Life on the Move, by Megan Reilly

As a writer, I always find it eerie when I come across a novel with a theme similar to mine. Life on the Move, by Megan Reilly, starts off in much the same way Shadow Armies does, with a teenage girl faced with moving again for the umpteenth time.

The similarities end there, however.

Life on the Move is no fantasy. Instead, it's a hard look at the life of a lonely girl who is too busy coping with the difficulties of her existence to know just how difficult they are. Casey has hardened herself to the indignities she constantly suffers as the "new kid" in school, and she knows just how to behave around her father at home to keep him on an even keel. Sure, she knows that her life isn't normal, but she's doing fine.

Unfortunately, Casey's life is about to change, whether she's ready for it or not.

I enjoyed Life on the Move. Megan Reilly pulls no punches, especially when she shows the thought processes of a fifteen-year-old girl desperate to hold onto the past when an unknown future is rushing toward her. Casey's feelings and choices stuck with me after I was done reading because they were uncomfortably real. I think Megan Reilly is an author to watch.

But here's where the editor in me steps in. While the first third of this book was error-free, formatting mistakes and the odd typo cropped up in the later sections. The one quibble I had with the story itself is that the teens were rather old-fashioned. Their pursuits seemed more pertinent to young people in...ahem...the days when Editor Jennifer was in high school.

These are small problems, however, and easily put right. I hope to see more novels from Reilly in the near future.