I just read a really, really cool book that I think you GHQ readers will love: How to Be Bad. This YA fiction book, collectively written by E. Lockhart, Lauren Myracle and Sarah Mlynowski, chronicles a weekend in the life of Jesse, Vicks, and Mel, three Florida-based teenagers who decide to go on a road trip, and end up learning a lot more about each other–and themselves–in the process.

How to Be Bad is a great book for a few very different reasons:

1. The characters are incredibly well-developed and a lot of fun. The three heroines–Vicks, Mel, and Jesse–are all very different and are also very approachable. I think every girl who reads this book will probably be able to identify very strongly with at least one character. Also, the characters in this novel are incredibly human, and they share their fears about a parent’s sickness, moving, boyfriends, money, loneliness, and other really relatable issues.

2. I LOVE the diversity that this book presents. As irresistible as I find Gossip Girl (my guilty pleasure!), it is endlessly refreshing to read a realistic story about middle class and even lower-middle class girls who are careful with their paychecks and who worry about gas money and who don’t drop the names of designer labels and fancy cocktails every other sentence. I think the authors of How to Be Bad deserve some real kudos for not underestimating their readers, and being bold enough to write a story that doesn’t woo readers with Jimmy Choo and limoncellos, but instead woos readers with a compelling story with relatable characters.

3. As a writer, the idea of three well-known YA fiction authors coming together and perfectly fusing their various writing styles and creativity and approach to writing in a single book is really fascinating. I can only imagine how funny and unusual their writing process was… especially when I believe the writers didn’t know each other that well when they first got the idea to write a novel together!

4. Have I mentioned that How to Be Bad is such a fun story?! I’ve been bugging my friends to go on a road trip for years, and because this is our last summer where we’ll all be home from college at the same time, and they still don’t want to hop in my Forester and go to Alabama with me… How to Be Bad was great way for me to vicariously experience the ups-and-downs of taking a road trip with friends.

5. While one could argue that this book is really a deep coming-out-age story, it’s also really funny! The dialog and conversations are totally funny, and parts of the book will keep you on the edge of your seat.

I give an A+ to How to Be Bad, and I will keep you posted as I read more of the books that E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle have written individually. Given the precedent that How to Be Bad set, I have a feeling their other books will be really great, too!