Rock 'n' Roll Babes from Outer Space

The three babes of the title--Baby, Doll and Lati--leave their home planet of Nufon (as in, no fun) for Australia and the druggy, piercing-oriented purlieus of Newtown (Sydney's East Village equivalent) in this idiotically amusing B-movie retread. Baby falls in love with the first human they abduct, rock 'n' roller Jake, a clueless grunge lothario with the ambition and animation of a beanbag chair. Problem: Jake can't seem to make a move on Baby. Is this fear of commitment, or just fear? Baby can't tell. In the meantime, Earth is threatened with total destruction by Captain Qwerk of Nufon, intent on recapturing the young women. And, as Baby might say, yadi yadi yada. Jaivin (Eat Me) writes in a manic, stand-up style and continually undermines her inventiveness with a sophomoric sense of humor. But she also has a real sense of the erotic, and her set pieces of alien-to-human sex are energetically skewed (e.g., Nufon girls have multiple sexual organs, and more appear when they are aroused). Even after the book's band-naming glibness begins to grate, Jaivin's ear for street talk and made-for-the-sitcoms wit endow the story with a certain gruesome fascination for those of us on the wrong side of 18. (Apr.)