Sugar Rush

The fast-paced writing here makes British journalist Burchill's first novel for young adults a fun and addictive read. After 15-year-old Kim's mother abandons her family, her father claims he cannot "afford" to keep the teen in private school, so she must transfer to Brighton's tough public high school. There she meets and befriends Maria "Sugar" Sweet, a beautiful bully who introduces her to a wild life of drinking and clubbing. Kim realizes she has a "pash on the naughtiest girl in school," but as their relationship turns physical, she gets increasingly possessive, and confused, by Sugar (who will kiss Kim in public to get attention, but Kim has to tell her not to talk about a boy Sugar once hooked up with). Some of the plotting fails to make perfect sense: Kim's realization that her mother is a child, and her acceptance of her new home with her father and brother seems sudden. But Kim's narration is clever and animated, and readers will understand why she feels like she's in a music video with Sugar, "running, laughing, taunting, teasing, and always to the thump-thump-thump of soaring, searing, dance music," even as they begin to recognize that the relationship is doomed. Ages 14-up. (June)