Bad Girls Club
Judy Gregerson
Reviewed by Barb Radmore
Living with someone who is suffering from severe
mental
illness is difficult at best. When a child is trying to cope with it in
the one
person they love and depend on most in the world, a parent, it is
devastating.
Bad Girls Club portrays this in the intense, unrelenting story of a
teenager
trying to survive in a family disintegrating. Judy Gregerson holds
nothing back
in her hard hitting novel.
Destiny wants to be a typical teenager, who hangs
out with friends,
can have summer job and a boy friend. But her home life makes this
impossible.
Her mother has always been unstable, unpredictable but it has spiraled
into so
much more. Her mental illness is out of control. Destiny feels she must
stay
home to protect her little sister, Cassidy. As her mother’s whole world
closes into night
time in one room of the house, Destiny’s future begin to seem just as
limited.
There is also a story line relating to an event that happened in
the past at Crater Lake. Most of the book is
told in present, first person so the continual references back to
that event add drama and suspense to the story. The reader’s
imagination is
brought into play to try to figure out what exactly happened there to
so affect
Destiny. This is a writing technique that can be artificial and trite.
But Gregerson uses to its full potential.
The characters are rough enough to be honest. The strength of
the book is its realism. There is no sugar coating anyone in the book
to become
what they should not. The father is not able to cope with the reality.
The
grandmother tries to do what is right but she is not able to change
what is
happening. Destiny’s friend knows what is happening but, as would be
true for
most teenagers, tried to abide by Destiny’s request not to tell. In a
story as vivid
as this one the characters must be well executed to hold the action.
Gregerson
has been able to hold them to that standard. Destiny, as the main
character, evokes both caring and sympathy without becoming pathetic.
Cassidy is the character that brings out the tears as the younger one
drowning in a situation she can not understand.
Bad Girls Club does not skimp on drama but does not wallow in it
either. It builds to a climax that is not unexpected yet is still
powerful.
This novel is appropriate for teens and adults.