Me, Lo and Mira were like the good things that came in threes: wishes, kings, back-up singers. But we could be bad too. We climbed aboard the bus. Bliss Dartford – Miss Priss Popularity – sang out ‘here come the frrreaks!’, and the sucker peers stirred and snickered but this just confirmed what we already knew: we were cool, unique, original. Everybody else was barcode…
Taking their anti-social edge one step further, seventeen-year-old Gem and her friends Mira and Lo have decided to go Underground. Their activities will be “extreme”, “anti-establishment”, “avant-garde” and “debauched”.
While Gem makes an underground film and Mira sets about pursuing “boys-without-barcodes” no one knows what it is that Lo – the most subversive of the three – has planned. But in the back of her mind, Gem’s worried. She feels the balance of the trio’s friendship is always weighted against her. And as the weeks draw closer to Christmas, appearances start to deceive and relationships flounder. For all the promise of the group, Underground seems a dark place to be.
It will take great films, bad poetry and a pantheon of inspirational guides – from Andy Warhol to Germaine Greer – to help Gem work out the true meaning of friendship, where family fits in, and that the best parts of life aren’t always underground.
Awards
WINNER – Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards for Young Adult Fiction 2007
WINNER – Gold Inky, Inside a Dog’s teenage choice awards, 2007
Praise
‘Heathers meets I Shot Andy Warhol in this gritty ode to underground cool’
Publishers Weekly (US)
‘A smart, sassy look at three girls determined to prove themselves subversive and anti-establishment. …Intelligent and alternative, this is one for the cool kids’
The Bookseller (UK)
‘I could read it eight times and still pick it up again and lose myself in it’
Emilie, 16, insideadog.com.au
Links
Official Site
Macmillan
