Puberty Blues

'By day we were learning logarithms, but by night, in the backs of panel vans and down on Cronulla beach, we paid off the friendship rings our boyfriends gave us ...'

Puberty - riddled with anxieties and humiliations - is the time every girl has to go through and no woman forgets. For Deb and Sue it was a time when only 'top chicks' survived - and getting into the cool beach gang with the 'spunkrat surfies' was all that mattered. Social hierarchies had to be respected and sexual hurdles overcome - whether the girls were ready or not ... Kathy Lette's seminal first novel Puberty Blues, written with Gabrielle Carey when they were teenagers, is a hilarious but horrifying story of the way many young people live, and some of them die. This raw and guileless novel is as painfully truetoday as ever - and ultimately affirms that whatever else is taken from you, you must never lose the spirit to get out. Fasten your psychological seat belts - this audio book isa bumpy ride.