From award-winning author, Catherine Forde, comes Sugarcoated, a gripping, skip-a-heartbeat thriller for young adults.

Cloddy — the Utter Lost Cause Of A Daughter — is stuck in her dad’s optician’s shop working for twenty-five quid every Saturday, bored out of her brain in the middle of Greenwood Shopping Centre — or Deadsville as she prefers to call it. One Saturday she closes the shop to get some peace and quiet to eat her lunch, but as she’s picking at her sultana scone, a trio of ‘yooths’ skulk out of Gluehead Alley down the side of her dad’s shop. Out of nowhere a massive hand gushing blood is splayed across the window of the shop. And then a head is thumped against the window. Neither the victim nor attackers see Cloddy, but she sees everything. Afraid for her life, she decides not to tell anyone what she’s seen. Who wants to think about such things anyway when there’s gorgeous Stefan to think about? Stefan who is cool and charming and has plenty of cash. Stefan who has come out of nowhere and sweeps her off her feet. Stefan who wouldn’t normally look at a girl like Cloddy, let alone make her his girlfriend. At her most vulnerable time he’ll look after her — or will he?

A chilling spiral of events with an ending that will shock you from the master of gritty urban books for young adults, Catherine Forde.

Warning: contains some violence.

Praise for Catherine Forde’s books for young adults:

‘True to form, Sugarcoated is a caustic, abrasive thriller that burns to the heart of adolescent angst’ — The Bookseller on Sugarcoated

‘Another gripping story . . . from an author who never disappoints’ — Independent on Tug of War

‘A gripping and edgy thriller’ — The Bookseller on Firestarter

‘A novel that is both troubling and inspirational’ — Guardian on Skarrs

‘Should be force-fed to every secondary school child in the country’ — Sunday Telegraph on Fat Boy Swim