I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert Published by Flatiron Books on February 20 2024
Genres: Horror, Young adult
Pages: 400
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A supernatural revenge story revolving around a dangerous game is the focus of Melissa Albert’s latest, a beautifully written, dark tale with a compelling mystery.
“That’s why they were here, eating crap coffee and bad sweets at a rest stop perched like a concrete spider over the highway. So Becca could see what it was like to identify the bad ones, mixed into the crowd like arsenic in sugar.”
Melissa Albert once again proves what an excellent writer she is with The Bad Ones, a YA horror/mystery that is perfect for adult readers who don’t usually enjoy YA—take it from me, I’m one of those readers! This is a dark tale with strong urban legend elements, touching on the unique bonds of childhood friendships and how toxic they can become. The otherworldly elements are subtle until you get to the end, but I loved the journey, and the mystery was intriguing enough to keep the pages flying.
On the night Becca Cross disappeared, three other seemingly unrelated people went missing as well, abruptly and without a trace. Nora and Becca were inseparable friends until only a few months ago, when Becca did something unforgivable. But when Nora receives a strange text from Becca—”I love you”—she’s compelled to investigate. Something must be wrong, because the text felt like a good-bye. Nora goes to Becca’s house, but instead of finding Becca there, she finds her cell phone abandoned in the back yard.
When Becca doesn’t turn up the next day, and reports start coming in of other missing people, Nora fears the worst. And if something happened to Becca, why is Nora finding strange clues that could only be from her best friend? With the help of the reclusive James Saito, a boy who knew Becca through their mutual love of photography, Nora decides to find her friend, and in the process, figure out what happened to the other three people who are missing: a thirteen year old girl named Chloe, a teenaged boy named Kurt, and Mr. Tate, a teacher at Nora’s high school. Becca left James a message—Tell Nora I’m off to play the goddess game—and Nora has a place to start. Because the goddess game was what came between the two friends in the first place.
Albert doesn’t waste time setting up her mystery—the disappearance of Becca and the other three, seemingly unconnected people—and the reader is immediately sucked into the story. Most of the chapters are told from Nora’s point of view, but we also get some flashback chapters that follow Becca leading up to the present. These sections (“Six Months Ago,” “Three Months Ago,” etc.) reveal more details about Chloe, Kurt and Mr. Tate and why they might have been targeted. We also learned more about the goddess game and how its origins are shrouded in urban legend, as well as Becca’s chilling connection to the game. It isn’t until almost the end that we finally learn what really happened, and I loved the way the author tied everything together.
At the heart of the story is a complex, ultimately unhealthy relationship between Nora and Becca, which starts when they are only seven and escalates into a codependency that’s nearly impossible for Nora to break out of. At first the girls are thrilled to have found each other. Becca is the new girl in school, a petite, sprite-like creature who chooses Nora out of all the kids in her class to befriend. Becca has a vivid imagination and creates all sorts of magical games throughout the years. The nearby woods act as their playground, where the two can let their imaginations soar. Nora goes along with everything, especially when Becca takes up photography and creates her “goddess” photos, posing Nora in costumes and inventing names and purposes for each goddess. Eventually they incorporate the goddess game into their play, a trust game with deadly consequences. It’s this game that finally fractures their friendship, when Becca goes too far one day and scares Nora to death. Up until the scary codependency parts, their friendship brought back lots of memories from my own, magical childhood, so for me this story had an extra layer of nostalgia to it.
In order to explain the goddess game and how it started, we meet another character later in the story, a woman who is connected to the high school and may be the key to everything that’s happened. Melissa Albert is a master at complex plots and characters, and I was in awe of the way she was able to tie all these threads together at the end of the story.
Definitely not your run-of-the-mill YA, The Bad Ones is perfect for readers who like their stories dark, and their characters darker.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
Big thanks to Flatiron Books for inviting me to be on the blog tour!
Melissa Albert is the New York Times and indie bestselling author of the Hazel Wood series (The Hazel Wood, The Night Country, Tales from the Hinterland) and Our Crooked Hearts, and a former bookseller and YA lit blogger. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages and included in the New York Times list of Notable Children’s Books. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.
This sounds really good. I haven’t read very much YA, and not recently either, but I do like the sound of this, the goddess game and how it began. Glad you enjoyed it 😀
The goddess game was kind of scary, but it really reminded me of things I did as a teen, so it had a nostalgic feel to it.
I read Our Crooked Hearts a couple of years ago and while I enjoyed it, it did not woo me completely. This new novel sounds very intriguing though, and I’m even ready to overcome my distrust of YA, given your recommendation. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Maddalena@spaceandsorcery recently posted…AN EDUCATION IN MALICE, by S.T. Gibson
It was nice to find a YA that I actually enjoyed!
I don’t know why I didn’t request this one. I really like the author and it sounds amazing. Kicking myself a little right now.
Lynn 😀
I will read anything she writes:-)
“The Bad Ones is perfect for readers who like their stories dark, and their characters darker”
*raises hand* Great tagline, too!
Also, I love stories when the characters met as children and had a fallout, and stories where the supernatural and the normal collide…
Roberta R. recently posted…B.C. Johnson: “Deadgirl: Daybreak” (ARC Review)
Ha ha thanks Roberta! This was such a good story about a teen relationship that felt codependent, which I don’t think I’ve read before.
This sounds fascinating! I haven’t been particularly interested in YA lately, but this sounds like a good one to make an exception for… especially since now I’m dying to know more about the goddess game!
The goddess game was pretty scary, actually!
Glad to see you rate this one so high. I’m very interested in giving this one a go! Great review.
Thanks Barb! It’s worth trying for sure.
Great review, Tammy! I think I would really enjoy this book. YA isn’t my thing anymore but I feel like this is a darker story in the genre and I do like that. Also love that it has urban legend elements so that sounds great too. I must say you really convinced me now!
Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Hera by Jennifer Saint
Thanks Stephanie! This will definitely appeal more to adults than a lot of other YA I’ve read.
YA has certainly been a hit or miss category for me, but sometimes I’ll stumble across a great one. Very glad to hear this is one of those and worth trying.
Yes, exactly, me too. This was definitely a success in my opinion:-)
I’ve read The Hazelwood by the author, and it was okay, but I didn’t care about going on. I do really want to give this one a try, Glad to hear it was so good!
Lisa Mandina (Lisa Loves Literature) recently posted…ARC Review: Hannah Tate, Beyond Repair by Laura Piper Lee
I think this is completely different from The Hazel Wood (which I haven’t read), so you might like it better.
I’m reading this right now (only about 50 pages left, actually!) and am having a great time with it. I don’t read a lot of YA anymore, but this has been a really good one so far. Glad you had a good time with it!
Jordan @ Forever Lost in Literature recently posted…Review: The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed
I guess if you have to read YA, you should read something by Melissa Albert, right? Looking forward to your review!
I enjoyed The Hazel Wood and have yet to try anything else by Albert yet, but this sounds very tempting!