When the stars were rhinestones. When your car was a blue Holden god. When kisses spread to your back teeth, marathons of sucking. When we pashed through jokes, through tunes, through homework, through the leftovers we shovelled out our schoolbags. When you let me tattoo you with talk.

Thirty-one exhilarating new stories from the acclaimed author of deleted scenes for lovers:

‘If Slaughter is writing from the black block in her chest, she is also speaking directly into yours.’—Charlotte Graham-McLay, New Zealand Books