Puberty Blues: A Surfie Saga

I swore I reviewed this years ago when I first read it.

Puberty Blues is an Australian cult-classic and it's the book that parents give to their children when they become a teenager to dissuade them from experimenting with drugs and sex.

I was a little bit older when I read this book and so I feel like I didn't get as much from it if I had read it at 15 or 16 but nevertheless, I consumed this book. It was a super fast, rapid read that pulled you in and didn't let you go until the end.

The book centres around two girls, Deb and Sue while they try to navigate high school and all of its trappings. What I liked about this book was its bluntness, its rapid descent into drug use, (I think eating disorders?) and the dangers of unprotected sex. show more I liked that about this book because it felt real, it felt honest, it felt raw.

I won't tell you what happens in the end because I don't want to spoil it, but these two girls are incredible characters to get to know.

There are lots and lots of trigger warnings here for underaged sex, rape, drug taking and everything else but I would say it's a feminist-friendly work and the scenes Lette writes are often used to make a point, to expose the awful sexism of the Australian surf scene in the 1970's.

Thanks, Lette, for these girls. show less

The authors are about three years younger than me and spent their time on Sydney's southern beaches, whereas I grew up around the northern beaches. Otherwise, it all sounded pretty familiar.

"Puberty Blues" can be read in a few hours. It's a short novel, written in simple, yet clever teenage prose by the two 18 year old protagonists - who went on to become well known Aussie writers (Kathy Lette, who is fmaous for being married to Geoffrey Robertson, and Gabrielle Carey).
The Aussie vernacular used in this book is hilarious, and Sydney-siders will definitely relate to its setting (Cronulla). Two 13 year old chicks, Deb and Sue, seek to get out of "Dickheadland" and into the Greenhill gang who are cool and respected. Puberty Blues marks show more the journey of 2 girls from "nerd" to "cool", and speaks in detail about the sacrifices they make to get there. They manage to snare cool boyfriends, but they must go to desperate lengths to keep them around and not get "dropped". The girls experiment with drugs, sex and relationships throughout the book. Watching them willingly subordinate themselves to their older boyfriends is tough for someone who has been there. In fact, much of the journey of these precocious girls is familiar and therefore absolutely relevant to adolescent females everywhere, especially Australia. It's like the feminized answer to J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye". The ending is satisfying and ultimately life-affirming.
Overall, a thoroughly worthwhile book. show less

A deceptively simple story of two high school girls that perfectly captures the language of an era.

Raw, honest and real.