Girl, Aloud

Well I didn't expect that! When I saw this book and read the info on the back I was expecting another book that saw a teenage girl dreaming of being picked up on one of the TV talent shows and maybe something about her progress through it. Possibly with best girly-friends in tow or along for the ride. What we actually have here is an achingly good book disguised as casual teen fiction.

It does seem that teen-fiction publishers are willing to tackle slightly more serious issues these days than they were when I was the right age for this stuff. We have moved on somewhat from the days of teen novels for girls simply being about boys, make-up and shopping! This of course features some of those things, but it is shaped around a rather deep and touching story.

Our main character Kass is an understanding friend and desperately tries to be a good daughter. However she lives in a world that is anything but easy. The main problem being that her dad has huge mental mood swings. This is possibly something to do with his childhood, however no-one really knows because he never talks about it. Her dad is a manic-depressive meaning that more often than not he is either incredibly depressed and can't function normally, or he is hyper and over the top about something. Normally he's better on an 'up', but when he is it's not easy for Kass as she becomes the focus of all his hyper feelings! This time is no different because he has decided to enter Kass for the X Factor and is conveniently ignoring a few facts. 1. That Kass doesn't want to do it. 2. That Kass can't sing and 3. Kass in under the age restriction.

This book has an incredible amount of feeling for Kass. You can see how she is stuck in the middle. Her mum doesn't seem to be able to step in and stop her Dad and Kass knows if she lets him down he will sink back into his depressive states. Kass goes so wrapped up in herself and in a love interest that this causes problems with her 2 best friends. As we are following Kass and her thoughts and feelings we find that we are guilty of not exploring the things that are happening with those characters properly either. All this comes to a head through the story, but how will she deal with it?

This story highlights the problems of living with someone with a mental illness, and how it affects those around. Like Tabitha Suzuma's novels this highlights the very real problems that come when you care for someone who can't help their mood swings or problems. This is a very real issue that is brought to life and it isn't treated lightly. There is important advice in here for teenagers whose parents may suffer from this type of disorder and a reminder that it really isn't their fault! Something that bares repeating.

This is cleverly written, using short flights of fancy and humour to get inside Kass' head as well. In her dreams she has conversations with Simon Cowell at the auditions. This gives the author an opportunity to put words in his mouth without it being real! Talking of putting some words in people's mouths there are a few (but only a small amount) of swears in this book too.

This is clever and funny, but also poignant at the same time. You may go from laughing to tears in the turn of a couple of pages in this book. There are other issues in here as well from first romantic/sexual encounters and confusion about what boys / girls want from a relationship. There is also a friendship issue and dealing with other developments in the family. Everything seems to be falling apart for this family, but I enjoyed the way that everything turns out, but I'm not going to tell you what happens!