A review by savvylit
Bad Girls: A Novel by Camila Sosa Villada

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Bad Girls is perhaps the biggest testament to chosen family that I've ever read. Right from the start, Sosa Villada describes the solidarity and care that the self-described travestis have for one another. When their matriarch, Auntie Encarna, finds and adopts an abandoned baby, the travestis rally around Encarna to help her raise the child. This is the background for the rest of the narrative, which follows Camila as she navigates the danger and violence of sex work as a trans woman.

Overall, Bad Girls was an intensely compelling yet absolutely devastating novel. Sosa Villada writes with a unique blend of humor, magical realism, and blunt honesty. I felt truly immersed in a world that I'd known absolutely nothing about prior and I'm so glad I was. (Even if it often completely broke my heart).
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