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Bad Girls
Thick with suspense and simmering with adolescent turmoil, Bad Girls is an action-adventure survival story that pits a group of troubled teens against a forbidding tropical landscape, an elusive enemy, and, worst of all, each other. It's Mean Girls meets Lord of the Flies, and it marks the debut of an innovative new voice in fiction.
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 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.
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 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.
320 pages, Paperback
First published June 14, 2005
7 people are currently reading
410 people want to read
About the author
Alex McAulay
9 books22 followersAlex McAulay was born in Seattle, but grew up in Dallas, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. He is the author of four novels, including Shelter Me and Bad Girls, which is in development as a feature film. Alex is a graduate of Brown University, and currently lives in Santa Monica with his wife Lisa.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
July 3, 2017
I'm quite surprised by how underrated this book, Bad Girls really is. This has been one of my all time favorites since middle school. Anna, the protogonist is thrown into the biggest adventure of her life. Her parents are tired of her reckless behavior, and they decide to put her in this reform camp Island Archstone, which is for troubled teen girls.
I liked that Bad Girls isn't a love story, it has a few glimpses of flashbacks - but that's about it. It's an actual adventurous story. I loved this book beginning to the end, the very first chapter can attain your attention till the very end. Anna is put through hardships with the counselors and the other teen girls at the camp. She's tested every minute until she can find her way home. The twists, actions, and how Anna's character progresses and changes is amazing.
I liked that Bad Girls isn't a love story, it has a few glimpses of flashbacks - but that's about it. It's an actual adventurous story. I loved this book beginning to the end, the very first chapter can attain your attention till the very end. Anna is put through hardships with the counselors and the other teen girls at the camp. She's tested every minute until she can find her way home. The twists, actions, and how Anna's character progresses and changes is amazing.
April 16, 2014
Bad Girls starts with a strong opening, and the story plays itself out nicely enough as we follow Anna to the training camp for troubled, teenage deviants.
But unluckily, things falls apart in the middle of the book when a hiking trip goes wrong, after the girls were lost in the forest, the book becomes very focused on action scenes and crisis, whilst character development got thrown out of the window.
Anna, the main character is probably the only character who has any character development, you can root for her when she struggled to keep her head above water throughout the whole book; the other characters have potential, but sadly once the action starts, the author seems to forget all about them and their personalities, leaving them behind as a bunch of underdeveloped stereotypes.
Bad Girls keeps me reading till 2;00 AM, but after finishing the book, I felt a little being letdown.
But unluckily, things falls apart in the middle of the book when a hiking trip goes wrong, after the girls were lost in the forest, the book becomes very focused on action scenes and crisis, whilst character development got thrown out of the window.
Anna, the main character is probably the only character who has any character development, you can root for her when she struggled to keep her head above water throughout the whole book; the other characters have potential, but sadly once the action starts, the author seems to forget all about them and their personalities, leaving them behind as a bunch of underdeveloped stereotypes.
Bad Girls keeps me reading till 2;00 AM, but after finishing the book, I felt a little being letdown.
December 14, 2012
In the book Bad Girls a girl named Anna gets sent to a boot camp called Camp Archstone. She got sent there because her father didn’t agree with anything she did. Her teacher got her pregnant so she had to get an abortion, and she did drugs. Her father is very religious and he is very against all of that. This book is kind of slow in the first chapter or so, but around the second chapter it speeds up and becomes more interesting. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It is very good if you are into fictional books. I think what I liked most was that it showed how when you change your environment or the people around you it can drastically change who you are and what types of things you do, and how good of friends you can become with a person only after knowing them for no more than a week.
September 29, 2009
I loved this book. I would have gone crazy if I got sent there though. I’ve never read a gook that was in like a third persons view, I liked it. It was different. I truly enjoyed this book. I would recommend that every girl reads this. You could learn alot. I know I did. Like survival skills, and what not to do. Some of the things these girls did are ridiculously crazy. It had great anticipating periods. Some parts I just wanted to skip to get to the juicy ones. Its that kind of book that you want to know what happens but you never want it to end.
March 9, 2011
This Book Blew my Mind...when i first picked it up i was not expecting such a good piece of writing. But page by page i found myself more and more into it, and not being able to put it down. every sec i got to pick it up, it'd be in my hands. The suspense, and thrill of not knowing whats going to happen is AMAZING. A great survivor/suspense novel. I have to say i must give MTV BOOKS my props..well done.
November 15, 2007
I would have to say this is one of my favorite books. Its diffrent from the everyday drama books that you see everywhere and has a sense of adventure in it along with survival. Every thing in the book is described really well and gives you a good mental image so you can picture exactly whats going on. Also the book has great suspence.
