Book Review: Bad Habits by Flynn Meaney

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I just saw a tweet asking people why they read YA or middle grade fiction and this made me contemplate my recent choices ahem ahem!! I have been reading some (or maybe a lot!) thanks, mostly to Dave and the fantastic book tours he organises, as well the fact that I have a teen in the house. So it is just sheer cleverness on my part that I read YA and try to see what goes on in the minds of today's young generation.

Well, to read Bad Habits by Flynn Meaney was one such attempt. Which mother of a teen can resist going through a book titled THAT? Enough of jokes, let's get to the serious business of reviewing this book. So, first things first, an introduction to the book and the protagonist.


Alex goes to a strict Catholic school and wants to be expelled from it. Her story is an attempt at gaining some shock value and getting the school authorities to chuck her out. What actually happens is a tangential growth in Alex's character and discussions and debates on topics which have been always hidden behind a societal veil.

Alex aims at her expulsion by staging the The Vagina Monologues- the play that speaks openly about women's sexuality. You see, Alex is a rebel and not a very concerned citizen of the world. All that she yearns for is an escape from the school which she feels is not aligned at all with her thoughts on things of different nature. She keeps getting herself into trouble with the authorities but during her journey makes friends that stand with her, passes the test of friendship and learns to see and hear others beyond herself.

Meaney writes with her heart and you can sense how deeply she feels about the topic of women's sexual health and freedom of choices offered to them by the society in her prose. The characters are grey, never black and white. Though there are some bits written quite irreverently (we are talking about sex), nothing is in jest. There are laugh out loud moments and there are lines that will pull at your heart, more so if you are a mother to a teenager and can empathise with their struggle with finding and forming an identity and learning to live within a society that promises absolute freedom but curtails it in the name of shame and norms.

I loved the book and will want my daughter to read it and form her own association and judgment about Alex and her choices. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone no matter what age, not only for the fact that YA helps us come out of the drudgery that COVID has turned our lives  into but also because of the topic that this book dares and cares to bring forth. 

Kudos to the publishing team at Penguin Random House for giving Flynn Meaney and Alex their voices!!


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