Hard on the heels of Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging (not reviewed) and that ilk, three 13-year-olds face life and boys in this first of the trilogy published in England in 1997 (Girls Under Pressure and Girls Out Late will follow). Ellie is the narrator, small, round, and determined to find a boyfriend. Her two best friends are the Goth Nadine and the glam Magda, and the girls’ unaffected relationships with each other ring very true. Ellie’s voice is sharp and self-involved, and readers will cringe with embarrassment with her over her chronic lateness to school, the boy she meets on holiday in Wales with his terrible hair, and other standard adolescent misadventures. Nadine gets involved with a much older boy, Ellie goes to her first couple of parties and crashes her first club, and she learns a bit more than she wanted to know about her dad and stepmom’s relationship. Ellie’s narrative is interspersed with funny little lists of nine things: nine wishes; nine dreams; and nine most embarrassing moments, which provide both giggles and heart-tugging moments. With its hot pink cover, no boys will be caught dead picking this up, which is too bad, for they would learn a lot if they did. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-72974-X
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2001
Clarke (Al Capsella and the Watchdogs, 1991) strews this dark comedy with caricatured adults and older Melbourne teenagers clinging to adolescence. After another Saturday night making the club scene, Jasper (who is 19 and a brick salesman by day) stumbles home, losing his mate Vinny somewhere along the way. He assumes Vinny will show up, but he’s wrong; Vinny is not at any of his friends’ homes, doesn’t pick up his car from Jasper, and doesn’t show up for his job at the car wash on Sunday. An anxious hunt begins. Using at least ten points of view, plus a variety of ominous dreams, nameless feelings of dread, and the like, Clarke creates a patchy, faintly suspenseful tale in which the cast’s love lives, private yearnings, and apprehension at the looming prospect of adulthood share the front seat with the central mystery. Yet neither the satire nor the cautionary message are delivered with any particular zing. Readers may have dismissed the entire episode by the time Vinny reappears late Sunday night, groggy but unharmed, having blithely accepted a ride and a spiked drink from a seemingly inoffensive stranger, and woken up on a train with no memory of the past 12 hours. (glossary) (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8050-6152-5
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1999
PLB 0-7868-2389-5 From Griffin (The Other Shepards, 1998, etc.), a poignant, perceptive tale of a teenager on a self-destructive spiral, seen through the eyes of his younger, more grounded stepbrother. Written as a monologue Ben addresses to his older stepbrother Dustin (“I never met anyone with less need for people than you, but not needing isn’t the same as not touching”), the story develops around the last time the two boys meet, in a hospital room after Dustin’s latest semi-intentional accident, and concludes with a memorial after Dustin ends his life. Through Ben’s second-person narration, readers learn how Dustin never recovered from his mother’s death from cancer, and how he behaved with unalloyed hostility when his father, Lyle, met and married Gina, mother of Ben. Gina, ever-restless and irresponsible, eventually moves on, and Dustin is the one who follows her across the country, while Ben stays behind, more comfortable with Lyle’s roots and boundaries. Ben comes off as a sharp, strong-minded observer, aware of what makes the people around him tick, and with a gift for pinpointing the traits and attitudes on which relationships are founded or founder. Thoughtful readers will appreciate his insight, enjoy the ringside seat as restrained, rational Lyle meets Mallory, a flamboyant, take-charge TV personality, and come to understand both the dangers and the appeal of Dustin’s choices. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7868-0440-8
Page Count: 159
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1999
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