Readers' rating:
Published Sep 2014
320 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
This is the story of a wild girl and a ghost girl; a boy who knew nothing and a boy who thought he knew everything.
It's a story about Skylark Martin, who lives with her father and brother in a vintage record shop and is trying to find her place in the world. It's about ten-year-old Super Agent Gully and his case of a lifetime. And about beautiful, reckless, sharp-as-knives Nancy. It's about tragic-hot Luke, and just-plain-tragic Mia Casey. It's about the dark underbelly of a curious neighborhood. It's about summer, and weirdness, and mystery, and music.
And it's about life and death and grief and romance. All the good stuff.
"Starred Review. Funny, observant, a relentless critic of the world's (and her own) flaws, Sky is original, thoroughly authentic and great company." - Kirkus
"Girl Defective is melancholy and haunting, funny and hopeful, and just everything I love in a book." - Trish Doller, author of Where the Stars Still Shine
"Charming, funny, fun…a delightful journey through an Australian teenager's summer of weird and cool." - Rachel Cohn, New York Times bestselling co-author of Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
"Smart. Edgy. Beautifully written. One of my year's favorites." - Melina Marchetta, Printz Medal winner for Jellicoe Road
This information about Girl Defective was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
I grew up in Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs feeling far away from anything interesting. At eight I raced BMX; at thirteen I was into hair dye and pop music; at fifteen I decided that (like Sheila E) I wanted to lead the glamorous life, but school was a reality I couldn't ignore ' after school I boarded the carousel of casual employment - pubs, cafes and record shops. I read all the time ' I loved the beats, pulp fiction and cult writers. I had lots of literary crushes. I finally went to University where I set up a small press called Vandal Press and began writing seriously.
Then I went overseas, leaving a trail of short stories. In 2002, one of my stories was made into the short film Pity 24. I won the Australian Writers Guild award for the script and travelled with the film to the Los Angeles Shortsfest where I saw the blind guy from Becker, walked on Kim Basinger's red carpet and went to a pool party atop Schwabs Drugstore (and learned that no one swims at LA pool parties, NO ONE...)
Finally I got a proper job working on hit TV show The Secret Life of Us where part of my job was writing the guff - the seven seconds of something that no-one actually hears. And when that job folded, I took all this stuff about movies and false starts and appreciating the background bits and turned them into a novel.
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