September 22, 2009
I had high expectations for this one, but it was really cheesy. Don't bother.
August 13, 2020
This book was a favorite of mine as a young teen, and it doesn’t disappoint as I come back to it as an adult. The writing style wasn’t as good as I remembered it being but hey, I was 15. I remember passing this book on to many of my friends and every single one of them enjoyed it. It’s perfect for its target audience. Reading as an adult I’m struck by three:
1) this is a great book to read if you’re learning English and you’re far enough along to know some cusswords and you can read chapter books.
2) this would make a really great audiobook and if there is t one already....I want to narrate it.
3) there is no romantic subplot, thank goodness!!!! YA has too damn much of that.
If you like adventures, teenage angst, and plot situations which go from 1 to 10 REAL FAST??? read it. Pass it to your teen cousin when you’re done. :)
1) this is a great book to read if you’re learning English and you’re far enough along to know some cusswords and you can read chapter books.
2) this would make a really great audiobook and if there is t one already....I want to narrate it.
3) there is no romantic subplot, thank goodness!!!! YA has too damn much of that.
If you like adventures, teenage angst, and plot situations which go from 1 to 10 REAL FAST??? read it. Pass it to your teen cousin when you’re done. :)
April 25, 2023
Was this terrible? I’m honestly not sure.
I think the fact that it was written by a guy, and the fact that it’s just so noughties didn’t help. It was like he was going for this weird feminist Lord of the Flies bildungsroman vibe and wasn’t sure how to get there.
If the girls had been meaner, I think things would have made more sense, but honestly the clunky writing didn’t help - it was like, ‘this girl is evil, because I say so’.
Also, the epilogue was terrible at wrapping things up. What happened when Anna got back to her parents? Why were there random shootings in the woods (I don’t buy the paranoia angle) and why was this like two totally different books?
The first half, at the camp, had a very separate vibe from the second half, in the forest. And it was filled with such random characters, it honestly felt like Alex McAuley was making it all up as he went along.
I think the fact that it was written by a guy, and the fact that it’s just so noughties didn’t help. It was like he was going for this weird feminist Lord of the Flies bildungsroman vibe and wasn’t sure how to get there.
If the girls had been meaner, I think things would have made more sense, but honestly the clunky writing didn’t help - it was like, ‘this girl is evil, because I say so’.
Also, the epilogue was terrible at wrapping things up. What happened when Anna got back to her parents? Why were there random shootings in the woods (I don’t buy the paranoia angle) and why was this like two totally different books?
The first half, at the camp, had a very separate vibe from the second half, in the forest. And it was filled with such random characters, it honestly felt like Alex McAuley was making it all up as he went along.
April 20, 2023
Tu knížku si původně půjčila ségra, ale mě už podle anotace velmi zaujala. Takže jsem si ji půjčila zas já od ní a rozhodně toho nelituji. Ta knížka byla prostě bombastická! Tohle zažít, to ve vás něco zanechá. Rozhodně jsem Anně držela palce. Rozhodně doporučuji.
April 1, 2022
A must read
September 17, 2023
One of my favs in middle school but lawd this didn’t age very well 😅
May 25, 2024
I read this as a teenager and over 10 years later I STILL think about this book
October 10, 2024
I read this years ago and still think about it.
March 2, 2014
Bad Girls was better than I thought it was going to be, but unfortunately still wasn't great. I randomly picked it up off my shelf when I realized that I'd finished all of the other books I'd planned to read that month, and because it's one of the (unread) books I've had the longest. Right from the start, it really reminded me of
Phoenix Island
, which I read last month, because of the uninhabited island reform camp setting and thriller vibe, although Bad Girls didn't have any fantasy/paranormal elements and I found that it was scarier.
The scariness of the novel was definitely the best part about it. I was creeped out for the majority of the book, and I like it when the suspense aspect of a book is done well.
But unfortunately, while those parts were well-written, the characters weren't. I think that part of it was probably because it was a male author trying to write a bunch of female characters, and I also think that the book would've benefitted from being written in first person. It would've made it scarier, I think, and it would've let me connect with Anna more.
The focus of the book is very much on the thrills and chills — character development and progression took a serious backseat. What stood out to me the most was how the characters were mostly just tropes: the mean girl, the fat girl, the lesbian, the smart one, and the mostly "normal" main character. It was like each character had one aspect about them that became their "thing," and every interaction with them involved them showing, using, or broadcasting that part of themselves. And, in the end, you don't really get the sense that any of the characters have changed all that much, even though they went through a lot in the book. Anna sort had this realization about her life, but she never becomes a dynamic character, which was disappointing.
