Emma Tom’s first book took about 100 years to write and is a slapstick crime novel narrated by a dead school girl. Deadset is not what you’d call an easy read, though a journalist once compared it to White Noise by Don DeLillo which Emma Tom thinks is one of the nicest things anyone could ever say about a book. Two other fans of Deadset were Irvine Welsh (the guy who wrote Trainspotting) and the judges for the 1998 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Asia and the South Pacific (who gave it a prize for Best First Novel). Probably the only way to get this book is to buy it directly from Emma Tom who’s still got a few copies of it up in her attic. otherwise look for it in vinnies stores, which is where I found it for $2. ( )