Meg Bergman is fifteen and fed up. She lives in a tiny town in rural 1990s South Africa - a hot-bed of traditionalism, racial tension and (in Meg's eyes) ordinariness. Meg has no friends either, due largely to what the community sees as her mother's interfering attempts to educate farm workers about AIDS. But one day Xanthe arrives - cool, urban, feisty Xanthe, who for some unknown reason seems to want to hang out with Meg.
Xanthe arrives into Meg's life like a hurricane, offering her a look at a teenage life she never knew existed. But cracks quickly begin to show in their friendship when Meg's childhood friend Simon returns from his gap year travels.
My thoughts
A really enjoyable read which appealed to me quite nicely.
I really loved the historical setting and the backdrop to the story more than anything else. The book is set in South Africa in the 90s and I enjoyed learning about life during the period for ordinary people particularly looking at the divisions that existed even though they should have passed. I was very much fascinated by it throughout the book.
However I wasn't a huge fan of the main characters so I found myself not all that fussed about what happened to them as such. Also the storyline is very slow so not for everyone but despite both those things I certainly liked it enough.
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