The Riverman by Aaron Starmer

12-year-old Alistair thinks he's pretty ordinary and is startled when a neighbouring girl he was friends with when he was younger, Fiona, asks him to write her biography. She will tell him her story and he is to record it so that if anything happens to her people will know why.  It seems unbelievable at first but Alistair is drawn in to the story, and decides there's an underlying reason for Fiona's behaviour. 

Fiona claims that she has visited a strange parallel universe where she could create her own world by simply thinking of things which then came into being, but that there are many others who also have their own worlds, and some of them are being picked off by someone called the Riverman. Full of mystery and imagination, reality and fantasy collide and it's hard to tell what's real and what's imagined.

There is a great crew of supporting characters too, I particularly loved Charlie, Alistair's daredevil friend who blows several fingers off messing about with fireworks.

This is the first in a trilogy and wonderfully written with strong complex characters and ideas.

The Riverman
By Aaron Starmer
Farrar Straus Giroux
ISBN 978-0-374-36309-3
Hardback NZ$31.50

Fiction for 10-14 years.