Bad Kid: My Life as a 'Troubled Teen' Sofia Szamosi 9781836001928

'When I was thirteen I was sent away... Maybe dragged away is a better way to put it.'

This powerful graphic memoir tells the story of Sofia's turbulent teenhood, with an insider's perspective on her experience of being taken away ('kidnapped') to a residential treatment centre aimed at 'troubled teens'. Wise, funny and heartbreaking all at once, Bad Kid presents, in a series of flashbacks, the unforgettable portrait of life in a US 'teenage boot camp' and offers YA readers a glimpse into the harmful effects that labels can have on us.

Powerfully told in black & white comic strips accented with vivid pops of pantone red, Bad Kid is the coming-of-age story of Sofia's late childhood, and how her once-happy relationship with her mother sours irreparably when she marries Sofia's stepfather. It follows her early teenage rebellion years in which she meets Marigold - 'AKA the coolest girl I'd ever met' - and together they set about finding themselves through the traditional teen pursuits of rule breaking, smoking, dodgy hook ups and bright red booty shorts ... until the day when she is bundled into a car by total strangers and driven 400 miles to a teenage correction camp based deep in the woodlands of Virginia, US ...

This powerful and challenging memoir covers themes and ideas that are universal to teenagers everywhere - being misunderstood, mislabelled and rejected - and speaks to relationship and mental health issues experienced by teens today.

Sofia Szamosi is the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Unretouchable and forthcoming title Bad Kid (March 2026). Sofia's work has been displayed in university library collections and her fine art has been shown in group and solo shows in New York City, Chicago and Detroit. Her illustrations have also been featured in publications such as Loose Threads, Sleek Magazine and Vice. She received her BA (Hons) from NYU's Gallatin School for Individualised Study in 2017.