Three years ago, fifteen-year-old Abigail Vona lived a life so far out of control (booze, boys, drugs, stealing, and runaway charges) that her father committed her to Peninsula Village, a controversial treatment facility for "behavior modification" in Louisville, Tennessee. She was kept inside this "level-three lockdown" and "wilderness boot camp" for nearly a year. And though it all started out as a nightmare, it eventually became her salvation.

An errant soul at war with the world and especially with herself, Vona unabashedly takes readers inside her own private Idaho. And while she negotiates the dangerous terrain of this "tough love" program, she reveals many dark secrets of the Bad Girl sisterhood. Contending with various behavioral problems (sexual excess, violence, drug addiction, anorexia, self-mutilation, etc.) some of these girls succeed, while others must continue serving their term, or worse, be kicked back to their desperate lives on the outside. A book that will resonate with young women and their mothers alike, Bad Girl is an Every Girl story of teenage rebellion and discovery, accelerated to the extreme.

"The title of Vona's memoir of her stay in a behavior rehabilitation facility for troubled adolescents is far more provocative than her book's content. Fifteen-year-old Vona's father commits her to Tennessee's Peninsula Village for the usual transgressions of angst-ridden teens: shoplifting, drug use, lying and running away from home. Initially, Vona rebels against the institute's stringent rules, only to find that compliance is key to survival. Stripped of the most basic liberties, Vona takes several weeks to make sense of Peninsula Village's seemingly illogical rules. But she earns privileges as the year progresses and predictably learns the value of trust, respect and responsibility. To distinguish her book from the Girl, Interrupted genre of teenage mental patient-cum-diarist stories, Vona juxtaposes progress notes from her therapy sessions and comments from the institution's staff with her own unenlightened, grouchy account of recovery and rehabilitation. The result is jarring. The notes' unsentimental insights will prompt readers to reconsider their opinions of Vona: in trying to reconcile the differing versions of her behavior and attitude, readers may doubt Vona's veracity in her dual roles as patient and storyteller. More, Vona's unpolished narrative voice relies too heavily on the use of the notes to propel the narrative forward." Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"This is not just a Girl, Interrupted, this is a girl, wild, trapped, defiant, broken, reformed, and ultimately redeemed." Jay McInerney

"[T]he notes of staff members who observed Vona in both group and individual therapy sessions...provide another perspective, which sometimes meshes and sometimes conflicts with her account. Raw and unsettling, yet ultimately reassuring." Kirkus Reviews

"[B]oth a gripping diary by an out-of-control teenager...and a cumbersome, disconnected autobiography....The diary is pretty graphic and pretty awful..." Library Journal

Abigail Vona is an attractive, well-spoken eighteen-year-old...now. But just three years ago, Abby lived a life so far out of control (booze, boys, drugs, stealing, runaway charges, jail) that her father committed her to Peninsula Village, a controversial treatment facility for "behavior modification" in Maryville Tennessee. She remained in this "lockdown and wilderness" boot camp for over a year. With narrative drive, color, surprise, and a range of provocative characters, this is the ultimate story of adolescence told to the extreme.

At age fifteen, Abigail Vona lived a life so far out of control (booze, boys, drugs, stealing, and runaway charges that her father committed her to Peninsula Village, a controversial treatment facility for “behavior modification” in Louisville, Tennessee. She was kept inside this “level-three lockdown” and “wilderness boot camp” for nearly a year. And though it all started as a nightmare, it eventually became her salvation.

An errant soul at war with the world and especially with herself, Vona unabashedly takes readers inside her own private Idaho. And while she negotiates the dangerous terrain of this “tough love” program, she reveals the many dark secrets of the Bad Girl sisterhood. Contending with various behavioral problems (sexual excess, violence, drug addiction, anorexia, self-mutilation, etc.) some of these girls succeed, while others must either continue serving their term, or worse, be kicked back to their desperate lives on the outside.

Vona’s tells her vivid story with a twelve-step, chapter-by-chapter descent to rock bottom, which arcs into a twelve-step, chapter-by-chapter ascent to a new way of seeing her life. Most controversial, Vona secured, and includes throughout the book, excerpts from her actual psychiatric “progress notes” to both underscore and belie her narrative.

A book that will resonate with young women and their mothers alike, Bad Girl is an Every Girl story of teenage rebellion and self-discovery, accelerated to the extreme.

Abigail Vona is from West Hartford, Connecticut. After being released from Peninsula Village, she attended the Forman School in Litchfield, Connecticut, a school serving students with learning disabilities such as ADD and dyslexia, graduating in May 2003. She is currently taking classes at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Abigail Vona is from West Hartford, Connecticut. After being released from Peninsula Village, she attended the Forman School in Litchfield, Connecticut, a school serving students with learning disabilities such as ADD and dyslexia, graduating in May 2003. She is currently taking classes at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.