Slags Review

“She grips my hand and it’s the hand I’ve known the best for the longest and it’ll always feel safe and dangerous and big and small and old and young and loud and quiet and lost and found.”

Slags follows Sarah and her sister Juliette on a road trip around Scotland that brings up memories and feelings from an avoided adolescent past. The book runs in two time frames; the sisters in the present and Sarah’s diaries from when she was fifteen and obsessed with boybands, drinking and most of all her English teacher Mr Keaveney. 

It took me a while to get really into the book but I’m glad I did. To begin with I found the diary entries a bit more enticing because Unsworth does such an incredible job at recreating the mind of a fifteen year old. The pure confidence in which Sarah sees the world is incredible even when misguided. I’m sure lots of us can look back at ourselves at that age and curl up into a ball of cringe. Looking back as an adult at these passages made me reflect on myself at that age and made me realise that basically all fifteen year olds are a bit feral. Feral in a good way, that is. It’s perhaps something we should cling onto in adulthood and not have it knocked out of us. I also kept finding myself cringing, sympathising and worrying for young Sarah, which was strange because until then I’d never thought of feeling like that about my own younger self. These sections, immature, hilarious and tender, then being put up against her as an adult meant that the modern sections didn’t have the same pull on me as a reader until the younger Sarah began to bleed through. After this I found the rest of the book to be great and cleverly structured.

The world of sex and boys is big for young Sarah and this is carried through to the adult plot. The effects of relationships at fifteen, including the bad, quick and upsetting ones, have an effect on who Sarah is. This is the strength in the writing I feel. How  those young experiences have made her, how the past still feels present and heavy on her. What I really loved from Unsworth was the changing of tenses when Sarah realises that she’s been carrying her past with her, holding on with a nervous tight grip to the good, the bad and the guilt. Suddenly, adult Sarah has the present tense while young Sarah is finally in the past tense and it’s so powerful and clever I felt quite jealous that I’d never thought of doing it myself. 

As I said, I did feel the start was a bit slow and at times the dialogue felt a bit preachy. This kind dialogue that reads a bit like a speech in a casual conversation is something that I notice a lot and it’s just something I don't have a personal preference for. I’m boring and annoying so I like really realistic dialogue that would bore most people to tears. 

However, the writing of this book is so punchy and filled with memories and nostalgia. It’s also so funny. When a character from the boy band of days gone by reappears in the book the humour is just incredible. It’s ridiculous and real all at the same time. 

Sisterhood is so central to this book. It’s the most loving relationship in the whole novel whilst not shying away from conveying the complexities and competitiveness that comes with knowing someone your whole life. This is the heart of Unsworth's writing and it’s just brilliant.