reviews:
Goldstrike
Kirkus Reviews
Galloping suspense and action ... with a narrative pitched to action - and computer-oriented teens, this may well find a wide audience. Learn some hacking and enjoy explosions in this one. It almost seems realistic.
My Favourite Books
Matt’s writing is more-ish. Goldstrike is a very quick read and a satisfying one. There are guns, bad guys, good guys, computers, hacking, a pretty girl obsessed with bullion, lasers, mysterious organisations...Matt’s gone and created a whole list of cool things, stuffed them into Goldstrike and ticked all the boxes ...The climax is this insane actioner that deserves to be filmed. Part Bourne/part Bond/part Die Hard 4.0
Lovereading (Julia Eccleshare)
A spine tingling thriller from the chilling opening to the very last page, the twists and turns of the Goldstrike plot follow Carl Hobbes, teenager hacker extraordinaire, as he keeps one step ahead of the different but equally dangerous powers that are after him. A mesmerising, clever and page-turning read full of tension and danger in which nothing can be taken for granted.
Falcata Times
Well written, a solid plot and above all a tale where all hell breaks loose from the opening line.
Inside the Cage/Icecore
The Lateiner Gang
Right off the bat, I'll tell you that hand's down this is one of the best books I have read in a long time. From cover to cover, I was hooked ... Overall - fantastic, riveting, and goes up on my shelf of top of the top. One I will read again for sure and suggest for a long time to come.
Publisher's Weekly Review
If Robert Ludlum ever wrote a book for young adults, it would probably be a lot like Whyman's action-packed techno-thriller.
Publishing News
A skilled young hacker infiltrates online security at Fort Knox. Subjected to extraordinary rendition, he is flown with terrorist suspects to the Guantanamo-style Camp Twilight, an Arctic prison from which there is no escape. An inmate uprising raises the stakes in this dark, dramatic and extremely topical thriller.
Looking Glass Review
Readers who enjoy a good thriller will greatly enjoy this carefully crafted story. Full of surprises and unexpected twists, readers will find themselves unable to put this book down once they have started reading.
Times Educational Supplement
A tense, extravagantly well-plotted, fantastical, yet utterly credible story that is full of life, pace, tension and wry uplift. A great book that deftly addresses computer geeks, all-action devotees and young people who might have views on the ethics of internment. - TES
Birmingham Post
Whyman is a great writer for teens - he treats his readers as adults, is unafraid of touching difficult subjects and gives them a hell of ride through the pages ... this is a thriller and a half.
Kirkus Reviews (USA)
In the same entertainment-only vein of the Alex Rider series, but with a bit more depth and maturity. Great for action fans.
First News
Superb! The story is realistic and action packed. A great book!
The Bookseller
Dramatic ... fast-paced and topical.
Street Runners
Nominated for the Lancashire Book of the Year Award 2009
The Daily Telegraph (Dinah Hall)
A fabulously imagined urban fantasy novel set under the streets of London. Elements of computer-game imagery and ley-line mythology all feed in to a thoroughly gripping read.
The Independent (Nicholas Tucker)
Matt Whyman has been in terrific form recently, writing novels where the reality remains so bizarre there is never any need to reach for fantasy. So Below sees a change of style in a story set underground London ... well written, compellingly imagined and distinctly odd!"
Birmingham Post
"The author of the incredibly gritty Boy Kills Man has pulled off another triumph ... Fast paced and imaginative, this is a great page-turner."
Sunday Times
A fast-paced fantasy thriller."
The Wild
The Scotsman: Top Ten Teen Novels 2005
Shortlisted for the Renfrewshire Teenage Book Award 2007
Longlisted for the 2007 Wirral Paperback of the Year
The Independent (Nicholas Tucker)
The author's previous Boy Kills Man was triumph enough; this book is just as good. Written with convincing authority ... the novel is a superb achievement.
