Showing results by narrator "Saoirse-Monica Jackson" in All Categories

I’m not yours and you’re not mine. That’s what I say to his dreaming face as I watch the shadows of his dark eyelashes dance by the light of a Tilley lamp. It’s not the first lie I’ve told myself. When I was 16, I wanted to fly. I was going to take off like an angel from heaven and leave the muck and madness of Northern Ireland behind as I struck out across the west coast of Donegal, heading straight for America. Nothing but the Land of Happy Ever After would do for me. It was him I blamed for clipping my wings.

It's a time of armed police in armoured Land Rovers and British Army check points. But it's also the time of Murder She Wrote, The Cranberries, Salt-N-Pepa, Doc Martens and The X Files. And while The Troubles may hang over her hometown, Erin has troubles of her own, like the fact that the boy she's in love with (actually in love with) doesn't know she exists. Or that her Ma and Aunt Sarah make her include her weirdo cousin Orla in everything she does. Or that head teacher Sister Michael refuses to acknowledge Erin as a literary genius.

Beneath the New Year's Eve fireworks, shy science-nerd Mel and slacker songwriter Sid get pregnant on their first date. Any sixteen-year-olds would expect trouble—but this is Northern Ireland 2018, where abortion is still illegal. Mel's religious parents insist she must keep the baby, whilst Sid's feminist mom pushes for a termination. Mel and Sid are determined to do this together, but they soon discover that pregnancy is totally different for boys and girls.