In Her Skin’s Jo is a talented con with a keen sense for danger. But her desire for the perfect family causes her to ignore warning signs, and lands her in trouble. 

My favorite teen criminals possess a vulnerability that has the potential to take them down. They’re involved in crimes ranging from filching to infanticide, but they share one thing: weaknesses that trip them up, big-time. Here are my top five (or six).

5. Flick, the pickpocket from Kirsten Miller’s How to Lead a Life of Crime, accepts a scholarship to attend an exclusive school for criminals. He’s lured by the promise of proof that his estranged father killed his little brother and mother. Flick’s obsession with avenging their deaths leads him to make a Faustian pact; this is never a good thing!

4. Finn Shelby from the BBC’s Peaky Blinders is the youngest member of a violent family-run gang in 1920s Birmingham. He starts the series as a sweet, round-faced kid. By season three, he commits his first murder and introduces his oldest brother to drugs. Finn can’t help it: He’s foremost a Shelby, which means the straight life will always elude him.

3. Mary Addison from Tiffany D. Jackson’s Allegedly went to jail for killing a baby in her mother’s care when she was nine. Now, she’s got two more years to serve before getting out of her group home, and she wants the truth about her childhood crime to surface. But is Mary a reliable witness? Is she even a reliable narrator? Jackson keeps the reader guessing, as well as switching allegiances, throughout.

2. Joffrey Baratheon from HBO’s Game of Thrones has committed a shocking number of murders for someone his age; remember, he’s only fourteen when he gets assassinated. GOT fans will tell you the young king was prophesied to die by a fortune-teller. But it’s Joffrey’s total lack of humanity— coupled with some violent perversions—that hurry him along the path to be poisoned.

1. Tie: Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme from the film Heavenly Creatures, based on a real case, in which two girls charged with murdering Pauline’s mother, who wanted to keep them apart. The movie focuses less on the sensational killing, than on the girls’ intense relationship, which revolves around an imaginary world they call Bonorovia. That tendency to confuse fantasy with reality is what leads the girls to hatch a plan they think will ensure a life together, forever.

Who are your favorite teen criminals? Are they magical thinkers, like Jo, Pauline, and Juliet? Or are they stuck trying to right past wrongs, like Flick and Mary? Does a criminal need to have a heart of gold for you to care, or just a few flaws to make them human? Let me know!

In Her Skin by Kim Savage

A dark, suspenseful young adult novel about crime, identity and two girls with everything to lose.

Fifteen-year-old con artist Jo Chastain takes on her biggest heist yet—impersonating a missing girl. Life on the streets of Boston these past few years hasn't been easy, and she hopes to cash in on a little safety, some security. She finds her opportunity with the Lovecrafts, a wealthy family tied to the unsolved disappearance of Vivienne Weir, who vanished when she was nine.

When Jo takes on Vivi's identity and stages the girl's miraculous return, the Lovecrafts welcome her with open arms. They give her everything she could want: love, money, and proximity to their intoxicating and unpredictable daughter, Temple. But nothing is as it seems in the Love craft household—and some secrets refuse to stay buried. When hidden crimes come to the surface and lines of deception begin to blur, Jo must choose to either hold on to an illusion of safety or escape the danger around her before it's too late. In Her Skin is Kim Savage at her most suspenseful yet. 

Start reading now.

Kim Savage writes psychological thrillers that sometimes involve crime and always include flawed characters. She is the author of three critically acclaimed young adult novels, After the Woods, Beautiful Broken Girls (named by Kirkus as one of the Best Teen Books of 2017), and In Her Skin, all with Farrar Straus Giroux/Macmillan. Her novels have been published in Spain, Brazil, and Turkey, and optioned for TV. Kim is a former reporter with a master’s degree in journalism, and she lives with her husband and three children near the real Middlesex Fells Reservation of After the Woods. You can follow Kim on Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter, and visit her at kimsavage.me.