Pedigree Girls

Jane M. Wilson is a Toronto-based chartered financial analyst in the
investment business.

This book’s funniest lines are in the jacket blurb: “Beneath the
private school uniforms, the feral grins and the catchy tinkle of
laughter, lurks the nihilistic allure of the Pedigree Girls. You
wouldn’t want them as friends, but then, they wouldn’t like you
either.” The book is in strip comic format, but the drawings are
identical and only terse, fictional dialogues between two girls are
changed.

Sardonic, cynical banter is a source of huge amusement to adolescents;
the joke, however, is usually lost on anyone over 18. But for the
X-rated content, which considerably lowers the tone of the book, its
humor might suit a younger audience. Typical private school girls do not
carry on with their brothers, their schoolmates’ fathers, and
simultaneously conduct lesbian relationships. That they may
“gross-out” their friends with crude jokes about such things as a
way of keeping the bogeyman at bay is a facet of juvenile psychology.
That they would refer to “pathetic public school casualties,” other
than in black humor, is probably only the author’s wishful thinking.

In some examples, Tjia humorously captures the tone of teenspeak, and
he could be advantageously employed supplying dialogue for teenagers in
sitcoms. Still, it is not clear whether his intent is to give a
satirical view of privileged private school girls or to suggest that a
deeper malaise underlies their disdainful repartee. This puzzle is an
interesting aspect. The book is otherwise faintly entertaining and for a
limited audience. A pointless index accompanies unnumbered pages.