Bad Behaviour (ATOM Study Guide)

Bad Behaviour is a visceral ride into the epicentre of our teenage years where it’s bully or be bullied in the merciless struggle for social power, and only the most ruthless come out unscathed … or so they think. A decade after her year at Silver Creek – the wilderness campus of an exclusive girls’ boarding school – Joanna Mackenzie is rattled when she encounters her old classmate, Alice Kang.

Troubled by Alice’s less than friendly greeting, Jo is thrown back into the memories of the year they spent together in the same dormitory – Red House. Both scholarship students, the two were immediate friends bonded in their vulnerability, until the coolly manipulative Portia came between them.

As teenage Jo negotiates that emotional year in the wilderness, adult Jo finds herself reeling when Portia unexpectedly inserts herself into her life again, dredging up long buried feelings.

Portia’s powers of persuasion are as irresistible now as they ever were, and Jo is disturbed to find herself reverting to her teenage self. As Portia’s mercurial whims fuel Jo’s torment, Jo treads an increasingly self-destructive path, imploding relationships around her. Wracked with doubt and self-recrimination, Jo is haunted by the question – can she ever redeem the bad behaviour of her youth?

Curriculum Links:
Bad Behaviour can be linked to the following subject areas within the Australian National Curriculum:

• English
• Media
• Health and Physical Education