Mosh Pit

Darleen R. Golke is a high-school teacher-librarian in Abbotsford, B.C.

When 17-year-old Simone’s friend decides to drop out of school, the
underage girls celebrate “Cherry’s Prom” night by conning their
way into Satan’s Playhouse where drugs and booze flow freely and
Cuntagion’s music “rawks.” The celebration ultimately precipitates
their separation as Cherry spirals downward into addiction and crime and
Simone watches helplessly. In a climactic scene, Simone attempts a final
futile rescue, only to watch Cherry crash, literally and figuratively.
Simone’s journey of awareness exposes her to clubs and bars, to
after-hours parties and biker hangouts, to a sleazy job at an
“internet porn site,” and to a violent attack from a police officer.
She finds acceptance and friendship from a variety of young people with
“ideas and dreams” who have learned to avoid conflict, among them
Carol, with whom Simone enjoys her first real “date” and genuinely
satisfying sexual experience.

Dunnion, a Toronto Tenant Advocate by day and Miss Kitty Galore, a
“trash-talking high-femme” performance artist by night, describes
Mosh Pit as a “queer punk rock love tragedy” that has “the mandate
of sex, drugs and rock and roll.” Sex, drugs, addiction, homelessness,
violence, crime, mental illness, dysfunctional families, and the like
constitute the backdrop against which Simone’s journey to
self-awareness unfolds. As narrator, she is a sympathetic central
character whose vulnerability contrasts with her butch demeanour as she
navigates through the rough waters of her physical and emotional
choices. The lively and fast-paced prose flows smoothly and is imbued
with the profanity-rich language of streetwise youth, graphic scenes,
and realistic dialogue.

Although Mosh Pit, as the author candidly admits, “will never make it
on the school list, special collections in academic and public libraries
may wish to include it with their resources. Dunnion writes with verve
and passion, and her novel will no doubt find an audience among some
empathetic young people. Recommended with reservations.