SEX, CHOCOLATE & COCAINE

A teenage girl has some shady dealings with her teacher in Gibson’s 1980s-themed adult novel.

It’s 1988 in Vancouver, and Miranda is in the first term of 12th grade. Thanks to a sometimes-loving, sometimes-annoying relationship with her best friend, Burley, and a tense adversarial relationship with her classmates, high school is rough for 17-year-old Miranda—but at least it’s interesting. Things get more intriguing when young hotshot scientist Elliot McCaffrey joins the faculty as the new substitute science teacher. McCaffrey is handsome and a bit of a bad boy with a past. McCaffrey and his odd pal Charles Landon befriend Miranda early on, even inviting her over to his house. But McCaffrey hasn’t left all of his roguish ways behind, as his many extracurricular interests include his attraction to Miranda. Although Gibson’s novel is deftly written at times, it also seems to have an identity crisis. Though narrated from Miranda’s teenage perspective—and some of the plotlines might interest teen readers around her age—the book itself is inappropriate for minor audiences, with a lot of banter about sex and drugs. The unwieldy cast of characters is often hard to keep up with: The author introduces them by their nicknames but alternates randomly between nickname and real name throughout. But hidden among the confusing flashbacks, long sentences, and abstruse lingo are some true linguistic gems, such as “See in a single pink ribbon a multitude of squandered opportunities”—which does invoke some poetic imagery. The book may be unsure about its target audience or what kind of story it truly wants to be, but brief moments of clarity throughout might make this a worthwhile read.

Occasional sparkling prose gives way to confusing storylines in this engaging but erratic novel.