Product Description

Beth Roberts and Rula Popek have a lot in common. They are both 19, both have crap jobs and both live in the worst flat in the whole of Wales. The girls have no money, no boyfriends, family who are thousands of miles away and a final demand for a gas bill which they cannot pay. It all looks pretty bleak until one day when Rula stumbles across an entire vinyl record collection which has been left in a local charity shop. She takes a gamble and blows the money for the gas bill on the whole lot and the dream of becoming Cardiff's very own answer to the global girl DJ, Lisa Lashes. It's just a shame she didn't bother to explain the plan to Beth first.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #310903 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

About the Author
Hayley Long studied English Literature at Aberystwyth University before spending several years living and working abroad in Europe and North Africa. She was a holiday rep, a tent cleaner, a kids' entertainer and a DJ before she finally wound up in Brussels, teaching English as a foreign language. In 1999, she returned to Wales and taught at a secondary school in Cardiff for 7 years.

Customer Reviews

Refreshingly Upbeat
Another excellent short novel in the Quick Read series.
This is pitched just right; it rolls along at a pace that anyone can enjoy but carefully avoids any complicated language or imagery so that less experienced readers and those who are learning English as an additional language are not excluded. The characters are all, refreshingly likable and upbeat, and the ending avoids cliche by having a bittersweet 'almost made it' feel. This brightened up a dreary evening.

A vapid but easy read
The title, 'Vinyl Demand' is clever and the book is just the right length for the plot - it's neither too drawn out or too rushed. However, I have nothing more positive to say about it.

Vinyl Demand seems to aim for a down-to-earth voice and in some ways it achieves this, making it a good 'snapshot' of life in the city. The style irritated me with its habit of describing every single action taken by the characters in detail, slowing down the story with unnecessary clutter, as though the author knew she didn't have much to write but wanted to publish it as a stand-alone.

But it's a very short book with big print; easy to read in an hour or two. I didn't find it especially interesting, feeling it wandered too far into the realm of cliche and melodrama. Rather than being an adult read, it may appeal to younger teens or bored people in hospital waiting rooms.