just_a_girl (Kirsten Krauth, UWA Publishing)

Kirsten Krauth’s debut novel is by turns frustrating and exhilarating. On one hand, the plot is fraught with clichés connected to the too-familiar ‘rite of passage’ plotline. On the other, it’s an ambitious exploration of the strange ways that people have of expressing love. Either way, Krauth’s prose is distinctive and engrossing, and just_a_girl is worth reading for this alone. Similar to Sonya Hartnett’s Butterfly, just_a_girl falls into an undefined territory between adult and YA literature. The novel follows Layla, a 14-year-old girl who seems far older than her years—she frequents online chatrooms, pops pills and catches trains to meet strangers, and her mother never suspects a thing, not even when she invites a much older man into their home. Given its overt sexual content, just_a_girl is certainly not a book for children, however, Krauth’s accurate, though often disturbing, study of modern adolescence will no doubt resonate with readers younger than the intended target audience. In contrast, the interspersing chapters—which offer the perspectives of Layla’s mother, whose life is ruled by religion, and a man who is prompted by loneliness to purchase a lifelike sex doll—are likely to appeal to more mature contemporary literary fiction readers. While the themes and situations are often handled with a lack of subtlety, Krauth’s novel exposes some shrewd truths about the painful ways in which we create our selves, and ultimately makes for very gripping reading.

Jennifer Peterson-Ward is an editorial assistant, reviewer and academic

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Category: Reviews