This is one of those books that you come across every now and them that stands in a category all of its own.

On the surface it’s the story told by Claire, a teenager growing up on Newcastle, about her friend Ella, the boy she meets and the events surrounding her “disappearance”. I use quotation marks because huge tracts of what you’re reading are a retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Euridyce writ large in modern day Tyneside.

Put simply, this is a stunning piece of work, something that defies categorisation and deserves to be read far beyond the traditional YA audience (I mean that with no disrespect).

It is at times chilling, entrancing, dizzying and always, always compelling stuff. He has written something quite special here.

(A Song For Ella Grey is one of the books I judged for the UK & Ireland YA Book Prize 2015)