For those of you with 12-14 year olds...

[weeblueberry]

I'm in the planning stages of a story revolving around a 14 year old and the story would be aimed at this age range.

It involves (among other things...)

The death of her entire family in the first couple of chapters
Her having to come to grips with constant assassination attempts
Political issues involving lower class rebellion (which would be tackled from the viewpoint of a fairly innocent 14 year old so nothing particularly graphic)
I'm just not sure how much of this is too complex for a 12-14 year old to understand? It's fantasy and the plot doesn't solely revolve around these elements but they're important. My own children are much younger and so it's a bit tricky for me to appreciate how much of this will go over a young teenagers head!

Maybe someone can suggest books for me to read in this age range which have similar concepts so I can see how they're handled?

Also this isn't me just using Mumsnet for research - I'm been here (and active) for a while! :)

They sound like the sort of books dd1 reads (and dd2 won't get beyond the blub on the back)

Cherub/Henderson boys are good, she read them more aged 10-12 but I think they're aimed at that sort of age.

Thanks Witchend - I'll look into this!

How about Malorie Blackman's trilogy, the one that starts with Noughts and Crosses?

I'd have a look at Patrick Ness and his Chaos Walking trilogy. The first is called the Knife of Never Letting Go.

Sounds absolutely standard fare for YA books - I'd suggest reading the Hunger Games trilogy and remembering that it's enormously popular from about yr 6 (so 11 y/o) upwards.

For a counter example of something that I think would be probably a bit much for the bottom end of your age range (though I'd have no problem with my 13 y/o dd reading it), try Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner.

Another one is The Wall which I've not read, but dd has, and I think so have many of her classmates.

The Divergent series is very popular with my 12 year old and her friends. If you have Amazon Prime you can watch the first of the trilogy for free.

Thanks all. I've read Divergent and The Hunger Games but admit I didn't think they'd be getting read by such young teenagers. Good to know. Will check the others out.