Absolute Beginners is the second book in the Blue Monday series (after The Kids Are Alright), and the kids are going in costume to a 1930s-style mystery party. After some spilled wine, Bleu winds up caught naked on videotape, and the rest of the story explores her conflicting emotions. It’s hard enough being a teenager without feeling literally exposed to your entire high school. Her reactions nicely round out her character, showing her to be more than just a foul-mouthed […]

Chynna Clugston’s Blue Monday tells tales about post-punk, hormonally driven teenagers. Bleu Finnegan loves music, especially Britpop, and movies, especially silent films. She’s boy-crazy about pop stars but can’t stand the local dorks. She doesn’t fit in with the popular crowd, so she’s made her own, with friends Clover and Erin and a couple of boys who have crushes on them. This first book in the series revolves around trying to win tickets to an Adam Ant concert, a crush […]

Geisha literally means “art person”, and that phrase has several meanings in Geisha by Andi Watson. Jomi, our hero, is herself a work of art: she’s a synthetic construct, raised as part of a human family. She’s also a painter, although she has to work in the family business (as a bodyguard) to pay the rent. Her client is a supermodel, a woman whose person appears as street art (advertisements). And her search is for a patron, a person to […]

Debby runs a vintage clothing shop, while Binny has a passion for used books. After fooling around at a party, they begin dating and trying to share their lives with each other. They both see stories in their hobbies, in the ways the books and clothes they acquire were changed and used by their owners. They’re very observant of the details of their property, while not noticing the most obvious signs about each other. Their respective passions sometimes get in […]