Susan Musgrave has selected seven riveting accounts of epiphanies in the teenage years of Canadian female writers. What is impressive about this polished collection is that apart from Musgrave and Marion Quednau, most of the writers are just emerging, and in their twenties or early thirties.

Despite the fact that all of these pieces recount some serious suffering, they should provide solace to teenage girls. They are all extremely honest, well-written accounts of youthful angst. Instead of pat advice, they offer hope in the mere fact that becoming an adult gives you more control over your life. Suddenly, alternatives are presented to the views of controlling parents and conformist schoolmates.

The collection covers the major problems faced by teenage girls: anorexia, confusion over sexual orientation, family break-up, sexual abuse, date rape, drugs, mental illness, suicide. This is a gloomy line-up, yet the collection is not depressing. The writing is so fresh, and some pieces, like those by Marion Quednau and Carellin Brooks, are leavened with wry bursts of humour. The most upbeat story is by Marnie Woodrow (the only writer here not based in B.C.), who describes her struggle to come out. Among the book’s cast of Judas-like parents and peers, Woodrow’s accepting and understanding mother and best friend are indeed remarkable. Her description of trying to metamorphose into a Cosmo girl is funny and familiar to many teens.

The seven women writing here were all troubled in very distinct ways; what they have in common is the inner strength to survive life’s viscissitudes, and the wit and talent to animate them for us.