"'Funny thing about those cracks,' Bristal says. 'Most of them are teenage-girl shaped.'"

There is really no one else in YA doing small-town gothic like Mindy McGinnis. She's not dark, or even that "gothic" per se, but just...odd. Odd and strange in just the way real life can be misshapen and muddled. This is a slice-of-life study in privilege and community and reputation. Yes, there's murder mystery, but that's not even the most fascinating part.

Bristal Jamison is already my favorite character this year. (Although, it's only January 6th.) She's crass, kind, violent, and tender, and you can't help but just love her. However, I really like McGinnis' decision to have Lydia be the 1st person POV narrator instead. Bristal is a whole show; it's better to watch than try to understand it. Lydia's analytical and inquisitive mind is better suited for telling this story. (Also, it means we get to see Uneven Steven the cat.)

Lydia suitably amends for her assumptions and prejudices, and McGinnis makes thoughtful commentary on class, status, and power. My only wish is that we got more time with the Jamisons, clearly the more entertaining family, but the Chasses give a good show.

Did I mention also how funny it is!?

This book was full of twists and turns but it’s the friendship between Lydia and Bristal that really stands out. I loved the development of both characters. I think this book would be really great on audio so you can hear the podcast recordings.

I loved this story! The characters are great. So many great lines. I thought the inclusion of socioeconomic issues to be very timely, many of our students are dealing with this. Highly recommended!

#ALongStretchofBadDays #NetGalley Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this novel. I encourage you to check this one out!

I liked this book a lot more than I thought I was going to when I first started it. It started out a little slow but definitely picked up and held my interest. It had a lot of good twists and turns that kept me hanging on. I will be recommending this book to anyone who will listen!

Mindy McGinnis is one of my all time favorite YA authors. I adore her gritty, dark, twisty tales and was so excited to get an e-ARC of this book! It combines two of my favorite things: murder mysteries and podcasting. Two high school girls realize they are short a credit to graduate so they set out to create a podcast about their sleepy town. Little do they know that they are playing with fire and walking a very fine line with those in town who want the recent past to stay quiet and hidden away forever. I adored these two main characters--Bristal especially had be laughing out loud with her sense of humor and clever one liners. Mindy did it again! This book was super compelling and I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen!!!

4.5 stars that I'm rounding up to 5 because I love these two characters and their families sooooo much. I can't decide if I want to be Lydia or Bristal if I grow up, but I definitely need to be in their very small friends circle. I laughed at their humor and snark and tough girl vibes so many times. I loved their relationship. The two of them together had me LOLing for reelz!! The storyline itself was easy to sink into and it was a fun and twisty ride. Dig into this one, you won't be disappointed.

Mindy McGinnis never fails to write an incredible story and A Long Stretch of Bad Days is no exception.

Lydia has always been a straight arrow with a clear plan to get out of Henley. However, because of an error on her transcript, she is at risk of not graduating. After convincing the administration to allow her to do an independent study, Lydia pulls Bristal Jamison along for the ride. Bristal is in the same boat, but as a Jamison girl she has never been a straight arrow. Her foul mouth and willingness to do just about anything is something Lydia has to adjust to quickly. For their project they decide to do a podcast on Henley's long stretch of bad days. It doesn't take long before the pair realizes that something doesn't add up in everyone's stories about what happened following a local tornado and a girl gone missing.

I highly recommend picking this book up!

Henley, Ohio had a rough time in the mid-90s, with a tornado, a flood, and a murder all in the same week. The town's golden child Lydia Chass and girl-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks Bristal Jamison become an unlikely podcasting duo when they each need an extra history credit to graduate. The girls begin an investigation into the long stretch of bad days and uncover a whole lot of uncomfortable and dangerous secrets lurking beneath the surface of their nice little town.

I LOVE Mindy McGinnis. The way she writes teenage girls is brilliant, and I love that she doesn't hold back on the darkness. Like at all. This wasn't my favorite by her, but it would take a lot to unseat The Female of the Species and Be Not Far From Me from the top spots. Absolutely a must-read for existing McGinnis fans and a good entry point for new-to-her readers. She is the best. Highly recommend.

This was a different kind of vibe than I've gotten from other Mindy McGinnis books - it's almost a buddy detective sort of story (they're not actually detectives, they're children, but you know what I mean) There's still murder and horrible events recounted in the book, but for once none of that happens to our main characters lol

Lydia Chass lives in a small town where names carry weight - and hers is strong. Bristal Jameson's name might have a strong connotation... but it's not necessarily good. They're complete opposites - Lydia is seen as a good girl who is going places, and the only place people expect Bristal to go is jail. The two of them both find themselves down a history credit after a mix up at school, and find it mutually beneficial to partner up and work on Lydia's podcast together to pad their transcripts back up to graduation levels.

