their adventures take them to the Black City and back again where Nieve discovers that even she is not exactly as she seems.