The bad daughter

the long version

The Bad Daughter is Julie Hilden's story. As a child, Hilden uses books to escape her mother's bewildering rages and silent retreats. When her college acceptance letter comes, she flees - for good. And as Hilden builds the foundation for a new life - college, law school, and beyond - her mother's life is coming to an end. Still, even as she attempts to escape the past, Hilden finds that it nevertheless comes back to her. With an unblinking eye, she describes the patterns of abandonment and deceit that come to mark her new life. And each of her relationships, she finds, is influenced, tainted in some way, by her betrayal of her mother.