Girls behaving badly – the thrilling rise of the YA antiheroine

They’ve been too nice for too long, but now mean, monstrous and even murderous girls are revitalising young adult fiction

Antiheroes don’t feature in a lot of kids’ or young adult fiction. Likability, someone to root for, victims of clear-cut injustice – classic main characters tend to the plucky and put-upon, à la Harry Potter or Sara Crewe. And dislikable, amoral, even monstrous girls are especially few and far between – girls in fiction, as in real life, it seems, are under more pressure from their readership than their male counterparts to be “nice”. Where are the female Tom Ripleys – or even the Patrick Batemans – of YA? At long last, I’ve noticed some mean girls – not quite a monstrous regiment, but a sinister strike force, at least – popping up in YA and older middle grade (MG) fiction.

In her first novel, Pretty Bad Things (2010), CJ Skuse sketches a bright, acidic portrait of Paisley, one half of the teen Wonder Twins, who go on a crime spree through Vegas en route to find their long-lost dad. Paisley and Beau have both had a traumatic upbringing, witnessing their mum’s death and being farmed out to separate schools by a manipulative grandmother who hides their father’s letters and steals from their trust fund. But, unlike her brother, Paisley hasn’t been crushed into fearful acceptance by the experience. Instead, she’s emerged with a rapier wit (disgustedly describing the girl who sleeps with her boyfriend as “Paris Hilton in a smashed mirror”), a total disregard for boundaries, and an inability to suffer fools and hypocrisy gladly – or, indeed, at all. Written off by umpteen headmistresses as a “bad seed”, Paisley’s bull-in-a-china-shop relish for poor choices, foul language and instant gratification make for a satisfyingly memorable antiheroine, who many good girls might secretly wish to emulate.

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