My So Called Life

Joanna Nadin

Oxford University Press

0192755269

Jun 2007

Joanna Nadin has written a novel that forms a reaction against and indeed is the antithesis to the ‘teenage issue novel’. Astute and witty, comments about suburban, middle-class values ethics and world views abound in this uproariously funny page-turner.
Following the life and thoughts of Rachel Riley through a series of diary entries, the novel is similar in form and in feel to the Georgia Nicholson series by Louise Rennison. A distinction exists, however, in that a more coherent thread of storylines and plots courses beneath the self-conscious, though rarely self-aware, diary entries of the protagonist.
Resolved that the current year truly will be her most dramatically tragic yet, Rachel is so focused upon this aim, she is unaware of the more irregular and surreal aspects of her life. Ascorbic and probing, writing so sharp and so pointed should carry a safety warning!