I also was hoping for more of a twist on the ending. For some reason, I expected there to be something about the story that we were missing and would be clued in on during the ending for a big reveal. Well, that never happened. Everything was exactly the way it seemed — another disappointment.
Ultimately, while I enjoyed the readability of the novel and how freaked out it made me, I found Bad Girls to be lacking in almost every other way. Anna was so one-dimensional and boring. I wish that her thoughts had been fleshed out more, and her character rounded out. And the other girls were nothing more than background noise. This novel has a lot of potential with its gripping plot and girl power attitude, but overall it fell short.
The scariness of the novel was definitely the best part about it. I was creeped out for the majority of the book, and I like it when the suspense aspect of a book is done well.
But unfortunately, while those parts were well-written, the characters weren't. I think that part of it was probably because it was a male author trying to write a bunch of female characters, and I also think that the book would've benefitted from being written in first person. It would've made it scarier, I think, and it would've let me connect with Anna more.
The focus of the book is very much on the thrills and chills — character development and progression took a serious backseat. What stood out to me the most was how the characters were mostly just tropes: the mean girl, the fat girl, the lesbian, the smart one, and the mostly "normal" main character. It was like each character had one aspect about them that became their "thing," and every interaction with them involved them showing, using, or broadcasting that part of themselves. And, in the end, you don't really get the sense that any of the characters have changed all that much, even though they went through a lot in the book. Anna sort had this realization about her life, but she never becomes a dynamic character, which was disappointing.
I also was hoping for more of a twist on the ending. For some reason, I expected there to be something about the story that we were missing and would be clued in on during the ending for a big reveal. Well, that never happened. Everything was exactly the way it seemed — another disappointment.
Ultimately, while I enjoyed the readability of the novel and how freaked out it made me, I found Bad Girls to be lacking in almost every other way. Anna was so one-dimensional and boring. I wish that her thoughts had been fleshed out more, and her character rounded out. And the other girls were nothing more than background noise. This novel has a lot of potential with its gripping plot and girl power attitude, but overall it fell short.
February 10, 2016
Anna Wheeler is a girl whose parents are quite upset with her, and they get her taken to Camp Archstone, a “bootcamp for troubled teen girls.”
The story opens with Anna trying to escape from the thugs who have kidnapped her, with her parent's cooperation. (Her father is a religious fanatic.) She is captured again and forced back into the same van she was first placed in. She told her father she hates him when they were hauling away.
(Sort of like what the Prisoner said in one episode; that he would return to the Village and obliterate it, and Number 2 along with it.)
The camp itself is a typical boot camp, military format, with adults threatening children, basically. (Here is something else I don't understand. The adults in the camp don't seem to be armed. They are outnumbered by the girls. If the girls really wanted to, they could overpower the guards and staff by sheer numbers. )
There's also a Bible hour, so the camp seems to be run by Christian extremists. This is backed up by a book they give the girls. This isn't a camp for correcting bad behavior; it's a camp for brainwashing girls.
One of the girls was sent to the camp by her racist, homophobic mother since the white girl was caught having sex with a black girl.
She finds out that the camp will force girls to take medications if they feel it is necessary. The camp personnel will enforce Bible hours, and they don't care if the girl reading the Bible is not a Christian.
Anna does seem to grow a lot in the story, and seems to come to realize that what happened with the abortion was not all her fault alone. She also seems to have achieved some level of confidence in herself, hopefully enough to be able to stand up to her own parents, especially her religious-extremist father. I wish there had been an ending showing that, since I think that it would have strengthened the story. As it ends, we know she's grown, but we don't know if she's grown enough to be able to deal with the challenges she faces.
Also, a warning. There are a few very graphic scenes of violence in this book.
The story opens with Anna trying to escape from the thugs who have kidnapped her, with her parent's cooperation. (Her father is a religious fanatic.) She is captured again and forced back into the same van she was first placed in. She told her father she hates him when they were hauling away.
(Sort of like what the Prisoner said in one episode; that he would return to the Village and obliterate it, and Number 2 along with it.)
The camp itself is a typical boot camp, military format, with adults threatening children, basically. (Here is something else I don't understand. The adults in the camp don't seem to be armed. They are outnumbered by the girls. If the girls really wanted to, they could overpower the guards and staff by sheer numbers. )
There's also a Bible hour, so the camp seems to be run by Christian extremists. This is backed up by a book they give the girls. This isn't a camp for correcting bad behavior; it's a camp for brainwashing girls.
