Girl Defective

Fifteen-year-old Sky and her older friend Nancy spy a poster of a girl, Mia, whose image lingers in Sky's dreams. When Sky learns that Mia was found dead in nearby St. Kilda harbor--and that Mia's brother now works in her father's record store--Sky wants to learn more. Part mystery, part romance, and part unconventional family story with an intriguing cast of characters.

From the roof of her father's failing used record store, fifteen-year-old Sky and her glamorous older friend Nancy spy a poster of a beautiful but sad-looking girl whose image lingers in Sky's dreams. When Sky learns that Mia, the girl in the picture, was found dead in nearby St. Kilda harbor--and that Mia's brother now works in the record store--she wants to learn more, particularly after a brusque classmate informs her that Mia had been "gypped" by the police, who called her death an accident. This search for answers leads Sky into the shrinking but still active underbelly of her rapidly gentrifying Melbourne suburb, a place Nancy seems to know well. Part mystery, part romance, and part unconventional family story, the book introduces an intriguing cast of characters, each of whom has his or her own mystery or problem to solve: Sky's hard-drinking and music obsessed father is struggling to keep his business afloat; her ten-year-old crime-fanatic brother, Gully, is bent on finding out who vandalized their store; and free-spirited Nancy is trading "favors" for rent. Intermittent memos from Gully that describe his detection deepen his characterization and provide an alternative to Sky's first-person narrative, which is observant, questioning, and self-critical. Although the various strands of the story make a central focus difficult to find, the novel's rich and well-described setting anchors the plot while its conclusion works to illuminate the relationship between its unique characters and their preoccupations. amy pattee