The Sunday Morning Post (John Millen)
The Wild is a moving and harrowing book that is an inspirational - but unsettling - read. Whyman creates both misery and hope on the same page and is skilled enough to keep the tale from being sentimental ... the result is an evocative and heart-rending novel that is likely to stay in the minds of readers who seek tales of adventure spliced with humanity.
Achuka Book of the Week (Michael Thorn)
A superb and horribly believable futuristic novella about boys in Kazahkstan who scavenge for a living amongst nuclear debris and fallen rockets.
R4's Open Book (Claire Morrell)
"A very powerful book. I went on thinking about it long after I had finished it."
School Library Association (Alison Hurst)
"A sensitive, raw novel ... deserves to be read not only as a powerfully descriptive work of fiction, but as a reminder to those who live in affluent 'highly developed' places of how very fortunate they are."
Publishing News
"Poignant, unsentimental writing combines with original and breathtaking subject matter. This new novel further establishes Matt Whyman as a powerful and original new voice".
Booktrusted
In this truly heartbreaking story, the reality of a life in a harsh and toxic environment is hard-hitting and remorseless. Beautifully crafted and strangely haunting, The Wild explores our need to belong, particularly in the absence of hope.
The Irish Times (Robert Dunbar)
"The uncompromising toughness of style and theme which typified Matt Whyman's highly praised 2004 young adult novel, Boy Kills Man, is again a key feature in his new book. In essence, this is the story of survival, in which we trace the hazardous journey undertaken by 16-year-old Alexi and his 9-year-old brother, Misha as they abandon their native Kazakhstan and make their way to Moscow ... portrayed poignantly but not sentimentally ... their youthful heroism more than compensates for the "wildness" (human, environmental and political) which everywhere surrounds them."
Publishing News Bookseller's Choice (John Newman)
The author follows up the excellent Boy Kills Man with a heartrending story
set in another unusual choice of locations: Kazakhstan and Moscow ... A well-written,
hard-hitting tale from this original and talented writer."
Boy Kills Man
Shortlisted for the 2007 De Jong Jury (Netherlands)
ALA Top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers 2006 (USA)
Shortlisted for the 2006 Wirral Paperback of the Year
Shortlisted for the 2005 Stockport Schools Book Award
Shortlisted for the 2004 Booktrust Teenage Prize
The Scotsman: Top Ten Teen Novels 2004
The Times: 2004 Picks
The Guardian 2004 Triumphs feature
Time Out: 2004 Critics' Choice
RTE Rattlebag: Books of the Year 2004
BBC Radio 4 Front Row: Teen Books of the Year
Melvin Burgess
Bold, chilling and beautifully written . . . it really left an ache behind.
The Independent (Nicholas Tucker)
"Stunning . . .all that is left is a feeling of sadness and loss. . .A fine achievement."
The Guardian (Keith Gray)
"A powerful, affecting novel about lost youth, and a sharp evocation of one boy's terrible passage from innocence to experience . . . a book we could all do with reading."
The Irish Times (Robert Dunbar)
"If, as the novel's opening sentence informs us, 'nothing is more unsettling in this world than a kid with a gun', then it must be conceded that Whyman presents, with a vision that at times is almost frightening in its focus, a narrative which demonstrates precisely how unsettling such a spectacle is. This is a tough, uncompromising - and very impressive - piece of writing."
The Daily Telegraph (William Leith)
"Excellent . .Sonny is a bit like Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas. It's a shock to realise that his relationship with Beatriz, the girl he might have loved, has been nothing more than a few shy words"
The Daily Telegraph - Books of the Year 2003
A fine story, based on the child assassins of Colombia. Bloody, desperate and full of tragic pride, the sheer unfairness of the life caught between these pages makes you want to scream out.
(thank you again, Melvin!)
