In How to Have Sex, Molly Manning Walker’s gut-punch debut about 16-year-olds running riot at a Grecian resort, Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce) finds herself hit, in the middle of the dance floor, by a sudden rush of self-awareness. It roots her back in her body and amplifies every sensation. It makes everything too loud, too close, too chaotic. Out of nowhere, her haze has dissipated and, now, she can only see the ugliness of the world.
The moment arrives around How to Have Sex’s halfway mark, as Tara and her friends, Skye (Lara Peake), and Em (Enva Lewis), arrive in Malia, Crete, intent to treat the resort town as their own hedonistic Neverland. Here, a thousand miles from home – and their GCSE results – they’ll drink until they puke. They’ll hook up with boys they’ll never see again. And Tara, she hopes, will finally discard her virginity.
