I won't say that there weren't good points, there were, but out of the books I've read How To Be Bad fits into the lower (not lowest!) category of quality.
Okay so the story centres around a badly planned roadtrip undertaken by three friends; Mel, Jesse and Vicks. Jesse is the group's highly religious and level-headed thinker who is quick to jump to conclusions and can be hot-headed when she wants to be. Out of all three of them I found her the last person I could relate to and honestly she became a slight annoyance over the course of the story.
Vicks, Jesse's best friend, managed to make her snarky quips a little more bearable and her snappy humor and easygoing nature towards Mel (the outsider) makes her a likeable character. Unfortunately that's where it stops because after she breaks up with her boyfriend after two weeks of separation for no absolute rational reason AT ALL, her character also becomes a little tiresome.
Mel = the only character I could partially relate to. Aside from being rich and a middle child, Mel is the awkward duck stuck in the middle of Jesse and Vicks and she is sort of the middle ground between Vicks' badassery (new word!) and Jesse's saint-like personality. Mel actually reminded me of myself.
The story takes place over the course of a weekend and each character undergoes their own arc of sorts. Jesse reveals a secret that she had kept close to the chest, Vicks both breaks up and makes progress with her boyfriend and Mel claims the one thing she's wanted since she became the new girl: friends.
It pains me to say it but the romances were also very unrealistic, especially for a story that sets up the premise of being semi-possible. Falling in love with a hitchhiker you meet after breaking into a museum and then getting cutesy with him at a party with all his drunk friends is not only highly impossible but also could be considered VERY DANGEROUS. Like seriously, do not try that in real life.
How To Be Bad is quite a free-spirited and quaint novel but it paints a picture of dull and poorly developed characters in an unrealistic and all-too-convenient world of sexy strangers and zero felonies.
All in all not a complete waste of time, but not a ground-breaking one either. Like I said- average.
Also, footnote!
Some of my viewers have requested a rating system so I'm introducing a 5 star system for future books.
In case you're wondering, this book receives 2 out of 5 stars : )
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