Inside the mind of a teenage girl

TEEN FICTION:HOSTILITY, SHAME and self-loathing too often thrive in teen social scenes. Adolescent inclusion codes can bewilder adults and youngsters alike, and cliques can be as savage as shoals of sharks.

Recent adult novels about teenagers in Dublin, such as Paul Murray's Skippy Diesand Kevin Power's factional Bad Day in Blackrock,highlight just how bruising, even pathological, their networks can be.

Now two fresh names to young people's fiction refashion contemporary emotional kaleidoscopes into teen chick lit, a category of writing with its own conventions. Both novels are set in Dublin: the cast of Denise Deegan's And By the Way . . . A Butterfly Novel(Hachette Books Ireland, 329pp, €7.99) lives along the southern Dart line, and the story draws on the affluent stereotypes associated with the area; in Anna Carey's The Real Rebecca(O'Brien Press, 256pp, €7.99), the characters inhabit the more pedestrian and Dartless Drumcondra.

Neither writer is a novice. Carey is a freelance journalist whose work is familiar from the national dailies, including these pages, and Deegan already has several adult novels to her credit. Their skill shows in their deft handling of plot and in their characters’ credible responses to their teen emotional crises. In particular, both writers have considerable insight into the minefields of adolescent friendships and know how to keep the pages turning.

And By the Waytraces the fortunes of Alex. She's one of the "Kids Of. Kids of diplomats, media stars, musicians, artists, actors, oh, and wealthy people" who attend Strandbrook College. When her mum dies, she and Rockstar, her dad, lock away their emotions. He submerges himself in his work, she in a lather of self-pity. Alex cannot forgive Rockstar for abandoning her mother on her deathbed, and, to ensure she's never hurt again, she refuses to reach out to anyone; not to her best friend Rachel, not to heart-throb David and certainly not to Rockstar. From moping in bed through burgeoning first love, through tiffs with girlfriends and a transition-year work placement, slowly and plausibly over more than 300 pages, Alex imperceptibly discards her armour. Of course there are setbacks: father and daughter indulge in loveless fumblings with their respective ill-chosen partners, Alex deceives her utterly decent work-placement boss and almost causes her loyal bodyguard to be fired.

Deegan’s great gift is her ability to show similarities between father and daughter’s behaviour in parallel but quite different subplots. It transpires that Rockstar could not face up to losing his wife, just as Alex cannot deal with David’s departure. There may be messages here, but there is no preachiness. Deegan knows when less is more.

And By the Wayis one lively page-turner, and Carey's The Real Rebeccais another. This is a funny, light-hearted romp. Rebecca breathlessly records her zigzagging emotions in her diary, and her garrulous, melodramatic delivery makes for a great read: almost every day is the worst of her life. Her mum lets the side down by writing a teen novel in which – horrors! – a character bears a resemblance to our narrator and her sister. Schoolmates, with "Karen Bitchface Rodgers" leading the offensive, refuse to distinguish between fact and fiction. They seize on the passing resemblance, use it as a weapon and mercilessly bludgeon Rebecca with it. She, in turn, wreaks revenge on her mother, who is trying to balance the family budget with her income from her stories. Self-absorbed Rebecca may be, but she does get on with life. Performing as a drummer in a battle of the bands competition underlines her difference from her mother's fictional characters.

Then there's Paperboy: through a series of almost monosyllabic mumbles, teenage love blossoms. In Rebecca's dreams they are practically engaged. Carey's observation of adolescent self-absorption and uncertainty is sure and precise. Deegan's second Butterflynovel is on its way. I predict that we will also see more of Carey's Rebecca very soon.

Mary Shine Thompson is former dean of St Patrick’s College Drumcondra, a college of Dublin City University