Tags: coming of age | school life | youth

Jaclyn Moriarty's 2000 novel Feeling Sorry for Celia was one of the funniest debut novels to be published in recent years. I looked forward to reading her next novel, and the three year wait has been well worth it.

Finding Cassie Crazy is an even more accomplished novel, to which it acts as a sort of companion.

Cassie is in 10th grade at the elite Ashbury High, whose students claim that the kids at Brookfield High are drug-dealers and psychopaths.

Their teacher starts a pen-pal project which leads to an escalation of the war between the two schools, to secret romance and to Cassie learning to face her fears.

But it's the fierce and at times uncompromising loyalty the three girls share that provides the novel's emotional core and satisfying pay off.

Filled with fun multiple characters, Moriarty manages to maintain suspense and mystery - and humour - around all the relationships.