Book Review — Boring Girls by Sara Taylor

This interesting debut novel gripped me from the off with its "Virgin Suicides plus Carrie vibes". Rachel is an outsider in high school; mildly bullied but mostly ignored. A chance overhear of a death metal band plunges her into a world custom built for outcasts. The book spends its majority trucking through forming a band, nascent gigs, Rachel's mild obsession with a specific painting that becomes really important later, themes of joining a scene and finding kinship; found family when your parents don't "get" you. But also frustration that there are assholes everywhere with the self assurance of any smart 15 year old. I should know — I was one! Spoiler/Trigger WarningThe main events of the book are kick started by a sexual assault. It's not extremely graphic but it's worth flagging. Taylor is clearly drawing on her experiences of being in a band and this gives those scenes a depth and colour that is lacking elsewhere in the book. Some contextual inaccuracies pulled me out of the…