In Bloom

It's the mid-nineties, and in the small coastal town of Vincent, Australia, four Nirvana-obsessed fourteen-year-old girls form a grunge band. The Bastards are "forgettable girls"--poor, not particularly clever, ridiculed by their better-off classmates, and desperate to escape the fates of their mothers, who seem locked into a life of minimum-wage jobs, surprise pregnancies, and drunk boyfriends. The Battle of the Bands is the girls' one ticket out.

But then The Bastards's lead singer, Lily Lucid, abruptly quits. Everyone says she got into a white van on Albatross Avenue, with a man in all black. As small-town rumors swirl, Lily accuses their beloved music teacher of assault, and the three remaining girls are left with nothing. Nothing, that is, except their amateur detective skills, a conviction that Mr. P is innocent, and a readiness to sacrifice everything to keep their dream alive. Spinning with rage at the confines of their lives, they reach a precipice where there's no turning back.

Brash and bold, grungy and propulsive, In Bloom is a novel about class and coming-of-age, girlhood in precarious circumstances, and how to build a sense of self when the foundations of friendship fail.