Something You Should Read..

Sugar Rush by Julie Burchill is one of my favourite teen books ever, because it doesn't feel like Y/A fiction, as it's termed. It's so intelligent and innovative as well as being fresh and quirky. And yes, it's about hot teenage lesbians.

Kim, the narrator, starts off as the likeable underdog. She meekly submits to the whims of her bossy best friend, Zoe ('Saint'). However, it's all change when her Mum leaves the country with a young, filthy rich internet company owner for the Bahamas- Kim has to leave her posh private school and start at the roughest school in Brighton. There, she meets Sugar.. and her entire world turns upside-down.

I acutally love books full of parties, drinking, smoking and fucking. I don't know if it's because it makes it feel more real, or the contrary; but anything that has a Skins feel to it gets my thumbs up. And, in that case, this book was always going to get me going. All Kim and Sugar seem to do is drink, smoke, fuck and get high. It makes me want to live in Brighton if getting wankered is that easy up there! I also really love the way Julie Burchill writes; her descriptions of 'shimmery skittering energy' and 'slinky as a sequined eel' bring me out in a grin from ear to ear.

And while maintaining its 'too cool for school' attitude, and making a pile of vodka bottles and fag ends in the corner, it tackles all the serious stuff, too; i.e. teen lesbianism and being in love with your boy-obsessed slut of a best friend. I spent most of the book feeling really sorry for Kim because of Sugar's Katy Perry-esque Hot'N'Cold tactics. Talk about push me/pull me! It was harder, because you came to really like Kim- you sympathise about her dysfunctional family and when she's having her sexual identity crisis, you really do want to hug her. In fact, the only thing I didn't like about her was that sometimes she was so clingy towards Sugar that even I wanted to punch her. But because she was funny and kooky you could let her get away with it.

The ending was maybe a little depressing.. but real. And there was always that last, unexpected kick to perk it up a little. I have to say, I was really excited to read the sequel from Sugar's point of view (Sweet)- and it didn't disappoint, but it still can't hold a candle to the twisted love story of Kim and Sugar. And then there was the TV series, which doesn't remotely resemble the book- but I really, really, really loved anyway and have watched so many times it's a wonder the disc is stull functioning. I think it's safe to say that I'm fascinated by the dynamics between Kim and Sugar, and I'll keep reading the book until the words blur off the pages, to the soundtrack of I Kissed a Girl on repeat to get me in the mindset. Thank you, Julie Burchill!