My Summer as a Goth is a coming-of-age narrative about the often difficult - but often humorous - search for identity and love in adolescence. The story is told from the perspective of a young goth girl. Joey Javitts, who is 16 years old at the time, is dispatched to live with her eccentric grandparents following the untimely loss of her father. This is so that her novelist mother can focus on promoting her most recent book. Joey is seduced by Victor, the alluring Goth boy who lives next door, and is consequently changed by Victor and his motley crew of outcasts dressed in black.