Bad Bad Girl - part memoir, part novel of a traumatic relationship with a mother who never said, "I love you."

Following the death of her mother in 2020 at the age of 96, author Gish Jen started writing a memoir about Loo Shu-Hsin (Agnes), with whom she had a difficult relationship. However, since her mother rarely spoke about her childhood in Shanghai, the memoir evolved into an autobiographical novel. Loo was born in 1925 into a large, affluent family. Her mother showed little regard or affection for Loo despite being a bright girl. After college, Loo was permitted to travel to the United States to attend graduate school. While enrolled in Columbia University, she met Jen Chao-Pei. After being repeatedly told by her mother that no one would ever want to marry her, she and Chao-Pei married and started a family. When her second child, Lillian (the author's birth name), arrives, the hostility towards her daughter is repeated by Loo in this next generation. Loo expresses her continued disapproval of the intelligent and high-spirited Lillian with constant berating, "Bad, bad girl! You don't know how to talk!"

Since Bad Bad Girl is autobiographical, we know that the author not only survived the lack of motherly love but has thrived. She studied at Harvard and Stanford, where she met her husband. They have two children. This is her 10th book. The author's keen sense of humor is evident throughout, featuring conversations with her mother after her death. Jen has written a moving story, which hopefully has given her the ability to reconcile her feelings about a woman who never said "I love you" back.  

Rated 4.25 out of 5 stars.

Biographical Fiction.

Publication Date: October 21, 2025.

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