Bad Kid: My Life as a “Troubled Teen”

Szamosi (Unretouchable) recalls her experience being labeled as a “troubled teen” during the early 2000s in this no-holds-barred graphic novel memoir. “When I was 13, I was sent away,” Szamosi begins, in a sequence that depicts her being awakened by her mother and two strange men, who corral the teen into a car and transport her to New Horizons, a long-term behavioral correctional facility in Virginia, and the first of several programs into which she would be enrolled. Frenetic, nonlinear chronology details the figure’s challenges around disordered eating and substance reliance, the bracing friendships she made during her treatment, and the decisions she believes contributed to her situation: having been raised by a single mother who had “not yet fully healed” from the “really bad things” that occurred in her own youth, Szamosi railed against her parent’s attempts to shield her from “the evils of the world.” Mixed-media collage elements from the subject’s adolescent journals are peppered throughout high-contrast digital b&w illustrations with intense red accents, lending the work a raw, organic feel and emphasizing each event’s impact on Szamosi’s mental health and self-image. Opens with content warnings and concludes with a creator’s note. Character skin tones match the hue of the page. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar Literary. (Mar.)