'Schoolgirls on the train laugh at middle-aged ladies in black with cottage-cheese calves at elderly ladies with pearls who’ve grown hairy moles on their powdered faces, and at gnarled yellow nails of derelicts. These girls laugh as if youth was not something they were born with, but something they achieved.'

I kept thinking while reading this book that it would be a great example of the southern Gothic if it wasn't set in Melbourne Australia.

Written in 1999, its a time capsule of the effects of the "Heroin chic" era on teenagers. With a prose style that reminded me of Ray Bradbury and Jeffrey Eugenides.

It's a shame it's out of print as with the ozempic craze this book, and other like it, are just as relevant now as when they were written.