I'm always here for the intersection of YA and religion. Add in a heaping dose of feminism and a main character whose first language is sarcasm and I was laughing out loud within about three pages. Seriously. This book is hilarious! (If you’re sensitive to language, Bad Habits has quite a colorful vocabulary! But to be fair, I heard worse in the passing periods of my public high school hallway, and I learned to swear like a sailor while in Catholic grade school, so this was a bit like reliving my childhood.)

Alex doesn’t exactly fit in at St. Mary’s Catholic Boarding School, where she was sent after her parents divorced. She’s not exactly the prim and proper, plaid-wearing Catholic girl of their dreams; her purple faux-hawk, motorcycle boots, clove cigarettes, and ability to pick out even the slightest whiff of misogyny anywhere she goes (and it’s woven in deeply at St. Mary’s) have her constantly warming seats in the office, and this time, she’s close to the end. Deciding to finish things off once and for all, Alex decides to pull something St. Mary’s won’t be able to forgive her for: staging a school production of Eve Ensler’s award-winning play, The Vagina Monologues.

Easier said than done. The school isn’t exactly bending over backwards to help her make this happen. Her roommate, buttoned-to-the-neck-yet-boy-obsessed Mary Kate, is mortified to even whisper the word ‘vagina.’ Her fellow students’ more conservative manners don’t make them terribly receptive to Alex’s headstrong messages. But Alex has a lot to learn beyond how to make a proper scene…

I spent SO much of this book laughing. Alex is a LOT- she’s brash, crass, irritable, stubborn, and incredibly forward. She’s no-holds-barred, which frequently gets her in trouble- not that that worries her. But beyond being foul-mouthed and ill-tempered (quite often with good reason!), Alex is smart and quick on her feet. She’s the sharp, quick-witted YA character we all wished we could be, with cultural and literary references at the ready for every retort. I’m going to age myself here, but she would have fit in well on Dawson’s Creek. While at times she was a bit much, overall, I enjoyed her edge and her ability to eventually take a hard look at herself and grow where she needed to.

Her roommate Mary Kate is fun- boy-crazy in a sweet way, but there’s more than meets the eye there, as there is to every other character, something that Alex struggles to see in her dismissive efforts to caricaturize her classmates and school staff. Major props to Alex's goody-goody classmate for making a killer Biblical argument at the end. Seriously, watch for this, it's brilliant. The messages here- look deeper, understand where other people are coming from, notice what you have in common before you notice what divides you- aren’t heavy-handed, but woven into the narrative in a way that makes this book full of life lessons just a fun, funny, entertaining read. I laughed out loud so frequently while reading this that my husband was wondering what on earth I was doing upstairs.

A fun read that asks readers to look a little deeper at the people in their lives.

Bad Habits follows Alex as she tries to put on a production of The Vagina Monologues in an attempt to finally get kicked out of her Catholic boarding school.

The book is a short and fast paced read, the plot revolves around Alex as she tries to get kicked out of her school, a place where she does not fit in and in order to that she decides to put on a school production with limited success – I really liked the setting of the book. The plot for the first half of the book was kind of messy – it went nowhere and did not focus on the school production as much as I thought it would, in general the book focuses little on the actual production which was kind of disappointing, but I did like the second half of the book a lot more. The second half is more fun and focuses on the side characters more which is probably why I preferred it, although Alex is an interesting narrator and I liked what she was saying and what she stood for – I also found her really annoying and rude and I hated how she put other people down constantly. She does get called out for some of her behaviour towards the end but because everything happens quickly in the book, you do not get to see her change after she gets called out.

There were some funny parts to the book, and I get what the author was trying to do but I did think the book just tried too hard in general especially with Alex’s character which is probably why I did not like her as much as I thought I would. Also, the plot was really cliché and some parts of the book just ended up being really cringy especially towards the end.

2/5

I requested a copy from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

Alex Heck is a rule-breaking badass student in St Mary’s whose goal is to get expelled in order to go back to California. When her latest mishap failed, she decided to put on a St. Mary’s rendition of ‘The Vagina Monologues’ and see how events go from there.

I like the tone of this book. It’s sex positive, and the characters have their distinct personalities. However, I think that Alex falls into a badass protagonist trope. Readers are meant to root for her character, but she ends up being portrayed as selfish and self-centered, even if the book points out the ways she assists St Mary students in an unconventional manner. These events though are mostly done through telling, rather than showing her character’s innate goodness, or that her character cares about other people. Instead she becomes rather obsessed with her only mission, which is to make a daring show. The writing was engaging, although plot points seem to go by very quickly.

While I did like the storyline of the novel, it’s all rather very informational. We only know things about the characters because they tell us. Still, this reads really quickly, and has other factors that I like from it: aside from the tone and characters, I also particularly liked the atmosphere it radiated, and that it didn’t sound preachy even if it’s set in a Catholic environment. This was a fun read, and other readers might give this a try if they are fans of Derry Girls (which is a fantastic show).

Bad Habits is a contemporary YA novel about a Minnesota Catholic boarding school where one student tries to shake up the status quo. Alex stands out at her school with her purple fauxhawk and tendency to get into trouble, but this is on purpose, as she wants to be expelled and have to move back to California. When her latest exploits don't get her out of St Mary's Catholic School, she thinks up a new plan: to put on a production of The Vagina Monologues. But what starts as a way of getting into trouble turns into something larger, a way to try and tackle sexist norms and help out her fellow students (even if her best friend Mary Kate isn't so sure).

I was interested in Bad Habits thanks to the cover and the fact it was compared to Derry Girls, but didn't really know what to expect. What it turned out to be is a fun story of trying to make a boarding school a little more progressive, with a protagonist who needs to judge people a little less and an unlikely friendship at its heart. It isn't a book with a huge amount of plot, but rather has a simple narrative as Alex tries to put on her production and also grows as a person, realising people can be feminist in different ways and that people might surprise her. Taking a rebellious character and showing they really do like the place is a bit clichéd, but it is meant to be a fairly heartwarming and funny book that looks at the lighter side of fighting for equality in somewhere steeped in old traditions. Alex's roommate and unlikely best friend Mary Kate is a great supporting character, whose desire to fall in love doesn't stop her developing herself as a person, though some of the other background characters blurred a bit for me.

You could see this being turned into a TV series (and indeed the ending feels a bit like it could set up a second book), maybe on the lighter end of the scale but still tackling real issues. Having never been to a Catholic school or boarding school, it's hard to know how realistic or not it is, but the messages about not only feminism, but accepting others' choices as part of feminism, are important, even when centred around such a privileged world. Bad Habits is a fun YA book good for teenagers who want contemporary light reads that don't always have romance as the main focus.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The premise is fun and easy t0 follow with a simple style and engaging characters, making for a quick and fast paced read.

The protagonist, Alex, comes across as self centred and egotistical at times, a 'pick-me' type girl who puts down others for how they interpret feminism yet she is written in a compelling way which allows the reader an enjoyable experience as we follow her journey to produce The vagina Monologues in a Catholic boarding school. The result is comical at times while emotional at others and provides a moving tale of friendship and feminism.

One critique is that some of the behaviours and language used does not appear entirely authentic and can either come across as too adult or simply out of touch. Nevertheless Bad habits is a fun easy read which provides examples of multi-faceted feminism.