October 2015 Book of the Month In an isolated boarding school, a group of girls settle in for the holidays. Everyone else has gone home and there are rivalries and animosity between them – this definitely isn’t going to be a happy Christmas. But no-one knows just how bad things will get! As snow falls, cutting them off, stories of the monstrous beast that stalks the hills become terrifyingly plausible: something is out there, something murderous! It’s a classic set up and C.J. Skuse squeezes every thrill and heart-stopping moment out of it, adding a breezy, sardonic humour just right for teen readers. Grisly, nail-biting fun! ~ Andrea Reece
At sixteen Nash thought that the fight to become Head Girl of prestigious boarding school Bathory would be the biggest battle she'd face. Until her brother's disappearance leads to Nash being trapped at the school over Christmas with Bathory's assorted misfits. As a blizzard rages outside, strange things are afoot in the school's hallways, and legends of the mysterious Beast of Bathory - a big cat rumoured to room the moors outside the school - run wild. Yet when the girls' Matron goes missing it's clear that something altogether darker is to blame - and that they'll have to stick together if they hope to survive.
She loves: graphic novels, sitcoms, Gummy Bears and the music of My Chemical Romance.
She hates: hard-boiled eggs, carnivals and coughing.
The movies Titanic, My Best Friend's Wedding and Twilight were all based on her ideas, she just didn't get to write them down in time. Before she dies, she would like to go to Japan, try clay-pigeon shooting and own a malamute.
C.J has First Class degrees in Creative Writing and Writing for Children and, aside writing kick-ass fiction for teens, works as a freelance children's fiction consultant and lectures in writing fiction for teens at Bath Spa University.
