I wanted to love this book so much. I was excited to read it. But I really ended up not being as into or intrigued by the story. I love books about unlikeable people so that wasn't a problem. I think this book suffered from too many characters and it just did not grab me. I forgot I was reading it for a week which never happens.

The title really does describe this one, the people in this book are horrible. They were all entitled, spoiled, self-centered and kind of mean. That being said, the storyline was good, and it kept me intrigued. I did want to know what happened next. And I love any book set on the beach. The descriptions of the beach, the houses, all made me happy.

Bad Summer People is exactly what it sounds like. This book follows a group of rich people on their summer vacation and they're all doing bad things. The small Fire Island community of Salcombe is home to all the action. The book starts out with a dead body and then spends the rest of the time catching us up to that point. There were not a lot of redeeming characters or people to root for in this book. It is a fun read for when you want something beachy but without the romance.

This book is exactly what I think of when I think of "beach reading"- fun, frothy, sexy, with misbehaving, weather people and a murder/mystery swirled in. Just overall a delightful book that can easily be read over the course of a weekend. The title 100% sums up this cast of characters, as not ONE of them is "good", all having secrets of varying levels pf scandal. Definitely one for a road trip or to escape into for a bit- will absolutely recommend.

This debut of people behaving badly follows a community on Fire Island where Manhattanites summer each year. A body is found in the opening pages and you don't uncover why and how until the end.

Great book that definitely deserves the buzz! This vacation read delivers and I'll be looking for more from this author. Thanks Netgalley!

It’s summertime on Fire Island, where New York’s elite spend the summer season. From memorial til Labor Day, they descend upon the island to get away from their busy lives. With a routine of cocktail parties and tennis matches, the islanders quiet summer turns chaotic when a body is discovered. Who on the island would even be capable of murder?

Bad Summer People is about, you guessed it, rich people behaving badly in the summer. It’s a trainwreck in the best possible way. Barely any of the characters in this book are likable. They all have flaws, secrets, and drama. I love the pettiness of the women and if I’m being honest, would have loved the book to just be from the women’s perspective. The men are all on the border of being charming but are also the absolute worst.

Rachel Woolf, Jen and Sam Weinstein, and Lauren and Jason Parker are our main characters, almost every character we meet narrators some portion of the book. While I loved the extra drama and cattiness, since I primarily listened to the audio, I took me a bit to get the hang of who was who and who was married to who. If you don’t like a ton of narrators, maybe skip this one.

I was addicted to the drama (give me all the scandals) and would have given this 5 stars, but I felt the ending dragged on. This is a perfect summer/ beach read and anyone who loves reality tv drama, this book is for you!


Bad Summer People is out now. Huge thank you to Flatiron Books for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof.books.

Thank you Flatiron and NetGalley for this delicious summer novel! When I think of summer, I think of beach reads that I can devour in a day while having a cocktail by the pool and this book was exactly that. The book centers around four couples who have been lifelong summer friends due to vacationing in the same summer town annually. As they grow up, make their own wealth, and buy their own summer houses in this quiet beach town drama ensues. The book starts off with a young boy finding a dead body and his father griping that anywhere where taxes are that high should not have dead bodies laying about. We don't know who the victim is, and as we get to know all of the main characters, the reader sees it can be truly anyone since they are all DEPLORABLE people. While I didn't like a single character, it was like watching a mind numbing reality tv show where I had to see how they finish their summers and who the victim was.

I have mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, I really liked the gossipy take on this group of wealthy people and their summer on Fire Island. But there were too many characters and POVs for me, and they all were, as the title suggests, bad people and pretty unlikable. It was still a fun, light read that makes it great for summer.

What a great summer cover. It lead into the perfect summer novel. Mystery, crazy characters, and the beach. It's such a good way to get your summer started.

This book takes place over one summer in a small community on Fire Island. There are families who have been there for generations as well as new families. Sam and Jason, childhood best friends, both have houses there with their wives. Marriages are tested, rumors fly, and someone is dead. This is a beach read but it at times was uncomfortable to read. I prefer my beach reads with a lighter, funner vibe.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Emma Rosenblum, and Flatiron Books for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

Bad Summer People is a great read if you're looking for a juicy beach/pool-side read! There is SO much drama packed into such a short length, and I was able to fly through it, as I got sucked into the world of Salcombe. I love books about rich people behaving badly, especially if it's set at a beachy location. This book in particular though was just not quite it for me personally. The biggest thing I had issue with was just the writing as a whole; I understand that it is supposed to be satire, but some of the writing just felt way too immature for my taste. Whether it be the plot or the literal phrasing of things, it just read as flat and juvenile in ways. There were also a LOT of characters that were featured, and I think the book could have benefitted by leaving some of them out. The mystery was a bit predictable, and I finished this book feeling slightly let down and wanting more. If you just want entertainment from the drama, this is the book for you, but if you want something more complex and gripping with both its satire and mystery, then I wouldn't recommend.

