Sad Girls has an excellent plot, full of drama and unexpected turns that kept me turning the pages quickly. It nails adolescence, capturing all its angst, uncertainly and pain. But the prose is full of cliches and unnecessary sentences. After a great line, "My mother had a way of making everything seem ten times worse than it actually was," Leav keeps going. "She watched me like a hawk, scrutinizing every move I made..." For every beautiful line ("tombstones jutting up from the ground like crooked teeth") there is a paragraph of flat dialogue or tired phrases (like "rushing rivers"). 
 Annoyingly, the growth of protagonist Audrey depends on male characters who entrance her. The power of love and female friendship are strong themes, but one always seems to win out over the other and it's the wrong one, IMO.