Pretty Little Dirty

By: Amanda Boyden

Narrated by: Martha Lee

In this dazzling debut, Amanda Boyden delivers a compulsively readable novel of girlhood friendship. Set in 1978 Kansas City and then swirling through California in the early 80s, the story of Lisa and Celeste tells of two girls who are more than just inseparable - they can barely tell where one ends and the other begins.

Celeste's life seems just about perfect: she's beautiful, has a gigantic house, two older sisters to coach her through middle school, and loving parents - the stern but secretly soft Mrs. Diamond and the lively, bombastic Mr. Diamond. As Lisa's own house has long been a place devoid of joyful noise - her mother has been shut in her bedroom wearing her nightgown for years - Lisa joins the Diamond household, slipping into their routine of Sunday night dinners, wearing Celeste's clothing, and soaking in the normalcy of the Diamond life.

What starts off as a sweet coming-of-age story - mastering jazz dance high kicks, the perfect baby oil basting for a suntan, and the fine art of making filet mignon for Celeste's larger-than-life father - soon swirls into an intoxicating novel of art, experimentation, music, and self-destructive impulses. As the girls outgrow their suburban life, chafing at their curfews, discovering sex, beer, and pot, they fall deeper and deeper in love with a new wild freedom. They dare each other onwards, adventuring into the realm of concerts, cocaine, and the San Francisco punk scene.

This is the story of their shared fall from grace. Gorgeous, sexy, and exuberant, in this completely addictive debut, Amanda Boyden brings us into the world of a friendship so tightly knit that where one girl leads, the other can't help but follow.

©2006 Amanda Boyden (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

disappointed

I read this book several years ago and LOVED it so I was excited to see it on audible. But I really could not bear the narrator, I tried different speeds but she was so stiff and unemotional. I was super disappointed, I couldn't even get past the first few chapters.