First Kiss Zine

In the very same way that Lyndsay from Freaks and Geeks is supposed to be freaky and geeky but is actually just smoking hot and a fantasy object for countless straight men and lesbians, so too is it very cool to pretend you are uncool. Or (if irrefutably cool), to pretend you were once uncool. So I want to say that First Kiss Zine - a collection of stories about the awkward first pashes of various New York characters (from Leslie Arfin to Brendan Donnelly) is an exercise in uncool onedownmanship.

But it's not! It's riveting, readable and - for Australians - like a window to a Babysitters Club world where people actually go to “summer camp” and gossip with bitches called Stacey “back in their bunks”. It's edited by Marisa Meltzer, author of Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music and Elizabeth Spiridakis, the brains behind White Lightning.

Highlights include Arfin's horrific screed about Todd Lieberman (“It wasn't a body odor bad smell but more of a cheap pre-teen Guido cologne bad smell,”) and a basement party cliffhanger by Gavin McInnes, who was worried about being a wet fish. “I committed to start Kegeling my lips right then and there so my first kiss would be harder than a turtle's beak.” This is a book of hope.