Pretty Thing

Description

When fifteen-year-old Becs meets Bracken, she is convinced she's found her soul mate. So what if he's much older, and who cares about her exams? He's gorgeous, he gets her, she feels free with him, and when he holds her she feels safe. But is she? When her best friend is assaulted, one of a spate of attacks against girls from her school, the world suddenly seems a much more dangerous place. Who is it safe to trust? Should she follow her head or her heart? Becs is forced to make choices that will affect the rest of her life. Set during the summer of '76, to the music of David Bowie and the Rolling Stones, Pretty Thing is a powerful story of first encounters, dark obsession and last chances. It pits true love against real life and asks: is love really all you need?

Promotion info

Summer, 1976. 15-year-old Becs falls in love with an older man, while her best friend is traumatised by a horrible encounter with a man who's preying on local girls . Love and danger, secrets and lies: this is a dark, tense, hard-hitting novel about two girls forced to grow up fast.

Author description

Jennifer Nadel is a qualified barrister who, after reporting for the BBC and Channel 4 News, became ITN's Home Affairs Editor. Her non-fiction book about Sara Thornton - the story of the woman who killed her violent alcoholic husband - was published in four languages and made into a BBC Film and a Channel 4 documentary. Having attended the Faber Academy in 2011 she now writes fiction full time and is in the final year of an MA in creative writing at Goldsmiths. She is married with three children, and lives in London. This is her first novel.