16 June 2015

How to be Bad by E. Lockhart, Lauren Myracle & Sarah Mlynowski

Series: N/A, Standalone
Publication date: June 4, 2015
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Genres: YA, Contemporary
Format: Review copy
Source: The publisher in exchange for an honest review
Pages: 321


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When you've had enough of being good, sometimes you've got to be a little bad . . .

Jesse, Vicks and Mel could not be more different.

Jesse is as thoughtful as she is uptight, and keeping a secret she knows will change her life forever.

Vicks is a wild-child, seemingly o so confident, but also anxious about her absent boyfriend.

Mel is the new girl in town - the rich kid, needing to get over some of her fears and find some friends.

But Jesse, Vicks and Mel have one thing in common: they're so desperate to get the heck out of Niceville and discover their true badass selves. One 'borrowed' car later and it's time to hit the road
Let the bad times roll...

This is the perfect summer book! Even though I don't normally read books about road trips - I know some really enjoy them - I really liked this one. It seems like the ideal 'setting' of a summery contemporary; wind in the hair, adventures and friendship, maybe even a little love.

How to be Bad is told from alternating voices, of Jesse, Mel and Vicks. Jesse is very religious, Mel is quite shy and Vicks is practically the badass. I don't know who my favorite of the three is but I know that I liked Jesse the least. I understand why she's quite a 'tight bottom' but she's still my least favourite. I love that Mel is the rich kid but she's the shyest of them all, I love how insecure Vicks actually is at heart and I love how independent these girls actually are.
Even though Mel is the outsider in the beginning, believe me I felt so sorry for her, she becomes so important to Jesse and Vicks and I love how their friendship, which isn't a friendship in the beginning, becomes so deep. It's so lovely!

Mel, Jesse and Vicks are so incredibly different and I definitely love that, they're also quite complex characters. Take Mel for example; even though she's the rich kid she's shy, she's jewish and she's actually from Canada. Vicks is so carefree, she's so committed to Brady, her boyfriend, and she loves food - not just eating it but making it too. Jesse, well, when it comes down to it she reminds me of Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye, she keeps saying 'that kills me, she kills me, it kills me' and so on, just like Holden! Jesse also have this love for trains which I find quite random.
All of the girls have problems but they find a way to get through it with the help of each other - I love that!

Even though the love-bit in this book is great. It's cute, fluffy and definitely swoon-worthy, it wasn't really necessary. I'm usually all for love, but it just took something away from the story..

As I mentioned earlier, the road trip-thing is not usually my kind of thing, but apparently it is when it comes to this book. I love the idea with this road trip, Vicks has somewhere to get to, Jesse has something to get away from, and Mel just wants to be with them. It's quite perfect actually.

Even though I loved the characters and the road trip something was missing.. Or maybe the love-bit brought it down.


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