The Paperbackers

Set in a gloomily atmospheric boarding school for aristo vampires in a 200-year-old Gothic castle,where mortal students are treated like slow-witted,shuffle-footed plebs,Evernight,by Claudia Gray HarperCollins,Rs 299 seems to take the current tween sensations,Twilight and Harry Potter,to their eminently mass-marketable conclusion. An unhappily uprooted,disaffected teen,oblivious to her own glowering good looks,which are hypnotically visible to everyone,particularly the smouldering school hunk,whos always around the corner to rescue her. Check. An imposing,castle-like boarding school for supernaturally endowed beings,where the ordinary are pitied,like those clumsy,magic-less Muggles. Check.

However,while the emo-vampires of Twilight sparkle in the sun and look plastic-and-panstick,Evernights vampires have interesting back-stories. Like the lost medieval vampire who thinks modern appliances are inhabited by spirits,and the mulatto who once preyed on her rich suitors at the octoroon balls of 19th century New Orleans. And while Twilights vampires appear to be a seductive smokescreen for Mormon-endorsed pre-marital chastity,Evernights central couple is a panting,hormonal mess,barely worthy of this books 13 tag. Theyre also star-crossed,which throws in a nice little cliffhanger in the end thatll have tweens hurtling to bookstores at vampire warp-speed to see what the sequel has in store for this preternatural Romeo-and-Juliet pair.

A Midsummer Nights Dream supplies Melissa Marrs ethereal creatures of choice faeries in Radiant Shadows HarperCollins,Rs 325. The book,however,is dedicated not to Shakespeare but to the art of growl-rockers Marilyn Manson and Tool. That explains why her faeries need the nourishment of blood,have inhuman eyes,and go hunting in the depths of a forest alive with ravens and wolves songs and why The Dark King,clad in silky blue pyjamas and drawing vials of blood from the heroine,exudes a creepy Goth-rocker louche-ness. This book might be classed under the 13 bracket,too,but with its complex warring classes of spectral girls,half-breeds who feed on emotions,and faeries who feed on the blood of Order or Disorder,its more for tattoo artists than tweens,and certainly doesnt contain the mass-market thrills to appeal to frequent flyers.

The Cult of Osiris by Andy McDermott Hachette,Rs 295,however,is the kind of shelf-shifter that both travellers and termite would happily snack on. This novel hinges on the hunt for the mysterious 5,000-year-old tomb of the lost king Osiris,apparently buried somewhere beneath the Sphinx in Giza. It is in these subterranean sandy passages where a motley crew converges,seemingly in anticipation of the eleventeenth Mummy sequel: shady cult-members,snakeskin-jacketed baddies,corrupt officials and archaeologists,one of whom is apparently shaped like a broomstick with two watermelons taped to it.