Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Gem (named after Germaine Greer) and her close friends Lo and Mira are not in the popular crowd at school, and that's the way they like it. Conformity is for "barcode" people - "mass market items". When the trio come up with a project for the summer holidays - 'underground' in the sense of "avant-garde, debauched, antiestablishment, revolutionary," Gem feels inspired. Gem has some knowledge of art - her mother is an artist - and she proposes the staging of an Andy Warhol-style Happening, combined with underground filmmaking. But Lo starts to take over with her own interpretation of the project, and Gem feels increasingly marginalised by her friends.

Review: Notes from a Teenage Underground is the debut novel of an award-winning short story writer and screenwriter. Simmone Howell's knowledge of film is obvious throughout the book, but never obtrusive - instead, the numerous film and culture references blend seamlessly with the plot and provide interesting links to Gem's actions and state of mind. Most notably, at one point Gem focuses on the 'three-girls plot', and it's clear that Gem is involved in her own version of this. Gem says, "one girl got lucky, one ended up pretty much where she started and the last got lost", and immediately the reader, alongside Gem, wonders if this will happen to the book's 'power triumverate' and, if so, which character is which. Lo and Mira are strong characters and the interplay between the three friends is always realistic and engaging.

 I would say that this book is above all else a study of female friendship. It also spends time exploring parent-daughter relationships and first love. Its honest depictions of adolescence - the characters smoke, drink, swear and don't necessarily make the best choices about sex - might make this book unsuitable for classroom use. But its focus on girls who think deeply about their place in the world, who care about art and culture and who have high ambitions would make it a good aspirational book for female readers. There are detailed mentions of Germaine Greer, Sylvia Plath, Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, A Clockwork Orange and Withnail & I and also art, feminism and film history in general, all of which could promote further research.

The author shows great insight into the teenage psyche and I think all readers would take away some inspiration from this original and thought-provoking book.

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2007-08-26