Filled with secrets and scandal, Bad Summer People is an enjoyable summer read perfect for Real Housewives fans or those who enjoy stories about the super wealthy.

Bad Summer People is a good book choice for people looking for a fun beach read.
Thank you Flatiron for the copy and congrats on the positive coverage.

Each summer Salcombe, Fire Island comes alive with summer families, tennis, community parties, and simply bad behavior. This summer, the bad behavior boils over and Salcombe will never be the same again.

Not quite a thriller, but a little more than an ordinary beach read with the death, plenty of secrets and many with motives. This is a quick, good read.

If you are looking for an engaging and soapy beach read for this upcoming summer, look no further than BAD SUMMER PEOPLE by Emma Rosenbaum. I was immediately sucked in from the jump when an anonymous body is found on the beach of a rich community on Fire Island, and we went back to the start of summer and are doused in scandal, lies, secrets, and other levels of nonsense from unlikable rich characters (as well as a few unlikable aspiring to be rich characters). The mystery itself is fine, pretty standard and old hat, though it has a few pretty well done reveals and twists. But what I liked most was the soapy and dramatic shenanigans of our cast of idle rich and entitled players. Whether it's ice queen/queen bee Lauren, or seemingly lovely but secretly vicious Jen, or ambitious and ruthless tennis coach Robert, all of our characters are very unlikable, but fun to watch as they flit about and backstab each other. This is the kind of vacation read that will be breezy and easy while keeping you interested while you sit by a pool or on a patio or on a beach.

BAD SUMMER PEOPLE should be added to the beach reads pile for the summer.

This is a fun, engaging beach read, with a character driven plot and great story. I highly recommend.

This book opens with a body being discovered, but it is not until the very end that we learn the how and whys of this person ending up dead. I was at first impatient about that, I wanted to know what had happened to this poor dead person, but I soon realized that we really needed to understand the people involved before we could get to what happened. Plus I had a lot of fun guessing who might have ended up dead!

There are many, many points of view given in this book, but there are six people who mostly drive the narrative. Jen, Sam, Lauren and Jason have been coming to Fire Island for years and on the surface are the best of friends. Through their eyes and the eyes of many others on the Island we see a group of friends who keep secrets from each other and in some cases actually loathe each other. The other two main pov we get are Rachael, the lonely single who is the main gossip and snoop and Robert, the tennis pro.

This is very much a character driven plot, and most of these characters are not very likable. Sam was the only really likable person of the core four, but in the end he proves to be just as despicable as the others. I also sort of like Robert, but I think it was mostly sympathy for his lot in life, as he ends up being not such a nice guy. All of the women were awful, and I had no sympathy for any of them. I usually don’t enjoy so many pov, as it is hard to keep track of them, but it seemed to work in this case. I also really liked that there were many instances where the same event was told from many different perspectives. I loved how different those perspectives were, and how the different characters interpreted the event.

I loved the setting of Fire Island. It definitely had a small town feel, where everyone knew everyone’s business. There was also a lot of sleeping around and pretending to like people when interacting with them, but privately loathing them and talking nastily about them behind their backs. I also found it interesting, that most of these people did not interact with each other outside of the few summer months they spent on the island.

The plot was very well done as we were slowly lead up to the events of what happened to the person who died at the start of the book. There was a big twist at the end that was quite the surprise, but made sense with the rest of the story. I also liked that we got a glimpse of the aftermath a few months later after the ‘murder’ was solved.

I think this will make a great summer beach read. The characters, while not likable, will certainly keep you entertained and the story will keep you turning those pages in the hot summer sun.

Bad Summer People is an excellent thriller. It lives up to its name because none of these characters were likable, and they were most definitely bad, yet they were all humanized through their storyline, and despite the fact you despised these characters, the story itself was in my opinion compulsively addictive. I have read a lot of thrillers, and for me Bad Summer People is one of the very best that I have read, it was both delicious and decadent. It needs to be on everyone's summer reading list.

An interesting, page-turning novel and social commentary about the ultra rich as they summer on a small island. Full of unlikeable character with a bunch of secrets. Engaging and a good beach read but I didn’t completely fall in love with it.