Haze

by Jo Brodie

Bubbly Hazel Fauld, or Haze to her friends, is happily gay and sweet 16. Well, at least, she is as sweet as any self respecting Goth and aspiring Rock drummer would ever wish to be. Cheerful and confident, with an impish sense of humour, she lives a charmed life as the daughter of a Rock star and a fashion designer, while her beloved older sister, Roisin, is becoming an increasingly big name model. There are only two small clouds in her sky. The first is her near psychopathic Games mistress, Miss Baxter, and the other is her non-existent love life. Because she has never managed to find an actual girlfriend. She has crushes, most notably on her best friend Tina and new girl in town, Annie Roberts, but both only have eyes for the boys. It is really starting to get on her nerves, but what is a girl to do?

298 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 5, 2019

About the author

Whilst still missing darkest Wiltshire, Jo Brodie is now an accidental Mancunian, having never quite got round to leaving the city after studying at Manchester University. They write widely under various pen names, on topics that range from Roman and Victorian history to Rock music, and Jo has recently become a regular writer for feminist music Web site ‘Hera Says‘. Jo’s lesbian novels and shorter stories, which are collectively entitled ‘The Saltbury Chronicles’, centre on a diverse cast of characters from the mythical Wiltshire market town of Saltbury. They are love stories, but they are more than just escapism, often exploring serious LGBTQ, gender and other issues along the way. In private life, Jo is happily married with two cats. They play bass and guitar (very badly) and yearn to learn drums, if only the neighbours would understand!

The Saltbury books contain a character called Debbie Stewart, a true Rock guitar heroine. Debbie is not based on any particular real life guitarist. In fact Jo’s actual guitar heroine is a very different figure: Marissa Paternoster of the ‘Screaming Females’. Debbie, though, is who Jo wishes they could be – if only – and you can tell a lot about someone from who they would like to be.

Reviews

[Bigbear Woolliscroft · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely delightful book. Funny, beautifully rounded and engaging characters and a happy ending, can't wait for the next volume. Quite the discovery.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

You should know that when I review a story most of the time I CANNOT be like the cool people here analysing the books. I just pretend the characters are real people and I'm giving unsolicited opinion on Twitter/Reddit. Be warned.

~K.U.~

I wasn't very fond of it at first, the pace seemed odd for me, but after a short while it did hit hard and what a pleasant reading! I found myself giggling and cracking with laughs many times. That's a very cute coming of age story and all the characters are simply loving and interesting.

And the best part is that I was so oblivious to this series having 6 books that now I'm on cloud 9 lol.