Rebecca Ray's debut novel is shocking and disturbing.

It is shocking in the conventional sense that the language is graphic and obscene.

The central character is a disturbed 13 year old girl, (although she turns 14 during the course of the book.)

Since reading it I have learned that Ray left school at 16 to write the book. She was only 18 when it was published.

A Certain Age is the story of a young girl growing up in Britain. On her first day at High School, she is teased and humiliated. Nevertheless, she gets home and tells her Dad that school was "excellent". Until now, she has been a Daddy's girl, and she can feel herself drifting away on the tide of her adolescence. She regrets it a little but is powerless to do otherwise.

She learns quite quickly that in order to fit in with the gang, "the cool people", she has to let the boys grope her. She takes no pleasure in any of the sexual activity. In fact she often finds it painful, and feels nauseated by it, but still submits to it. She knows that one person is disgusted by her behaviour, and she even savours that thought.... to her, even the word "disgusting" has charm and fascination.

There is no hint here of romance, or even affection... no tenderness whatsoever. Participating in degrading sex acts is simply a strategy for survival. She has no notion of being pretty or attractive, just knows that she has something that men want. The sex is treated almost like an excretory function.... with not even a whisper of eroticism. The only thing that truly excites her is being degraded and hurt. Each experience is described with a brutal realism.

It is written in the first person. But the protagonist is nameless. To write an entire book about someone who is such a nobody that she has no name is the most extra-ordinary achievement.

This book is crazy. The subject matter is distasteful, but it is written wonderfully well. For example, the heroine's family bicker all the time, but she manages to turn that into dialogue that reads so naturally that you never question it. Also, some parts are really funny.

It would be very hard to believe that this is all fiction.

At the beginning, the girl is just learning to accept being groped by her circle of school friends, the dope smokers. They don't even regard this as exciting, it is just something to do with your hands in between rolling joints.

Halfway through the book, she starts "going out" with a man old enough to be her father. She tells him that she is only fourteen, and still he has sex with her (which she hates). Inexplicably, the parents know this and do nothing about it.

If even half of that Ray is writing is true, she should have been speaking to the police. Maybe she was, I don't know.

Slowly, the girl's sense of self-loathing increases. She moves from enjoying being abused and demeaned to self-harm. Not only do her male acquaintances abuse her, but she keeps apologizing and going back for more..... as though she feels a need to be punished for being who she is.

It seems possible that writing this worrying novel may have served as a kind of catharsis for Ms Ray. One certain hopes so. The other thing is that there must be countless girls and women who have endured similar emotional problems with all the ghastly attendant consequences (or maybe are still doing so), and it is possible that for them this novel may serve as a life raft to a drowning mariner.

What is great and kind of humbling, is that anyone who has endured this sort of experience can describe it so well. And even though the book seems to be about a child who has no one to turn to, no one she can confide in and trust, there is a touching list of acknowledgements in the front for the all the people who helped her and supported her when she was writing it.

I would say that this is an unsuitable book for the very young, but for the mature reader who is not too squeamish, I would say to read this book carefully, because usually people in this girl's situation are silent (I think), so here we get to listen to the voice of the voiceless. Very powerful stuff, if a little depressing. If this experience is anywhere near typical, we are indeed living in a deeply troubled society.

This is a review I wrote for the Carnegie Medal Award site. I believe the story is inspired by real events in Ireland in the 1980's. I will revise when I get a chance:

There is a very poetic and lilting feel to the writing in this beatifully written but very sad book. The setting is a small community in Ireland where everyone knows your business, has opinions on it, and although religion plays a strong part in the life of the town, a christian approach to helping each other is not always evident.

The focus is on a young teenage girl Shell, who certainly does not have her troubles to seek. Her mother is dead leaving her to cope with her younger brother and sister as well as a father who is certainly not playing his role of parent. She finds comfort in the arms of a teenage boy but the relationship leads to her being caught up in a horrible scandal.

There is a lot that is very sad about this book, but ultimately I thought that there was hope at the end, though maybe not what you could call a very happy ending.

