Vanessa Partridge, cello-playing good girl, spends every summer holiday at Shearwater. This year, her brother is bringing his best mate, Darith—the object of many,manyfantasies Van will never say aloud. Or will she? This summer feels different . . . and so does Van. But her first taste of independence comes with a bitter tang of regret, and when her sense of self is shattered, Van wrestles with ideas of consent and desire, and what it means to want and be wanted. Can someone with sensible plaits and a soft spot for Plato also have secret, lustful fantasies? And if she does, is there anything wrong with that? The Learning Curves of Vanessa Partridgeis a heartbreaking and joyful coming-of-age novel about sex, love, family, and finding your voice.
"With an absent mother, and a distant, potentially evil father, Vanessa does her best to grapple alone with understanding desire, consent, rape culture, sexual assault, and ‘doing the right thing’. This is smart, wickedly funny, and painfully relatable teenage fiction that explores heavy topics with honesty and humour. Vanessa is a wonderful protagonist, and invites the reader to sit with all too familiar teenage discomfort, awkwardness and angst. Vanessa’s life is bog-standard teenage chaos, but she’s got a lot of heart and grit to get herself through. Amazingly, amidst all the drama Vanessa never seems to forget to do her cello practice either. Expect laughter, and more laughter again. It will be a definite hit with those who love contemporary YA." —Readings
"A book that speaks directly to the concerns of older teenage girls. It is a story that prioritises self-care and assertiveness over politeness and likeability, that bucks the historic trend of averting the gaze of teen readers away from female pleasure and instead encourages readers (girls and boys) to acknowledge the realities of female bodies. Strahan tackles lĂ-
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