Kamikaze Girls by Novala Takemoto
Momoko is a dreamy, self-absorbed girl who is the daughter of a con-artist and former Yakuza. She’s also utterly devoted to the Lolita (uber feminine girls who wear extremely frilly clothing that makes them look like dolls) lifestyle, which she describes at great length. When she sells some of her father’s fake Versace merchandise to make money to support her Lolita lifestyle, she meets Ichigo, a yanki (gangster) who is equally devoted to her lifestyle. Through this meeting, the girls begin a strange, lifechanging friendship that cause them to eventually come to not only appreciate the other’s lifestyle, but also to examine and reconsider their own.
It’s a love story, but not a story about romantic love, though there are many parallels drawn between Ichigo and Momoko’s relationship and a famous (in the book, I don’t know if it’s real) shoujo manga about a yanki that’s beloved by all yankis. The manga is actually an important plotpoint, not only because of the relationship between Momoko and Ichigo, but also because Momoko is the name of the manga’s heroine, which has caused Momoko to be bullied her entire life for not being “worthy” of the name. At the same time, Ichigo calls herself Ichigo because Ichigo is a cutesy name that means “strawberry.” As you can imagine, the girls would love to trade names.
The book is told first person through Momoko’s eyes, and the first fifty pages is almost entirely Momoko explaining what the Lolita lifestyle is, and how her life caused her to take up the mantle of Lolita. This is amazingly effective and engrossing, and serves to jar the reader just as much as it does Momoko when Ichigo arrives on the scene. For all that Momoko is self-absorbed, has a superior attitude, is conniving, and is completely engrossed in her own little world, she’s never actually annoying, and is a compelling narrator. Ichigo, seen only through Momoko’s eyes and sometimes only as Momoko is describing her, not realizing how they’re changing each other, is an equally well drawn and powerful presence.
There’s a sequel novel, but I don’t think it’s been officially translated or licensed, though the movie and manga based on Kamikaze Girls have.