They decide to do a series of episodes covering "the long stretch of bad days" - a week or so in their town in 1994 where bad stuff would not quit happening. A tornado wrecked their town. A flash flood came through and flooded the dog pound (if you are very sensitive to pet death, maybe skip this. The flooding does not happen on page, but there's a decent bit of discussion around the act), and then a dead body was discovered in the flood/tornado wreckage - a body of someone that died PRIOR TO the natural disasters.

There, of course, are mysteries to be uncovered as they start to find out more information. They've always known about the long stretch, but they get far more in tune with it as they get first-person accounts from townspeople and see old photos for the first time. The remembrance of town history was a nice aspect in this story, even if it is a more tragic series of events.

The main journey Lydia goes through is learning how to fight back against the presumptions about Bristal that have been drilled in to her by the way they've grown up. She struggles to trust Bristal's motivations sometimes, and her slowness to realize that they're not so different after all really starts to threaten the girls' blooming friendship. It's a tale as old as time, but it's always relevant, and this one is pretty realistic.

This book is not diverse. It has a very insular main cast, but it also takes places in a rural Ohio (maybe?) small town which like... sometimes aren't that diverse. So I don't know that it's necessarily an issue, but it's of note. Also of note is there is no romance in this book whatsoever, so it may be a good recommendation for kids who aren't feeling reading about love

To avoid spoilers, I'll just say the secrets they find out about the events in 1994 end up being more relevant in current times than they expected...

Always gonna recommend Mindy McGinnis and this is no different. It's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder for the kids who grew up with their dads watching NASCAR... is that too niche of a comp?? Well, if you know what I mean, this book is for you lol

I don't know that it does anything new in particular--girls who are very different, small town with secrets, podcast, murder, but I thought it was engaging and I really enjoyed Lydia and Bristal as characters. Actually, all of the characters had distinct personalities and really stood out. I felt like the twist was fairly obvious (in fact it felt so obvious I thought it was a red herring) but overall, I found myself really enjoying it.

I like the premise with the mismatched characters coming together to do a project, but this book lacks the intensity to keep me reading. McGinnis is normally great at intensity and keeping the story going, but I didn’t care about the premise. The “shocking” events to keep the story going were not surprising enough to perk my interest. The very end is where things wrap up, but not in a believable way.

Mindy McGinnis is back with an absolutely thrilling mystery novel. While definitely not as gruesome as some of her other books (see The Initial Insult or The Last Laugh), A Long Stretch of Bad Days was literally so much fun to read. Check below for my review for A Long Stretch of Bad Days to see everything about this novel that I completely adored.

Lydia Chass and Bristal Jaimson couldn’t have less in common. Lydia is the town’s golden girl: always nice, always overachieving, and definitely always right. Bristal is… the opposite. Lydia and Bristal’s paths have never crossed. Until, that is, their ex-guidance counselor screws them both over and makes it to where they almost don’t graduate. Now, Lydia and Bristal must work together on a history podcast for their small town so they can make it through high school. However, what starts as a history project ends up with murder, a disappearance, and a small town that likes to cover up its dark past….

I have SO much to say about this novel. It reminded me a ton of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and Truly Devious in that the first novels in those series were so much fun to read and guess the mystery surrounding them. Mindy McGinnis has delivered an amazing mystery that was somehow dark and lighthearted at the same time. How, you ask, can the novel be both? Bristal. My number one favorite character in the whole book.

While I empathized a lot with Lydia (I’m from a small town as well where my family is expected to do no wrong…), Bristal was the showstopper here. She made Lydia interesting in a way that she wouldn’t have been had Lydia been by herself. The relationship between Lydia and Bristal was so real and not perfect at all (which is exactly what I want to see between teenage protagonists). Bristal is able to keep this novel light and airy for the first two-thirds, and when shit does get real, somehow you still get this perfectly timed comic relief from her character. So, the book itself, because of Bristal, never feels too serious, which I loved.

With Lydia, the focus on family, class, and the way you’re supposed to act in a small town really hit close to home for me. Small towns can be brutal, but they’re also full of people you love despite their flaws. Above all, though, you’ll often find the inhabitants of a small town sticking together through thick and thin. At least, that’s my experience of it and it seems to be Lydia’s as well.

I don’t want to go into too many spoilers since I read this as an ARC, but the ending was honestly perfect to me. You didn’t have too much closure with specific characters, giving the novel an overall realistic feel, but you also get just enough closure to make the novel feel complete. The climax and resolution, while not totally unexpected, still gave you a little surprise as the reader, and you definitely get one of those sick and twisty moments that McGinnis is known so well for.

