Not Going to Plan brings a fresh approach to the topic of teenage relationships and identity, avoiding cliches, sentimentality or simple answers. Threads of useful and accurate information are woven through an engaging, thought-provoking story.
Lisa Hallgarten - Head of Policy and Public Affairs
Brook Sexual Health and Wellbeing
Not Going to Plan is a truly hilarious, moving and beautiful novel that captures teenagehood, its pressures and its complexities so perfectly; it's such a vital story that I hope will spark much needed and long overdue conversions about agency, consent and our right to choose.
Margaret McDonald, author of Glasgow Boys
It’s a wonderful book about such an important and little-discussed issue, told in such a delicious style. The story is both heartbreaking and uplifting and I want every teen to read it.
Kelly McCaughrain, author of Little Bang
Marnie’s really messed up this time...
Thrown out of her posh boarding school just before GCSEs, the only empty seat in her new class is next to Zed, a nerd with zero tolerance for mistakes. Marnie (great at art and Spanish but definitely not numbers) can’t wait to lose her virginity - whereas Zed (great at maths and physics but definitely not languages) is a loner who can’t stand being touched.
But they have at least one thing in common: they need good grades. And what starts as a trade in tuition, turns into an unlikely friendship... a friendship that’s tested to breaking when Marnie’s tricked into having sex without a condom.
Now she needs Zed’s help to make the hardest decision of her life.
Not Going to Plan is an intensely topical, accessible YA verse novel, that wades into the muddy waters of coercion and consent.