Following her success with Stiff and Spook, Mary Roach triumphantly continues with Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. Far and away funnier than I anticipated, this titillating foray into sexual research, diagnosis and treatment is not for the squeamish or faint of heart. It is a rare book indeed that can convey scholarly and incredibly thorough research in a hip and hilarious manner that is both factual and fascinating.

In one of my favorite passages in the book, as part of her initiation into this research, she and her hoodwinked husband travel to London to take place in coital imaging (i.e. having an x-ray taken while in the act). Pre-scan, the technician hands her husband an erotic magazine and the author quips “The implication being, I suppose, that the sight of one’s wife in a baggy knee-length hospital johnny and threadbare socks is not [erotic].”

The most horrifying of the passages generally deal with the historical accounts of what was once accepted medicine, which can have the unnerving affect of having your naughty bits cringe. Anecdotal and conversational, this book is for anyone, from scientists to nymphos and all us regular folk in between.

Sam Jones has some plans for his life. Mainly, be the first in the family to go to college, and not to impregnate anyone while still in his teens. While his grades aren't stellar, they're not bad, and his Art teacher recently recommended he study Art & design after school. He's single, and spends most of his time skating (on a board) so all in all, his plans seem to be going all right. He worries, every now and then, whether it will all really turn out all right, but who doesn't? Pretty much, he's content.

When his mother wants to bring him to a party to meet a girl, he has the reaction you'd expect. No way. But she presses the point, and off he goes. And Alicia is certainly something to look at. Not much to be with though. Obnoxious, pretty much. But the approach of telling her so and walking away seems to be some sort of magic for soon enough, she's at his side and pulling him back to the living room.

Alicia is not the kind of girl Sam would have expected to go for him. But she did. And soon his life has whittled down to a very small world.  Mainly, Alicia. They hang out, they watch tv in her room, they have sex. That's about the extent of it. Which of course worries the parents. But as far as Sam and Alicia are concerned, everything's fine.

Until it's not.

Eventually, Sam goes back to skating. Somehow, one day he was tired of her. And rather than tell her, well, he just stopped going round, or answering calls. He figured she'd get the point. Unfortunately for him, there was this whole potential incident he'd kept to himself, and would like to have forgotten. So when he gets a text one morning at breakfast, he's not really surprised. He's not happy either. But he goes to meet her.

And then he runs away.

And comes back.

Out the window go the plans. In come a whole new slew of worries. Like death at parent's hands. And how can this work? And how can it be, even though he's pretty sure he knows that part. Not that he's telling anyone.

A couple of trips into the future while sleeping don't do much to make Sam feel any better about the way things have turned out, though when he gets to those moments in real time it turns out they're not so bad.

This is a pretty funny look into accidental pregnancy. While the subject is itself heavy, Sam's dealings with it, while oh so wrong at points, are a riot to read about. And in the end he does what's right, which is the important part. And things will be ok, or they won't, but not for lack of trying.

After reading reviews of Louise Welsh's first book The Cutting Room, I added her to my mental list of authors I needed to try out. However that list is a very long one, and the Bullet Trick only emerged as a contender when I put it in the options for the staff book group where I work. I usually put about four books on the list and normally one stands out but this time we were torn, and actually not that enthusiastic, however as I passed other members of the group in the corridors at work I kept being told "i'm really enjoying this, but I don't think I would have picked this up normally", also "she writes like a man!"

Both of these sentiments I totally agree with. Apart from McIllvaney's Laidlaw and Ian Rankin's Rebus books I don't think i've ever gone out of my way to read something classified as "crime". Although i'm a librarian i'm not that keen on genre labelling and I think The Bullet Trick could live without being stuck on a dedicated Crime shelf as it was in my local library. It is certainly a compelling book, a definite page-turner and I felt plenty of edgyness and tension, to the point that I considered putting the book down before I went to sleep as I was worried I was about to read something that was going to keep me awake a little longer than I wanted!

