Hilda and Benji are 17-year-old teenagers clad in black – with attitudes to match – and obsessed with exploring the dark world of celebrity deaths in LA. Grisly tales of dead cats, drug overdoses, car accidents, decapitations and stabbings lead these two misfits around Hollywood and provide a fitting backdrop to highlight the awkwardness of growing up as outsiders in a bright and tawdry town.

Keen to photograph a dingy bathroom where a failed silent movie star stabbed himself to death, Hilda meets Hank, the apartment’s owner and cranky old man who hides his own tragic secret. As their odd friendship develops over a shared love of old movies Benji’s behaviour becomes more erratic with his grip on reality and fantasy becoming more disturbing.

This is a sophisticated novel, filled with plenty of dry teenage observations and loads of blackly humorous pop culture. Prickly, distrustful Hilda first reveals her heart only to LA itself, but soon discovers that personal histories are worth investigating and have loads more to offer and learn from.