Special: Stained by Joanne Hichens

'What are you looking at? You think you can judge me?'

 - Stained 

So far, one of the most popular titles in the Cutting Edge series, judging by the amount of enthusiastic reviews it has received to date, is Stained by Joanne Hichens. It was short-listed for the South African Sanlam Youth Literature Award in 2005. Reviews have appeared in The School Librarian, Carousel: The guide to children’s books and Teen Titles. Lucy loved it in her blog post on 5minutespeace. It’s also had a good review from Beth, age 20, on turn2page1.com.

Both Joanne and her novel have also done well on Chicklish, the popular UK teen fiction website, which has  already reviewed a number of titles in the Cutting Edge series, such as Gun Dog and The Only Brother. In her review of Stained, Alexandra described the novel as:

‘very different, an emotional rollercoaster from start to end. It’s gritty, tough, dark but at the same time quite brilliant and different. It takes you to places you know exist – places that people don’t usually dare put in print to read about.’  

Alexandra has hit the nail on the head: different, realistic and honest is just what the Cutting Edge series is all about. Stained deals with the honest, emotional truth behind dysfunctional families, teenage motherhood and poverty.

Joanne Hichens

Stained is set in a poverty-stricken part of Cape Town, and tells the story of the adopted Grace, and her neighbours, sisters Crystal and Shardonnay. Grace struggles with feelings of dislocation and alienation due to her adoption and her unknown, mixed-race parentage. When she gets involved with Crystal’s dysfunctional family, however, she realises that she may well be Crystal’s only hope.

 Alexandra from Chicklish also interviewed Joanne herself, asking her about her inspiration for Stained and the difficulties of tackling harsh social topics. Read Joanne’s original and honest interview here.

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