Notes from the Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell

I might've liked this one better if it wasn't just the main character, Gem, who was the likable one in the three-way friendship. Lo was too being different for the sake of being different, the most subversive, but not for any real reason. Mira was kind of a ditz. It was hard to tell what Gem really had in common with either of them, which I suppose is half the point. Notes from the Teenage Underground is a portrait of the breaking down of friendship. Gem's strongest relationship was with her mother, which was actually nice to see.

Gem is the sort of person I would be friends with - her friends aren't. She's a total film nut, and when she's planning for their summer - which they've themed 'underground', she thinks artistically, and about doing something that has meaning. She takes Andy Warhol as her inspiration, but at the same time, she doesn't accept that scene as a model straight out, and she thinks critically. I suppose my attitude to her friends was formed at the beginning, when they both proved to be unaware of A Clockwork Orange. Now I've never finished either the book or the movie, but I certainly know about it, and if these girls are trying to be so different, why are they so ignorant? Which isn't very nice of me I guess. I'm a bit of a snob.

The book's also fairly feminist - Gem's mother named her after Germaine Greer, and raised her alone. The appearance of her absentee father forms part of the climax of the novel - but what was nice was despite the way Gem may feel about anyone at any particular time, the story itself treats them with equal respect. Unlike me. So, Gem grows up a little and it's nice. Just a pity her friends couldn't have either.