One of the girls was sent to the camp by her racist, homophobic mother since the white girl was caught having sex with a black girl.
She finds out that the camp will force girls to take medications if they feel it is necessary. The camp personnel will enforce Bible hours, and they don't care if the girl reading the Bible is not a Christian.
Anna does seem to grow a lot in the story, and seems to come to realize that what happened with the abortion was not all her fault alone. She also seems to have achieved some level of confidence in herself, hopefully enough to be able to stand up to her own parents, especially her religious-extremist father. I wish there had been an ending showing that, since I think that it would have strengthened the story. As it ends, we know she's grown, but we don't know if she's grown enough to be able to deal with the challenges she faces.
Also, a warning. There are a few very graphic scenes of violence in this book.
June 27, 2011
Several recalcitrant girls are sent to a mostly uninhabited island in the Bahamas to a boot camp-like environment where the guards think nothing of sending a charge to solitary. There seems to be no way off the island and that is if you can escape the guards, forest, mangrove swamps, and chain link fences. No talking during meals, quiet time, class and most other times.
They're about to embark on their first long hike to Clayton Peak, ten miles southwest outside the camp. Counselor Adler and Miss Richards will be leading one group, following the Blue Hollow Trail, into the forest past Diver's Gem, one of the largest blueholes on the island. The other group will be headed up by counselors Brody and McGathy down the Nevis River to the Andros River Basin, 1/4 mile from Clayton Peak. Both groups should be reaching the Peak around 5:00 p.m. and spending the night there in sleeping bags which they will carry along with food, water, and supplies.
Things happen on the way to the Pike which cause the girls to be without their counselors, on their own in the woods and scared for their lives. Help is on the way. Right? Right?
Gunshots. Arguing. Fear. Screams. An old lady in a run-down shack and what's that sticking out of her neck? Sometimes being the prettiest doesn't always work in one's favor as they are about to find out.
I would have given this 3.5 stars if that had been a choice.
young adult shelf for language
They're about to embark on their first long hike to Clayton Peak, ten miles southwest outside the camp. Counselor Adler and Miss Richards will be leading one group, following the Blue Hollow Trail, into the forest past Diver's Gem, one of the largest blueholes on the island. The other group will be headed up by counselors Brody and McGathy down the Nevis River to the Andros River Basin, 1/4 mile from Clayton Peak. Both groups should be reaching the Peak around 5:00 p.m. and spending the night there in sleeping bags which they will carry along with food, water, and supplies.
Things happen on the way to the Pike which cause the girls to be without their counselors, on their own in the woods and scared for their lives. Help is on the way. Right? Right?
Gunshots. Arguing. Fear. Screams. An old lady in a run-down shack and what's that sticking out of her neck? Sometimes being the prettiest doesn't always work in one's favor as they are about to find out.
I would have given this 3.5 stars if that had been a choice.
young adult shelf for language
December 21, 2012
This book was a surprise for me. I don't usually read action novels, but I felt like I needed to get out of my comfort zone of the typical teenage romances and drama. If you're the 'Sisterhood of the traveling pants' type of person, I would put this book down, and run far far away from it.
The action content in this book is jam-packed. This book is a total page turner. You connect with the characters and feel like you're in one of those scary thriller movies. Constantly feeling the need to yell at the book and tell the characters to NOT take that next left or to NOT follow that man in the forest. The girls remind you of those bad girls in your school. The main girl, Anna, reminds me of that friend we all have who acts all big and bad, but in reality, is just as scared as anyone else.
I rated this book a four because while the plot was good, I didn't LOVE the ending. It was kind of rushed in a way that made you feel like it didn't do the book justice.
I would recommend this to any girl who is sick of those typical Sarah Dessen, Stephanie Myers type books. I would classify this as a part action, part mystery novel. I personally say it was kind of scary, actually, But then again I don't usually read this type of book.
It was like a mind expanding experience for me, reading this book. Not like it was getting all philosophical, but as a reader, it feels good to know you aren't subject to one genre of books.
The action content in this book is jam-packed. This book is a total page turner. You connect with the characters and feel like you're in one of those scary thriller movies. Constantly feeling the need to yell at the book and tell the characters to NOT take that next left or to NOT follow that man in the forest. The girls remind you of those bad girls in your school. The main girl, Anna, reminds me of that friend we all have who acts all big and bad, but in reality, is just as scared as anyone else.
I rated this book a four because while the plot was good, I didn't LOVE the ending. It was kind of rushed in a way that made you feel like it didn't do the book justice.
