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My Favourite Manson Girl

On sale

7th June 2016

Price: £7.99

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Selected: ebook / ISBN-13: 9781472150851

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Perfect for fans of The Girls, this is a bittersweet, honest, and widely acclaimed coming-of-age novel that distills honest truths about American girlhood

Anna has had a miserable year. Everything feels wrong with her life. And rather than stay and face the mess, she steals a credit card and books herself a seat on the first flight out of town to Los Angeles, to crash with her sister. But soon after she lands, cold reality soon dawns on her: Hollywood isn’t the escape she needs. She is trapped in a town full of lost souls and wannabes, with no friends, no cash and no return ticket.

When she’s offered a job researching the murderous Manson girls for a dubious film, she reluctantly accepts – she needs the money. But soon enough, among the fake smiles and glitter-fuelled parties, things turn from strange, to dark, to dangerous . . .

This is not going to be the summer Anna had in mind.

My Favourite Manson Girl is a chilling story about being young, lost and female. This is a story about how girls disappear.

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Reviews

Guardian online
A brilliant novel . . . it has elements of a thriller and romance but it is also wittily and cynically written, accurately portraying the thoughts and feelings of a 15 year-old girl.
Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Setting her tale against the glittery, gritty backdrop of modern-day Los Angeles, the author deftly weaves together multiple story strands to create a razor-sharp commentary on our culture, observed with keen wit from the perspective of one honest and complex American girl. An insightful, original take on the coming-of-age story, this novel plumbs the depths of American culture to arrive at a poignant emotional truth
Maggie Mitchell, author of Pretty Is
In My Favorite Manson Girl, Alison Umminger gives us an unforgettable teen heroine - smart, observant, witty, and tough. Anna navigates family conflict, movie sets, and a seriously macabre research project with unsparing intelligence and humour skewering contemporary culture and adult hypocrisy in an edgy coming-of-age novel that will appeal to adult readers as well as teens. Anna's voice is as original as it is compelling - and ultimately it's moving, too, as we detect the vulnerability behind her bravado. Umminger's swift, razor-sharp prose makes this a fast-paced read, a lively and incisive treatment of teen-aged girlhood with seriously dark and provocative undertones.
Kiese Laymon, author of How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America
The most imaginative novel I've read in years . . . It explores the everyday-ness of psychological violence and emotional affliction without normalizing the violence. It actually normalizes the love, humour and youthful curiosity needed to understand trauma. I can't think of a type of reader who will not thank themselves for going on the journey with Anna and Alison Umminger. It's an incredible book and it's so so important.
Booklist, starred review
This is not a sensationalized look at a family of serial killers, but a mirror held up to a certain type of violence that effects women in America every day. Bittersweet and true, Anna's journey to self-discovery is one that should be widely read.
Emily M. Danforth, author of The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Funny, sad, often surprising, and just damned authentic. I know I won't be the only one who didn't want Anna's glittery-dark Hollywood summer to end.
Becky Albertalli, Morris Award-winning author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
Messy, honest, and unflinchingly real. I can't get this book out of my head. I don't want to get this book out of my head
Publishers Weekly, starred review
Debut author Umminger's humor is biting, yet it reveals richly complicated relationships among mothers, daughters, and sisters. Umminger crafts a Los Angeles both glittering and soulless, leading to Anna's realization that she may have more in common with the Manson girls than she thought, but it's the choices she makes that set her apart