US author Daniel Handler is probably best known for the wickedly witty children’s books A Series of Unfortunate Events, written under his Lemony Snicket pseudonym.

Just as those books are filled to the brim with the misfortunes of a family of young orphans – as the title of the series asserts – Handler’s new novel for adults, All the Dirty Parts, is equally accurately named.

The story of obsessed teenager Cole’s erotic awakening consists of page after page of graphic accounts of sexual encounters and fantasies, written in the first person through short ‘episodes’ of prose.

The explicit depictions of Cole’s carnal experiences are confronting at times, and the selfish disregard with which he targets girls for seduction is alarming, even bordering on criminal.

Yet All the Dirty Parts is saved from merely cataloguing a schoolboy’s grubby exploits by an expertly developed, brutally honest plot that contemplates one of the most powerful forces that compels human behaviour.

This novel explores sexual identity, underage sex, societal double standards and the accessibility of pornography and considers their impacts on friendship and personal development. While Cole is an unsympathetic though credible protagonist, Handler imbues him with a trace of vulnerability, to remind us that we were once self-centred, hormonal teenagers, too.

This is potentially uncomfortable reading for parents of adolescents and definitely not a story for children.

Reviewed by Maureen Eppen