Eighteen months ago, 17-year-old Rose and 13-year-old Rudder escaped a strict religious sect with their mum. Being a teenager is hard enough – but harder still in a world you’ve never known, with no more rules about clothes, books, films or music, and no more technology bans. What’s gone too, though, is the only community they’ve ever had: no friendship with the people they grew up with, no certainty. Money is tight too, with their mum working every hour to cover rent on their cramped, smelly one-bed flat above a kebab shop in Hackney. Rudder gorges on once-taboo Harry Potter books and dances to Simon and Garfunkel and show tunes, while Rose swaps the ankle skirts and uncut hair of the Woodford Pilgrims for Japanese-cute fairy dress and a new boyfriend, Kye – who she wants with all her being. But there’s a lot about their new life that neither of them knows how to handle: is it really normal for girls to let their boyfriends take naked pictures of them? When Rudder accidentally triggers a devastating chain of events, Rose must decide whether to sacrifice everything and return to the life she hates, to save the people she loves. A story about coming of age, slap-bang in the middle of a strange new world. ‘Enthralling, resonant, unusual and thought-provoking’ The Guardian ‘Lawrence is a fine writer’ TheTimes ‘A vibrant, accomplished storyteller’ The Observer ‘A truly brilliant book’ Malorie Blackman on Orangeboy
ISBN 13: 9781444940657
Author: Patrice Lawrence
