Book Review: Pretty Bad Things

Pretty Bad Things
Author: C.J. Skuse
Pages: 256 Hardcover
Reading Level: YA
Published: July 1st 2011
Review Source: Scholastic
Available: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Scholastic

Summary: (from goodreads) "Wonder Twins" on the run--and running amok--in Vegas. Road Trip!

Paisley and Beau are boldface names again. Last time, paparazzi called them the "Wonder Twins," two kids found alone but alive in the woods of exotic New Jersey. Three days after their mom's death -- and before their dad's criminal misdeeds.

Flash-forward to now: Their so-called lives? Suck out loud: Hating on their cougarized, Botoxic grandma, they're totally clueless about the location of ex-con Daddy. Till they discover a stash of old letters. That's when they decide to jack the Pontiac and hit the road. Holding up donut shops in Sin City might seem extreme, but if they can just get their pretty bad faces back on TV -- or TMZ -- they might wrap up their whole gaga saga with an Oprah-worthy reunion already!

I fell in love with this story from the beginning. The badass persona of the main character Paisley caught my attention from the get-go. She’s a troubled teen who’s life is going from school to school because she continues to get kicked out due to her “I don’t care” attitude. Paisley has been seeing a therapist ever since she found her mother dead and took off into the woods of New Jersey with her twin brother Beau. After three days lost in the woods, the “Wonder Twins” as the paparazzi called them were found and taken to their grandmother who later exploits them for all the money she can get her hands on. After Beau discovers that their long lost father, who was convicted of robbery has sent the twins letters their entire life, and did not abandon them as their grandmother had said, Beau is undecided how to tell his sister Paisley. After hearing that her father has not forgotten about them, and has sent them letters that her grandmother had forced the maid to hide, Paisley finds yet another way to get herself kicked out of the most recent school she’s attending. With her flight ticket in hand, she’s ready to head back to her grandmother’s house and talk to her brother on how to gain contact with their father. This story shows just how far one will go to for love or to be loved.