Blog Tour | BAD HABITS by Flynn Meaney

Welcome to my stop for the BAD HABITS Blog Tour, hosted by @TheWriteReads. I am very thankful and excited to be part of this.

     

BAD HABITS by Flynn Meaney
Publication: February 11, 2021
Publisher: Penguin
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Rating: ★★★★

Alex is a rebel with a purple fauxhawk and biker boots.

St Mary's Catholic School is a strict boarding school where she's currently trapped.

Despite trying everything she can to get expelled, she's still stuck with the nuns, the prudish attitude and the sexism.

Fed up with life inside the hallowed halls of St. Mary's, Alex decides to take matters into her own hands. She's going to stage the school's first ever production of The Vagina Monologues.

Which may be a challenge, as no one else at St Mary's can even bear to say the word 'vagina' out loud...

BAD HABITS is laugh-out-loud funny. Flynn Meaney’s supply of metaphors is impressive. And the Catholic school environment brought up some very familiar scenes from my grade school days.

Alex Heck’s semester goal is (...ummm) not to finish the semester. In her junior year, she wants nothing but to get expelled and go home to California. She tried her best –alcoholic and sexual escapades, vandalism, etc. Her words, not mine. She’s not a catholic boarding school material, but St. Mary’s is not ready to give up on her. Determined to have her way, though, the girl decides to stage her very own production of Eve Ensler’s award-winning play, The Vagina Monologues.

The school is not going to make anything easier for Alex. She needs to battle the administration in every turn and breakdown a culture of prude-ness. Kate, her French-braided, Laura Ingalls Wilder-look-alike best friend, can’t even say vagina out loud. The mention of Tampons sets Hockey boys sniggering. While Alex grudgingly made alliances and compromises, she still has more to bone up.

Alex is smart, with quick bad-ass comebacks every time. Her literary references are remarkable. Somehow, her protests are viewed as mere misbehavior because Alex is also impulsive, unruly, and foul-mouthed. For someone who is screaming for change and equality, Alex has her own biases. And so, I enjoyed how her friends (basically, everyone around) keeps her grounded. These second characters are marvelous around her. Despite all her flaws, Alex cares for people and self-reflects when needed.

A fun and inspiring read, asking readers to look deeply inside and break barriers. I recommend.

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About the Author:

Flynn Meaney is the author of The Boy Recession and Bloodthirsty. She studied marketing and French at the University of Notre Dame, where she barely survived the terrifying array of priests and nuns, campus ghosts, and bone-crushing athletes who inspired Bad Habits. Since completing a very practical MFA in Poetry, she works for a French company and travels often between New York (when she's in the mood for bagels) and Paris (when she's in the mood for croissants).

*Thanks to Penguin and The Write Reads Tour for the egalley in exchange for this unbiased review.
*This post is a part of the monthly linkups organized by Lovely Audiobooks! You can click here to check it out and be a part of it.