Growing up with a violent, control-freak father, sixteen year old Emma Banks has had a tougher ride than most. Unable to cope with the horrors of her childhood, Emma's world unravels in a spiral of drug abuse and self-harm. Following a failed suicide attempt, she finds herself committed to a secure psychiatric institution where she is finally forced to confront the painful past she has been trying to escape.

Now she must fight the instinct to run and hide, and piece together a way forward. "The Finer Points of Becoming Machine" is a compelling, thought-provoking page-turner. The intensely personalised narrative style delves right to the heart of a young, broken life.

Gritty, honest, hard-hitting, often harrowing, and with a shocking ending, it is packed with drama and emotion from one page to the next. "The Finer Points of Becoming Machine" is part of the "Cutting Edge" series: fast-paced, quick reads for teens and young adults looking for fiction which chimes with their perspective on life.