A better title for this book would be ‘Sisters’ but perhaps then it wouldn’t have the same impact. It’s mostly about two sisters, Sarah and Juliette, on a road trip to the Scottish Highlands to celebrate Juliette’s 40th birthday. As they slowly start to unpack their relationship and their memories, there’s a real insight into the nature of siblings with Sarah being the older and guilty big sister and Juliette being more streetwise and, somehow, now, more adult in many ways. The interplay between them shifts from their childhood roles of big sister keeping an eye on the kid to a more complex relationship where Sarah is trapped in the past.

That is where the ‘slags’ of the title come in, through the voice of the 15 year old Sarah soon to leave school, fantasising about her English teacher, and hanging out with her friends who are obsessively thinking about their favourite boy bands. The trouble with the plot is that none of this is really authentically slaggy! It comes to a kind of head where Sarah and her mate blag their way into a dressing room at a rock concert, followed disconcertingly by the even younger Juliette but, after a lot of agonising and some convenient vomiting, nothing happens. Nothing happens with the English teacher either, and it turns out in passing that the school is fee-paying and not the bad end of Grange Hill!

Part of Sarah’s excuse for being a slag is that her mother is a drunk, but a drunk who tries at some level to do her best for her children. It’s not very authentic either!

However, the continuing portrait of Sarah as an adult rings true. The way she struggles to make relationships and to, even simply, relate to people, as well as a series of failed sexual relationships is a convincing portrait of a struggling adult slightly traumatised by childhood and something weird that happened on the bus. She is carrying a lot of baggage when she and Juliette set off on the trip!

Juliette has developed in another direction as a suburban mother with a dull husband, two children and a feeling that life has passed her by. She admits to a torrid affair and some sexual exploration. She has a more honest opinion of herself and where she sits in the world.

At the end, the road trip turns out slightly silly with the pursuit of the teenage boy band member, now in paunchy middle-age playing the pubs. Somehow, Sarah blames him for her troubles but, frankly, it is not his fault, and things then go from bad to worse!

So, in the end, this is a bit of a mixed up book. Some reviewers find the slag chapters authentic but they didn’t do it for me. However, the relationship between the sisters is well explored even if the ending is a bit daft. Should you read it? Probably yes if you have a sister, especially a younger one who you felt, or were made to be, a bit responsible for!