A bit repetitive, a bit predictable, but it actually made me laugh which is always a good thing. She is, of course, the Jo Brand of ‘stand up’ fame writing about the lives of two moody teenagers from different backgrounds growing up in Hastings. There are a lot of characters which the reader gets to know very well, a fair bit of sex and drugs and lots of alcohol, the sort of book to empathise with, remembering those ghastly teenage years. It’s good.
Hastings in the seventies is not the coolest place to be. As Rachel and Susan teeter on the brink of adolescence, they realise safety lies in numbers and the best chance of surviving their teens is by sticking together. Their friendship protects them against the trials of parents, classmates, bullies who harass them in school, soggy chips, warm beer, aspiring guitar heroes, stoned hippies, men's clubs, derivative three chord bands and emotional neediness and weediness. But when Dave, local rock-star and general bad-boy, enters their lives, they discover that sex, drugs and rock’n’roll aren’t always everything they’ve dreamed of. And then Punk music detonates the status quo and nothing will ever be the same again. This is a wonderfully funny and poignant novel about growing up in the seventies, the brittle nature of teenage friendship and the tough twists and turns of emerging adulthood.
