Let's Get Lost

This is a fabulous gem of a book – entertaining and modern with a wicked line in dialogue and an entirely serious undercurrent. Isabel blames herself for her mother’s death, her father is immersed in grief and anger, her friends are afraid of her and her teachers utterly incapable of subduing her. Isabel moves in her own self-centered, self-destructive world, oblivious to her own and others’ needs until she meets Smith.

What follows is a process of self-discovery for Isabel, a catastrophic end to her first sexual relationship and her first, real love. Her friends turn on her, exacting payment for her acerbic tongue, her father expels her from the house and it is only when she is badly injured in a crashed stolen car that the reconciliation begins.

Manning writes with humour, realism and a deep understanding of the trials of first love, loss and teenage friendship.