This razor-sharp novel from Printz Honor winner and Morris Award finalist Jessie Ann Foley will appeal to fans of Wilder Girls and The Grace Year.
Mia is officially a Troubled Teen™—she gets bad grades, drinks too much, and has probably gone too far with too many guys.
But she doesn’t realize how out of control she seems until she is taken from her home in the middle of the night and sent away to Red Oak Academy, a therapeutic girls' boarding school in the middle of nowhere.
While there, Mia is forced to confront her painful past at the same time she questions why she's at Red Oak. If she were a boy, would her behavior be considered wild enough to get sent away? But what happens when circumstances outside of her control compel Mia to make herself vulnerable enough to be truly seen?
Challenging and thought-provoking, this stunning contemporary YA novel examines the ways society is stacked against teen girls and what one young woman will do to even the odds.
* A Chicago Public Library Best Teen Fiction Selection * A Banks Street Best Children's Book of the Year *
At Red Oak Academy, the only way out is through. But what happens when the girls who are supposed to be your rivals become your only lifeline?
- Troubled Teen Protagonist: Meet Mia Dempsey: smart, sarcastic, and spiraling. She's been labeled a bad kid, but the truth about her past is far more complicated.
- Forced Proximity: Taken from her home in the middle of the night, Mia is now trapped at a remote therapeutic school where every move is monitored and there's no escape.
- Found Family: Among the other outcasts and rebels at Red Oak, from a wannabe pipe-bomber to a girl who literally eats her own hands, Mia might just find the first real friends she's ever had.
- Feminist YA Fiction: A sharp, unflinching look at the impossible expectations and double standards placed on teenage girls, and one girl's fight to define herself on her own terms.
Jessie Ann Foley is the Printz Honor–winning author of the YA novels The Carnival at Bray (also a Morris Award finalist), Neighborhood Girls, Sorry for Your Loss, and You Know I’m No Good. For middle graders, she has written Breda's Island and Severe and Unusual Weather. Her work has been named to best-of lists by Kirkus Reviews, ALA Booklist, YALSA, Entertainment Weekly, and many other outlets and has been featured on school and library recommended reading lists all across the United States. Jessie lives with her family in Chicago, where she was born and raised. You can visit her online at jessieannfoley.com.
