Alex Kadis's debut novel, Big Nobody, is a wild, hilarious, heartbreaking coming-of-age seesaw of teenage angst and adult abuse set in East London in the mid-1970s. Constantina "Connie" Costa wants to kill her father, George, whom she calls "The Fat Murderer." She's 14 and reeling from the death of her mother and younger brothers, who died in a car crash that her father somehow survived. When not at school or at Greek Nights (or "Freak Nights," as she calls them) with her Greek Cypriot immigrant community, she spends her time plotting and attempting to kill George, listening to records or practicing guitar, and seeking the advice of her imaginary advisers, David Bowie and Marc Bolan, as she communes with them in her bedroom.
George exerts his control over Connie by banning her from school dances and forbidding her from boys; he plans to arrange a marriage for her in the future, as is the custom in their community. As the novel progresses, his insidious abuse, and that of his father, slowly become more apparent. Realizing that Connie is in love, George takes her abroad to Cyprus, where the plot really swings for the fences. Kadis skillfully examines how "the kids of immigrants" get "caught in the crossfire" of parents who "are trying to be a part of a new world but they're still stuck in the ways of the old world." Like a cross between Louise Rennison's Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series and Neige Sinno's memoir, Sad Tiger, Big Nobody is a wickedly funny and cutting narrative of revenge and escape. --Nina Semczuk, writer, editor, and illustrator