She gazed out into the audience as though expecting someone special , and her expression was so trustful and tender that my heart went out to her. Then, turning her face to her guitar, she played another chord, lifted her throat, and began to sing…I stood motionless and listened. The other people in the room fell away. It was as if she was singing for me alone, and no one else in the world existed.
Before Anna meets Flynn, she feels unlovable. She is different than anyone else she knows, and is hurting from the breakup of her parents’ marriage, an accident she feels was her fault, and a battle with depression. But after moving town and changing jobs, she meets Flynn and the pair are soon inseparable – eating cake, heading to the beach, camping, and loving each other. But Flynn is hiding a secret, and when Anna discovers it, she doesn’t know whether she really knows Flynn at all – or how she can cope with this truth.
About a Girl is a beautiful story of love between two teenage girls, as well as a journey of self-discovery. Sad, happy and wistful in equal, yet different, parts, the story is told in three parts taking the reader into the recent past, then further back, then forward again, to reveal Anna’s story in an absorbing form which goes right to the heart of the character, revealing her inner workings in intimate detail.
Beautiful.
About a Girl, by Joanne Horniman
Allen & Unwin, 2010