Although the setting for this novel is Los Angeles, the teenage experience it deals with is universal and totally transferable to readers here in Britain, and gains immediacy by its pacy, present tense narration.

Outwardly Margaux seems to have a lot going for her; looks, intelligence, boys, car, super-generous dad, mum who never interferes. Inwardly though, she's a mess, there's a suggestion of an eating disorder, she uses her intelligence to put others down - especially boys, who she leads on and then rebuffs. We learn eventually that this is possibly the result of paedopliliac contact organized by her father when she was a small child, he in turn thereby buying off a debt resulting from his own gambling addiction.

Her mother's life revolves around TV lifestyle and shopping channels, and she takes no interest in her daughter, beyond flirting mildly with any boy who calls for Margaux. It is only when Margaux meets a boy who isn't interested in her sexually, who has bitter family memories himself, complex caring responsibilities for Evie, his terminally ill aunt, and a passion to uncover instances of animal mistreatment, that she can step away from the image and the expectations that she has listlessly allowed herself to adopt.

Koertge writes of Margaux's gradual awakening to her worthwhile inner self. it is as though she is a sleeping beauty who is empowered to wake and live through forgetting her outward beauty but by her actions recreating for herself a valued self image, an ice queen to whom we warm as she is gradually freed from her glacial indifference. In turn we see the courage with which Evie faces her future, and Danny and Margaux confront their pasts, to use their experiences and feelings to inform their future, and to give each new hope.

Totally unsentimental, thought provoking material which would resonate with Key Stage 3 readers. Although the title may put boys off, the content would help to explain a lot about the adolescent female behaviour they encounter, and would provide much with which they can address teenage life in general, and their own situations in particular.

2007-12-31