Overall, this novel was a wonderful read, and I can’t wait to see what other readers’ thoughts are on it. The mystery was amazing, and the characters were as well (especially the relationships between characters). Also, Uneven Steven is legit the cutest pet sidekick ever. Prove me wrong. I dare you.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishing for providing me with an advanced reader copy of A Long Stretch of Bad Days by Mindy McGinnis in exchange for my honest review. I seriously cannot wait for McGinnis’ next novel.

Favorite quote: “The nice thing and the right thing aren’t always the same thing.”

*This review is scheduled to be posted on my Youtube, blog, and other social media accounts on March 9th, 2023 at 12pm Central in order to publish the review a little closer to the novel’s publication date.

This book has all the ingredients for a great mystery. A dead body, A podcast, secrets, and a quest for justice. I thought the beginning was a little slow but it picks up. The character Bristol balances the story adding humor and a string of cuss words and sayings that are very colorful to say the least. This book is a solid and enjoyable read. Thank you Net Galley for the ARC to read and review.

I am usually a pretty solid Mindy McGinnis fan, but the premise of this one sat poorly with me. Lydia Chass lives in a small town, and due to an issue with a school counselor, she and another student, Bristal Jamison, need to make up a history credit to graduate, so they do a podcast of the news and history in their small town. Specifically, they get to the bottom of a murder and a missing person during the "Long Stretch of Bad Days" in the town. The mystery plot line is so-so, a little slow on pacing, but the relationship between the two girls is problematic. It is based entirely on the Chass family name being upstanding and higher socio economics while the Jamison last name is more troubled. Both characters become caricatures, but the one of Bristal is demeaning and stereotypical down to "not getting pregnant" and "vaping" and getting drunk as stand-ins about her family and her family's character. Even if they end up being plot points, it was over-the-top and didn't sit well with me.

Lydia and Bristal make an unlikely pair. Lydia's family appears to have it all-a huge home, what seems like an endless amount of money, and a beloved two-legged cat. What people don't see is that her mother has a drinking problem, and her father's work as a defense lawyer has cost him so many clients that they've been dipping into Lydia's college fund for some time. Bristal's from a part of town referred to as "Trash Park" and is one of many Jamison girls. As the saying goes, one of them is always pregnant and they remain Jamison girls because they never marry the fathers of their children. Bristal's tough because she has to be and isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. Bristal and Lydia find themselves on the receiving end of their school counselor's drinking on the job: they're both at risk of not graduating due to his error, but they decide to join forces on Lydia's well-received, if bland, podcast to explore the history of the town and its "long stretch of bad days" thirty years prior.

What the girls don't expect is to become friends in the process. Their commitment to their work doesn't falter, even as they make mistakes along the way and uncover truths about their town that most people would like to keep buried in the past.

This book is a quick read with strong leads. Highly recommended for anyone who's enjoyed McGinnis' previous work and for fans of Karen McManus, but really, everyone would benefit from reading this one.

I liked this book I found the plot interesting and I enjoyed the friendship between Lydia and Bristal and how everything came together at the end.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was immediately hooked on A Long Stretch of Bad Days. The characters are fully developed and interesting. I loved the project they are working on and I love how they grow throughout the novel. The mystery was developed and intriguing. McGinnis doesn't disappoint. I highly recommend this book.

I'm a big fan of Mindy McGinnis, but A Long Stretch of Bad Days blew all her other works out of the water. The mystery in this book was wonderfully convoluted and twisty, and I loved the way the intensity and suspense built throughout the book. Lydia and Bristal were both such complicated characters: you initially think that Lydia is just the naive, teacher's pet-type of girl while Bristal is just angry and trashy, but as the girls find out more about Henley and get closer to one another, you learn that they're both much, much more than that. I think the way the two main characters' lives subvert stereotypes worked really well and added to the unique feel of the book. You expect Lydia to have the wealthy, perfectly happy family and Bristal to be street-smart but not book-smart, when that doesn't end up being the case.
I liked Lydia's POV just because of how smart and calculating she is, but Bristal's dialogue was absolutely hilarious. I really liked the transcripts of the podcasts she did in particular. This book wrapped things up really well, but I would really love a companion novel, maybe what Bristal gets up to after Lydia is gone.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars.

Spoilers ahead. I will not reveal anything big - most of the review vaguely alludes to plot, structure, and characters.

---

Full disclosure, I am a fan of McGinnis - all of her books have been a solid four or five for me so far. This one, I feared, was about to be the first that fell short of expectations. I really disliked Lydia, though that was fairly integral to her development as a character. I found Bristal to be abrasive and not funny, though as we learned more we saw those were coping mechanisms. The characters were definitely well-crafted, even if I couldn't quite connect with them. I found the plot to be very interesting, even though it was pretty predictable with the cigarettes and the friendship (again, vague!). But! Very enjoyable and well-crafted.

---

Again, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.