The School for Dangerous Girls by Eliot Schrefer

Angela’s parents have had it with her out of control behavior and the incident with her grandfather was the last straw. Angela finds herself sent off to Hidden Oak School for Girls, an exclusive boarding school for troubled teen girls in Colorado. Angela quickly discovers that the girls are divided into two groups- the gold thread girls who the school believes can be rehabilitated, and the purple thread girls who are deemed lost causes. The girls in the purple thread are treated horribly and locked in an underground prison while the gold thread girls are given more freedom and education. Angela becomes determined to not only break out of the school but to also get it shut down.

Schrefer’s plot is complex and slightly muddled through its rushed ending. Tension builds slowly and the ending comes just after the story becomes most gripping. Angela’s character is full of contradictions and unanswered questions but is captivating as are the majority of the teenage secondary characters while the adults are either stereotypically vicious and cruel or clueless.