They’ve been too nice for too long, but now mean, monstrous and even murderous girls are revitalising young adult fiction
Antiheroes don’t feature in a lot of kids’ or young adult fiction. Likability, someone to root for, victims of clear-cut injustice – classic main characters tend to the plucky and put-upon, à la Harry Potter or Sara Crewe. And dislikable, amoral, even monstrous girls are especially few and far between – girls in fiction, as in real life, it seems, are under more pressure from their readership than their male counterparts to be “nice”. Where are the female Tom Ripleys – or even the Patrick Batemans – of YA? At long last, I’ve noticed some mean girls – not quite a monstrous regiment, but a sinister strike force, at least – popping up in YA and older middle grade (MG) fiction.
In her first novel, Pretty Bad Things (2010), CJ Skuse sketches a bright, acidic portrait of Paisley, one half of the teen Wonder Twins, who go on a crime spree through Vegas en route to find their long-lost dad. Paisley and Beau have both had a traumatic upbringing, witnessing their mum’s death and being farmed out to separate schools by a manipulative grandmother who hides their father’s letters and steals from their trust fund.
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In her first novel, Pretty Bad Things (2010), CJ Skuse sketches a bright, acidic portrait of Paisley, one half of the teen Wonder Twins, who go on a crime spree through Vegas en route to find their long-lost dad. Paisley and Beau have both had a traumatic upbringing, witnessing their mum’s death and being farmed out to separate schools by a manipulative grandmother who hides their father’s letters and steals from their trust fund.
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