Paper Girls vol 4 s/c back

Four '80s schoolgirls lost in time.

They're lost many times in many times, each volume shooting them into their own future or far into our past - very far, in one instance.

If you love the idiosyncrasies of any era - obsessions, slang, popular culture, outdated technology and lack of technology we now take for granted - then you will love PAPER GIRLS. Cliff Chiang has done an enormous amount of research and the temporal locations are immediately identifiable to readers at least, while the girls' reactions to each era's customs are priceless.

Here, for example, you will laugh loads at the Armageddon anti-climax that was the Millennium Bug, when Y2K doomsters warned you to switch off your computer before midnight on 31st December 2000, lest it explode or take control of your kettle or something. The actual turning of the millennium and century, a year later, was pretty much ignored.

Remember too that the young ladies are the products of their past, and that this is from the writer of EX MACHINA, SAGA etc, who's not renowned for white-washing realities which some other authors would find awkward to tackle. One of these girls is a bigot. She is. She's a victim of '80s AIDS scare-mongering along with other ill-informed societal bullshit and she takes it out on one of her friends. Some exceptionally deft and comical character-acting is on offer from Cliff Chiang there.

Also, the girls are going to be visiting their futures: not all of them are going to have made it there in one healthy piece. Others' lives may also have taken unexpected, uncharacteristic turns. Would you want to know what happens to you?!

For more, please see previews PAPER GIRLS reviews. Cheers!