Set among the clubs and council estates of Middlesbrough, this exuberant debut will appeal to fans of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, and has has the advantage of being written by someone still under 25. It alternates the points of view of the shy, 15-year-old Adam, who spends most of his time in his bedroom listening to the Beatles and fantasising about girls, and bold, sexually precocious Eve, one of those he fantasises about.

Eve's mother has just had cancer diagnosed, and Eve's reaction is to drown her sorrows in a cocktail of alcopops and amyl nitrate, in the company of various like-minded girlfriends in “gold porno tops” and high heels. Later, she is shown taking Ecstasy - called “apples” to underline the Garden of Eden parallels - with a former boyfriend. More disturbing is a party at which Claire, one of Eve's friends, is raped while unconscious from drinking too much. A baby results - although this plot strand is less convincing than the rest.

All this is described in the stream-of-consciousness style de rigueur with this kind of thing. Some readers may be surprised, and even shocked, by the revelation that teenagers take drugs and have sex with such cheerful abandon; but most will not be. Those troubled by the novel's seeming amorality may take heart from the fact that it is the nice, sensitive Adam, not the thuggish, promiscuous Gary, who comes out on top.

Apples by Richard Milward
Faber, £7.99

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