Bad Girls by Alex McAulay

Rating:

Anna Wheeler's parents have had it up to here. They can't seem to control their daughter anymore and so, one night, Anna's yanked from her bed and carted off to Camp Archstone -- bootcamp for troubled teen girls. There, on a vast, remote, sparsely populated island, Anna will be expected to change her ways and repent for the sins her religious father just can't seem to forgive. Here's a hint: There's a boy involved. No, a man.

Life at Camp Archstone is Anna's worst nightmare. Every minute of the day is scheduled, the counselors are hardcore, and one girl is crueler than the next. But when a grueling hike into the forest goes horribly wrong, things go from bad to worse. Stalked by an unknown foe and left to fend for themselves, the girls band together to try to find their way back to civilization -- and that's when the real trouble begins.

Suspense, suspense, suspense. I LOVED this book. It was so enjoyable. I had been eying Alex McAulay's book since I saw the cover for his newest book, Oblivion Road, on a add somewhere months back, around New Years I think. But I have always been scared of buying them on account that I would have to buy them online and my library doens't have them and I haven't heard anything about his books, so i really had no clue about his interesting sounding books. So I added them on my bookmooch account and have been waiting for somebody to give it. I'm so glad I mooched it. I didn't want to stop reading this book until I finished it, I probably would've finished in one sitting if I hadn't started it so late in the day. Okay now on to the details.

The very beginning was a little confusing, you didn't know where you were at and what was going on but you find out pretty quickly as she remembers what happened to get to where she was, that's all in the first chapter, so then after that chapter it isn't difficult to know where you are in the book. It's just that very first scene.

I really liked the characters, most of them being bad girls since this book is taken place at a girls reform/wilderness camp. The one thing that I wished happened was there were a few more days at the camp before that hiking trip comes along, just to get a better feel of things. But once the hike starts, so does the suspense. It was intense and graphic, but not too graphic on some gore scenes. The writing was in third person again, which I really rather not read a book in the point of view but most authors make it work so it isn't completely annoying me. I liked how the story ended, all though it felt semi-finished. The Epilogue covers a lot of things, but there were some people and things i wanted to know what had happened with and I wished the book went a little further before the epilogue. But overall, I LOVED the book and cannot wait until I get my hands on his other books, Oblivion Road, of course, and Lost Summer. These are on my wish-list.

I would recommend this book, big time. I highly enjoyed it and the suspense was great, oh, and it really isn't a dark book, not like those creepy deep books, just so you know. But yeah, go get this book now!

~Kelsey

P.S. See I finally started to rate my books. Do you like the image I chose? Oh and sorry, that first paragraph is sorta messed up, it gets like that sometimes and I don't know how to change it.