Maura Pierlot

An Australia-set play, this features eight monologues from connected characters, some monologues feeling more complete than others, each teen dealing with a different aspect of mental health, from body image to gender identity, living with an alcoholic parent, the anxiety of feeling like you’ve been left entirely unprepared for adulthood, the most popular kid in school contemplating suicide, etc. So at times it certainly isn’t light reading and may be triggering for some, but it does feel thoughtfully crafted and for the most part the characters’ young, distraught voices, to me, at least, rang true.

While there are some discussion guides for classrooms as well as resources at the back of the book, the monologues themselves don’t offer easy answers, what they might do however is make a reader or a viewer of the play feel less like they’re the only one in the world feeling the way they do.… (mais)