Filthy

LoveReading Says

Frank, funny and authentic, Lucy Cuthew’s Filthy seems set to fulfil the author’s hope that “this story makes young people feel seen and feel less shame, and opens the door for more necessary conversations”. Written in verse, and centred on Joss, to whom it feels like everyone and everything, including the animals in the nature documentaries she watches with her dad (cringe!), are having sex except her, it’s an exceptional book for fans of edgy, authentic, funny contemporary YA.  

Deeply affected by being called a vanilla prude by a past encounter, sexually-curious, nature-mad Joss is desperate to “get some” for herself. But after resorting to getting information from the internet, some of the pornography she stumbles upon leaves her feeling icky (and get her into a few hilarious scrapes).

Then she meets Griff, and is struck by overwhelming feelings (a “flash of glitter ripples through me,/down my body/like a firework fuse lighting/inside me”), and the feeling is happily mutual.  

Determined to shed her vanilla reputation, Joss sets the stage for her and Griff to get down to business. Cuthew’s descriptions of Joss’ longings, doubts, and desperate dissection of everything Griff says and does (or doesn’t say and do) are acutely authentic, as is Joss’ secret shopping mission to buy a thong from Primark, an experience that leaves her feeling like she’s “just won the Hunger Games or something”. While Joss and Griff’s first experience of sex doesn’t go entirely to plan, it opens honest conversations that remove shame and misguided expectations from sex, and show relationships in a glowingly positive light.

Exploring arousal, complex reactions to being aroused by pornography, and the negative impacts of pornography through an uplifting character journey, Filthy also shows how girls are viciously judged and compelled to walk “a tightrope between/slut or prude”. Special mention must also be made of Joss’ glorious, straight-talking grandmother (the vibrator scenes are outrageously funny). Recommended as a partner to Joya Goffney’s Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl in terms of its positive, anti-shame messages around sex, and for fans of Holly Bourne. Young adults who love Sarah Crossan’s stirring verse novels are also likely to find themselves drawn into this impactful work.

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen

About Filthy

Joss has never had sex. But suddenly, it feels like everyone else has. From dolphins to bonobos to her annoyingly confident older sister Edith, the entire natural world seems to be getting some, and Joss is starting to wonder what she's missing.

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