Birmingham Post (Jayne Howarth)
"Just occasionally, a novel hits you with such force that it takes a while for what you've read to sink in. The storyline permeates your every pore, you think over and over again about the characters.Boy Kills Man is such a book . . . A powerful novel, though-provoking and shocking."
The Hindu (India)
A terrifying book with a plot that will enthral ... Its writing style is beautiful, and though the book isn't sweet and sentimental, it's strangely moving. More chilling than a horror story, it will keep you hooked right to the terrifying end."
Ink (John McLay)
"A powerhouse of emotion and atmosphere that never fails to captivate"
The Bookseller (Claudia Mody)
Almost causes you to forget that its central characters are only 12 years old . . . this powerful novel should not be taken lightly."
The Bookseller (Barbara Pendrigh)
The teenage fiction debate will be fuelled by Matt Whyman's novel, Boy Kills Man, which recounts the experience of a child assassin living in a South American ghetto. The fine text is surprisingly gentle - in contrast to the brutal story which pulls no punches.
Superhuman
Ben, teenage reviewer, Red House Magazine:
'When I first opened Matt Whyman's novel, Superhuman, I knew it was a book with a difference. It wasn't just his descriptions, but the style. Matt Whyman has a very unique style of writing which I have never before come across in a book. He writes as if he is really there, reviewing what's actually happening and writing about it.
Bookseller:
A pacey, present-tense work of fantasy. In part it is engagingly funny, but there is underlying social commentary addressing the culture of rival gangs bent on marking out their own territories. Timely.
XY: a toolkit for life
Mariella Frostrup:
An indispensable guide to love and sex. It will make a man of you.
Publishing News:
This could well be the definitive teenage boys' manual for life - frank, factual and funny.
Ladies First:
'Full of straightforward, no hold-barred, non-preachy advice . . . the book's written and presented in a cool, no-nonsense style that the Dawson's Creek generation identify with.'
Woman
'If it's hard to get grown men to talk about health and emotional issues, it's 20 times harder with teenage boys. So XY . . . comes as a relief. The agony uncle and health writer has written a sensible book - discussing sex and sexuality, drink and drugs, dealing with friends, girlfriends and family - in a way that's both informative and appealing to teenagers.'
Columbia Road
Heat:
Whyman's deceptively flippant style masks an interesting take on the London flatshare genre, and a serious, if funny, comment on the downside of webcam mania. Fantastic second novel from the agony-uncle-turned-novelist.
Company:
If you were a Big Brother addict, this is the book for you.
Stella Duffy:
Big Brother meets Bonny & Clyde - the results are incredibly fast, exceptionally funny, and surprisingly touching . . . Matt Whyman gives (very) good girl.
RTE Interactive:
A story told with style and wit.
Man or Mouse
The Mirror:
Pacy, racy and cyberspacey . . . needle sharp on male identity and impotence.
The Times:
Races through a narrative that's teeming with devices to ensure a quick and funny read. The chapters are short and pithy, there are puns in every paragraph, and the author makes mischief with computer-speak by relating it to the lexicon of love.
The List:
It's Cyrano de Bergerac for the cyber generation with more than a dash of Some Like it Hot for good measure . . . wry and pithy observations on sexual politics . .an engaging and witty look at sexual identity.
Bliss:
Guaranteed to put you off web weirdos for good! Five out of five.
Waterstones Online:
Sharp, sassy and hilarious, Man or Mouse is a comical cautionary tale for cybernauts everywhere. Just let your fingers do the stalking.
whatamigoingtoread.com:
This is a fast paced, very funny book. Whyman is a fresh voice in a market currently saturated with email novels . . .an excellent debut that kept me laughing throughout.
amazon.co.uk:
Shakes up the classic love story for Internet junkies.
shopsmart.com:
Reads like a 'how-not-to' guide to Internet relationships and author Matt Whyman's ideally positioned to know.
virgin.net:
Matt Whyman knows a thing or two about life on the Net, and luckily for anyone planning an online romance he's not holding back about it.
