Spike Magazine

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avidly reading it on the bus the other day (I’d better
stop there, lest Julie lead a misguided anti-paedo lynch
mob against me.) The thing about Julie’s voice is that
it is indeed perennially adolescent, and this suits the
book perfectly. She still seems to be a lost teen aching
to shock the grown-ups.
Much has been made of the “explicit content” of
this book (not least by the cover), but in reality there’s
very little muck to be had here (there is one scene of
group sex, but nothing is described). But she brings the
bitchiness, the longing, the loneliness, the SHOUTING
to make your point that are all part of the teenage condition
to life very well.
BUY Julie Burchill books online from and
I won’t spoil the ending, but I must say I find it a
pretty terrible cop-out by Julie’s standards. A triumph of
middle-class safety against the working-class ‘other’.
You traitor Julie! What would Uncle Joe say?! But it
is I’m afraid to say … sweet, indeed Kim’s whole tale
resonates a certain empathy which brings a warm glow
to even to this jaded heart.
So, once again, I’ve been won over. What can this
evil woman, this “sociopath” and “moral cretin” (her
words) do to finally put me off her? Defend the images
of torture in Abu Ghraib? Oh dear, I’ve just heard she’s
already done that. Time for more soul-searching you
bad, bad boy. �
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