You Know I'm No Good
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
This razor-sharp novel from Printz Honor winner and Morris Award finalist Jessie Ann Foley will appeal to fans of Wilder Girls and The Grace Year.
Mia is officially a Troubled Teen™— she gets bad grades, drinks too much, and has probably gone too far with too many guys.
But she doesn’t realize how out of control she seems until she is taken from her home in the middle of the night and sent away to Red Oak Academy, a therapeutic girls' boarding school in the middle of nowhere.
While there, Mia is forced to confront her painful past at the same time she questions why she's at Red Oak. If she were a boy, would her behavior be considered wild enough to get sent away? But what happens when circumstances outside of her control compel Mia to make herself vulnerable enough to be truly seen?
Challenging and thought-provoking, this stunning contemporary YA novel examines the ways society is stacked against teen girls and what one young woman will do to even the odds.
* A Chicago Public Library Best Teen Fiction Selection * A Banks Street Best Children's Book of the Year *
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The brochure for Minnesota's Red Oak Academy: A Therapeutic Girls' Boarding School for Troubled Teens says it is a place for a young woman to grow "straight and tall and proud in the forest of her life." When Chicagoan high school junior Mia Dempsey, who "can't stand fakeness," arrives after punching her stepmother in the face, she approaches family therapy sessions and therapy with Holden Caulfield like snark. As she makes friends, though influencer Trinity, whose provocative selfies cost her mother a congressional seat; Poppy, who placed a pipe bomb under her ex-girlfriend's car; and Vera, who self-harms Mia starts to unravel the reasons behind her own behaviors, which include drinking, drugs, and sex. Printz Honoree Foley (The Carnival at Bray) slowly, unfurls Mia's memories of her mother, who was murdered by her boyfriend when Mia was small, and the teen's own sexual assault. Yet in facing trouble after defending one of her friends, Mia must decide between reverting to her old life or trusting her newfound voice. Though some readers may be bothered by the ending's swift resolution and tonal shift, arresting dialogue and tender moments showcase the girls' distinct and lively personalities while offering striking examples of the way society ignores teenage girls' experiences, especially of trauma and misogyny. Ages 14 up.
