Have I mentioned how much I enjoyed Michelle Tea’s new novel Rose of No Man’s Land yet? It’s not your typical coming of age novel—for starters it doesn’t revolve around boys. Tea’s protagonist Trisha Driscoll stands on the brink of adulthood, even though she’s only 14. Already an alcoholic, she has no friends and rarely leaves the house. She finds it difficult to relate to her older sister, who so wants to flee their hometown of Mogsfield, MA that she’s trying to get a spot on MTV’s The Real World. After Trisha gets abruptly fired on her first day at Ohmigod! at the mall, she finds herself making friends with Rose, another mallrat who works at the carnival food eatery Clown in the Box. I loved Trisha’s brashness mixed with naivety. She captures the feeling of being old enough to know, but not old enough to know better. It’s a great book.