The story moves between Glasgow and Berlin, via London. The main character is a Glaswegian conjurer who has seen better days. A series of events, lead him from London to Berlin and then back to his home town of Glasgow, where he reaches an all time low. It is the Berlin story, that is told as we are following his downward spiral in Glasgow, that provides the real tension. The characters are particularly well written and it is the portrayal of the main protagonist that had me agreeing with the sentiment that it felt like it was written by a man. But basically that just means that Welsh is a good enough writer to create a totally believable character of the opposite sex.

I enjoyed the story, the style of writing, and I particulary liked the characterisation, but I have a small, but nagging feeling of disappointment with regards the ending. Can't put my finger on it, and it certainly wouldn't stop me recommending the book, but maybe I just expected a little bit more. However, this is an enjoyable and compelling enough read to leave me wanting to try more of Louise Welsh's work.

Who doesn’t know of The Complete Idiot’s Guide Series? I’m a longtime fan of these books and read as many as I’m able. I always gain knowledge and it’s a great reference guide to keep on the shelf.

THE COMPLETE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO ENHANCING SEXUAL DESIRE is broken down into three parts. Part one begins with the stages of love and then jumps in to the real issues couples have today. Much of what’s mentioned in this section, we already know on some level. But we are in a fast-paced age where little things are easily overlooked. It’s nice to have these reminders.

Part two jumps in to the exciting part of turn-ons with creative ways to enhance the mood for making love. It’s not just the physical body that’s address, though having a healthy body is a key point. The book addresses the emotional side as well.

Part three wraps it all up with how to find balance for family, work, and couple time. All the phases of being a couple - before children, post-delivery, small children, elementary school children, and couples with teens - are covered. There is even a section for couples who are also colleagues. (This would be my husband’s biggest nightmare.)

My favorite part of this series is the little boxes that contain priceless bits of wisdom. For this series, these boxes are labeled “Mood Killer” and “Love Booster.” I highly recommend this book to all couples, no matter which stage of the relationship you’re in. It’s a non-threatening way to put some va-va-voom into your relationship. And can’t we all use at least a little bit of that?

Charlie is a prostitute: young, good-looking, the sort that can stop traffic. She's intelligent and, rather like Rita in Willy Russell's play, is desperate to improve herself. Nigel is a community psychiatric nurse (I think - since he calls the other characters his patients) married to a teacher. Gary is Charlie's boyfriend - he's what a lot of people would call 'mental'. Either he's schizophrenic, suffering from drug-induced delusions or just has an overactive imagination - whatever the reason, an imaginary character called Galileo lives alongside him. This works very well. I like the way Galileo is introduced - it's interesting, arresting and unusual. Both Charlie and Nigel are addicted to cocaine. The book contains a lot of fascinating detail for someone like me who has never even tried weed (yes, I know - I've never had a life). Charlie's desperation to get another fix comes over very well - and is a convincing motivation for all that she does. Ralph, a more minor character, is Gary's friend. He generally bumbles through the narrative and is involved in a piece of black comedic slapstick at the end.

Nigel, it turns out, is not the do-gooder that he initially seems. Like Gary he is driven by his hormones, and is also incredibly gullible and naive. Gary is mainly out of it. His schemes and motivations come from Galileo and another imaginary figure called Chastity - who, of course, is unchaste. Sex, and the promise of sex, as well as the constant need for drugs, dominates Gary's life. He speaks, and thinks, in expletives and there are several sex scenes - motivated by lust rather than anything more noble.

When hormone-driven Nigel meets attractive Charlie in the absence of Gary, the inevitable results. What follows then is a puzzle of who exactly is manipulating whom. The ending is just a little rushed, to my mind, but satisfying and not expected. It is also a happy one, in which love, ultimately, prevails.

UNDER CONTROL is Mark McNay's second novel. It is a fast-paced and flows along well. It is a quick, easy read and a convincing insight into a world in which everyone has lost control.

I received this copy from Canongate as an uncorrected proof and so cannot include any quotes.