Bad Girl

Bad Girl, Leslie Hall, Capra Press, 1996

This is a group of what might be called contemporary, life-in-the-90s stories. These are tales of the things that can happen to people living normal, but troubled lives.

Here are a few examples. A woman living alone in an apartment has her clothes stolen out of one of the building's washing machines by the resident strange person, something he has done before. A divorced woman moves to a new city, intending to start over. She stumbles into a relationship with a married man; he says he loves her. He promises to take her on a weekend trip, then, suddenly, no phone calls, no letters from him, nothing. She constantly calls him, wanting to know what's going on. She is the one who gets the police visit with the message, stay away from him or go to jail. A young Hispanic mother does her best to stay away from the baby's father, a member of a local gang. A young juvenile delinquent, feared by most everyone in the neighborhood, becomes a hero when he stops a man who has been exposing himself to schoolgirls waiting at bus stops.

The characters in these stories could live down the street, they could be a relative, they could be anyone; these stories could happen anywhere. This is a really interesting, and eye-opening, bunch of tales, and gets a strong thumbs-up.