I would recommend this to any girl who is sick of those typical Sarah Dessen, Stephanie Myers type books. I would classify this as a part action, part mystery novel. I personally say it was kind of scary, actually, But then again I don't usually read this type of book.
It was like a mind expanding experience for me, reading this book. Not like it was getting all philosophical, but as a reader, it feels good to know you aren't subject to one genre of books.
Read
November 2, 2011Bad Girls is essentially a spin off of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Anna, the protagonist, has been rebelling against her parents by shoplifting and a series of other not well-thought out things, just to get their attention. Since she has experienced more up’s than down’s in her life, it causes her to act out when what she really needs is to find a way to cope with her feelings. Her parents finally have enough when she crashes her stepmother’s car and maxes out her Dad’s credit card and is sent to a boarding school for troubled teenagers on an island off the coast of Florida. Outraged and lacking even more self-control, Anna tries to find some kind of way to get off the island and escape. Although, when things take an unexpected turn and one of their hikes turns into a shoot out, she and the other delinquents have to find a way to survive in the wilderness and get back to campus. What I really liked about this book is because it incorporated real-life, modern day teenagers who can be seen as relatable into an unlikely setting. It was very intriguing.
February 4, 2008
I finished this book not so long ago and I enjoyed it alot. It had great inticing periods, and a great plot. I think that this book is a great book for people who want to read books about two worlds put together. A world like the one we live in today, and a world of killers, and carless people. I think that this book was great because the author didn't just write about a lost group of girls but added in alot of things that 14 year olds can sometimes compare to. This book is like nothing that I have ever read, it's a book about females and their relationship with men, some can be good and the others terrible. Good Luck Reading
August 18, 2016
So I bought this book second handed because it sounded like a nice book. At first I hated the main character, a whiny spoiled brat but her charachter developed to a pretty decent person. Some characters in the book had nice personal developments aswell, but some just stayed the exact same horrible persons. I was really refreshing that it didn't contain an ongoing love triangle. The story was easy to read and good to follow. Nearing the end I actually was really thrilled to know what was gonna happen next. This made me keep reading till 2 AM to finish the book. Which is in my opinion a really good characteristic of a book. So I gave this story 4 out of 5 stars (:
January 8, 2012
I read Bad Girls in about two days after getting hooked to find out what happened next. While the third person point of view is limiting to getting to know the characters and the author relies on stereotypes for the personalities of the girls, the story is what makes this book a great read. You'll find yourself drawn in wanting to know what happens next. While the ending could use a bit of an improvement, I still enjoyed reading.
October 11, 2013
This is kind of a trashy read...delinquent girls sent to a wilderness camp on a deserted island, and all of a sudden weird/scary stuff starts to happen? I read this book while my husband was working at the (now defunct) Borders bookstore, waiting for his shift to end while drinking endless cups of tea. I did enjoy it, and will keep an eye out for other stories by this author. The ending seemed unrealistically sappy, though.
October 11, 2014
I thought Anna would be more proactive in the book based on how she was in the beginning, but she wasn't. What baffles me is that in the eulogy we discover that when Maria went 'missing' when it was raining is when she was discovered. Okay, I know the girl didn't talk but she couldn't have told the freaking rescue team that there were like 6 other girls taking shelter under the rocks? If I were Anna and I saw Maria after everything, there definitely would have been a confrontation.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 29, 2009
I absolutely loved this book. It was about a girl that was real trouble at home so her parents send her away to a type of boot camp in Miami. They were very strict there until they went on a trip with the camp in a forest and all the advisers got killed. So all the girls that are troubled including this girl Anna had to find there way out of the forest alive and not get into any trouble.
June 12, 2013
Pros:
*Interesting premise
*Quick read
Cons:
*Cheesy writing
*Shallow, stereotypical characters
*Author did not do a good job at portraying "girl world" in an interesting or realistic way
Most hilarious line (vaguely spoilery):
"A scene right out of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre awaited them, a brutal masterpiece of violence painted on the walls of the cave."
*Interesting premise
*Quick read
Cons:
*Cheesy writing
*Shallow, stereotypical characters
*Author did not do a good job at portraying "girl world" in an interesting or realistic way
Most hilarious line (vaguely spoilery):
"A scene right out of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre awaited them, a brutal masterpiece of violence painted on the walls of the cave."
March 31, 2008
this book was really good. i have to say its one of my favorite books so far that ive read. its really scary at some points and reminds me of lord of the flies. its something you really rarely get to read about which makes it even better.
October 5, 2008
this book was juicy and suspenseful. however, i was disturbed by the fact that a grown man would write something so sadistic about a group of teenage girls. i don't know ... certain aspects of it were just icky.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews