Fifteen Point Nine

Aggie’s life is out of control. From living room to bathtub, her house brims with junk and garbage because her mother is an alcoholic and a hoarder. A cruel posse of girls torments her at school. With no money for food or clothing, and no way even to bathe, Aggie goes to school hungry and smelling of garbage. Her future is dark and promises to get darker.

Then she connects with a few other misfits and outcasts at school (also known as “the Torture Chamber”). They come up with a plan to stop the bullying once and for all, and friendship brightens her life. Aggie and her overweight friend, Susan, start to film the attacks. With help from Carson, a computer expert whose condition stopped his growth early, and Travis, who is a math genius but socially inept, the group plans revenge with a school-wide broadcast.

Unexpectedly, Joanie, a peripheral member of the group, takes her own life at the age of 15.9. The bullies hurt Aggie seriously and put Travis in the hospital, and Aggie loses confidence in her plan. She begins to wonder if she will make it to the age of 15.9 herself, and she descends into desperate self-harm before she learns that friendship and connections make her strong enough to take control.

In Fifteen Point Nine, author Holly Dobbie touches on many issues affecting teens. Aggie’s friends do not fit into the mainstream of high school social life, but none for the same reason. Some, like obesity, autism spectrum disorder, growth issues and lack of bathing, are physically obvious. Others, like mental illness, self-harm and suicidal thinking, are more easily hidden. It’s not only teens but also their parents who have serious issues. Aggie’s mother is a raging alcoholic as well as a hoarder; Carson’s mother is pathologically over-protective; Susan’s mother is a new-age fitness fiend who serves “Happy Poppy” tea to visitors. Far from being a support to their teen children, many parents make their issues worse. Certainly many teen readers who feel they don’t fit into the narrow range of adolescent acceptability will find themselves reflected in the story.

The novel’s afterword consists of a list of reassuring advice points to young people in crisis, ending with a list of things to do today: “1. Stay alive. 2. When in doubt, refer to number one on the list.” It is a heartfelt attempt to connect with desperate adolescents who cannot see past their misery.

The good intentions of the novel are sometimes undermined by overloading. Aggie’s issues are so numerous as to be unrealistic – she shares some of her mother’s hoarding compulsions, deals with her mother’s alcohol addiction, pulls out her own eyelashes, cuts herself with everything from pinking shears to broken light bulbs, and sometimes eats ketchup packets for lunch. Yet her voice is whimsical and sassy with a dry sense of humour. It is hard to imagine that someone with her issues would speak in such a lighthearted voice and still be unable to seek meaningful help. The smorgasbord of problems among both teens and adults sometimes seems uncomfortably like ticking off a list of what could possibly go wrong in a teen’s life. While the book’s purpose is well-meaning, its reach sometimes exceeds its grasp.

Despite the issues of voice and the stretch of realism, Fifteen Point Nine provides an important and reassuring message to kids who don’t feel like they belong. Aggie and her friends, despite their many problems, discover that things do, indeed, get better, and that they have more control over their lives than they imagined.