Girl Defective by Simmone Howell

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Pages: 312pgs

The Story

We, the Martin family, were like inverse superheroes, marked by our defects. Dad was addicted to beer and bootlegs. Gully had "social difficulties" that manifested in his wearing a pig snout mask 24-7. I was surface clean but underneath a weird hormonal stew was simmering . . .

It's summer in St Kilda. Fifteen-year-old Sky is looking forward to great records and nefarious activities with Nancy, her older, wilder friend. Her brother – Super Agent Gully – is on a mission to unmask the degenerate who bricked the shop window. Bill the Patriarch seems content to drink while the shop slides into bankruptcy. A poster of a mysterious girl and her connection to Luke, the tragi-hot new employee sends Sky on an exploration into the dark heart of the suburb. Love is strange. Family Rules. In between there are teenage messes, rock star spawn, violent fangirls, creepy old guys and accidents waiting to happen. If the world truly is going to hell in a hand-basket then at least the soundtrack is kicking. Sky Martin is Girl Defective: funny, real and dark at the edges.

The Review

A big thanks to Pan Macmillan Australia for sending me a review copy of this book!

What else can I say except that I totally loved this book! It was so funny, real, dark, but most of all . . . it was really, really quirky. I mean really quirky!

So even though this is the first book I've read from the author, Simmone Howell, and while it won't be the last considering I enjoyed this book very much, but I've been wanting to read this one for quite some time now and that's because I was so intrigued with the storyline and with the graffiti girl featured on the book cover which, I found, was both very simple and yet very effective. And, after finishing the book, I have to say this is one of the most unique contemporary books I've ever read, especially with the way it's written and with its quirky characters.

Sky, the main character, was a fantastic girl. She is just so down-to-earth and completely genuine to me. Sure, she may do some awkward things from time to time in the book, but in the end I really came to appreciate her character and I loved the way she acted around her family, and how much she cared about them - including her wacky younger brother, Gully, whose personality is unlike any other younger sibling I know in fiction. Now honestly, I may have loved Sky on a whole, even her strange over-the-place friend "Nancy", her father and his mysterious newly hired employee, Luke, but Sky's younger brother, Gully, was the shining star out of everyone I've just met. GOD he was SO funny! I kind of wished I had a brother like Gully because he's so matured beyond his years . . . really he's that great!

Overall, GIRL DEFECTIVE was everything I was hoping for and more, and I can't wait to read more from this particular author, Simmone Howell, because this book is just . . . amazingly quirky! And incredibly funny too!

The Rating

4 1/2 / 5 stars