{"product_id":"in-bloom-9781668205938","title":"In Bloom","description":"\u003cb\u003eA story of class and coming-of-age as a group of best friends investigates the allegations against their teacher.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt's the mid-nineties, and in the small, shitty coastal town of Vincent, Australia, four Nirvana-obsessed fourteen-year-old girls form a grunge band. The Bastards are \"forgettable girls\"--poor, not particularly clever, ridiculed by their better-off classmates, and desperate to escape the fates of their mothers, who seem locked into a life of minimum-wage jobs, surprise pregnancies, and drunk boyfriends. The Battle of the Bands is the girls' one ticket out. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs small-town rumors swirl, however, The Bastards are abandoned by their lead singer Lily Lucid, who accuses their beloved music teacher of assault. The three remaining girls are left with nothing. Nothing, that is, except their amateur detective skills, a conviction that Mr. P is innocent, and a readiness to sacrifice everything to keep their dream alive. Spinning with rage at the confines of their lives, they reach a precipice where there's no turning back. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBrash and bold, grungy and propulsive, \u003ci\u003e In Bloom\u003c\/i\u003e is a coming-of-age novel about class, girlhood in precarious circumstances, and how to build a sense of self when the foundations of friendship fail.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLiz Allan's fiction has won the Rachel Funari Prize and been shortlisted for the Alan Marshall Short Story Award, the Aesthetica Creative Writing Prize, and the Overland Writers Residency, and longlisted for the Leicester Writes Short Story Prize. She is the author of the novel \u003ci\u003eIn Bloom \u003c\/i\u003eand her short stories have appeared in \u003ci\u003eOverland\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eVerge\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eYen\u003c\/i\u003e magazine, \u003ci\u003eAesthetica\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eBest Summer Stories 2018\u003c\/i\u003e. She teaches at an all-girls school in the United Kingdom.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51967188861202,"sku":"9781668205938","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_155be1e8-036f-4273-af9f-78f423380cc7.jpg?v=1768929046","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/in-bloom-9781668205938","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}