"Plunging the reader into the cauldron of suburban malaise that is an Australian seaside resort in 1994, it is narrated collectively by the Bastards, a band of 14-year-old riot grrrls bringing Kurt Cobain's gospel to their dead-end backwater in their own eyes, at least. To their schoolmates, they are three fatherless losers, tainted by poverty."
"Battle of the Bands is five weeks away and the girls need him behind the wheel of the van they've booked to get there. As their dream starts slipping through their fingers, they make it their mission to prove his innocence by identifying the real culprit of the sexual assault against Lily."
"Their collective voice is an uncanny exercise in bravado, charged by the defiant spirit of grunge. Kurt Cobain says that fitting in is for losers, so we're proud to be freaks. United, they are a citadel."
Liz Allan's debut novel follows the Bastards, a collective of three 14-year-old girls in a struggling Australian seaside town who embrace grunge culture and music as their escape. When their beloved music teacher Mr P is suspended following a sexual assault report from their former lead singer Lily, the girls launch an investigation to prove his innocence and secure his participation in an upcoming Battle of the Bands competition. Through retrospective chapters, the narrative reveals Lily's victimization and the complex dynamics that fractured the group. The girls navigate their investigation while maintaining their defiant, collective voice rooted in grunge ideology, questioning whether Mr P or Lily's mother's boyfriend Buddy is the actual perpetrator.
#coming-of-age-fiction #sexual-assault-investigation #grunge-culture #female-friendship #1990s-australia
Read at www.theguardian.com
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