Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of The Bad Ones! Wow, this book was quite the journey. I am admittedly not the biggest fan of horror, but I found that the author meshed mystery and the supernatural really well in this novel. The plot had me on the edge of my seat throughout, though it did slow down a bit towards the middle of the book. The plot twists and break-neck speed of the end definitely made up for this stretch, but did leave some things a little too unclear and nebulous for satisfaction.

I particularly enjoyed the main character, Nora, and found her a compelling narrator. However, I did feel that the some of the surrounding cast of characters were not as well-defined, popping in and out as needed but not really existing in their own right. The romance, while sweet, also seemed to crop up as needed, but not with enough investment to give it a solid through-line.

Overall, despite some issues with plot and character, I enjoyed this read and the opportunity to branch out into a genre I don’t tend to read from! If you like mystery with a supernatural bent, you’ll definitely enjoy this book.

Reviewed for NetGalley:

I throughly enjoy Albert's spooky YA thrillers, so was excited to get an early ARC of The Bad Ones.

After Nora's estranged best friend, Becca, goes missing, all clues point to their childhood game, the Goddess Game.

While putting their lives in the hands of another, the Goddess game is seemingly the truest sign of friendship. However, when Becca is not the only person gone missing at the same time, Nora works to solve the mystery of her friend and the missing others.

Definitely a great read, did not want to put down. I love Albert's style of writing and always looking forward to her next book.

NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Melissa Albert returns with THE BAD ONES , a supernatural horror novel about four mysterious disappearances in a town haunted by a sinister magical history.

Melissa Albert doesn't miss. Another wonderful Y.A. horror novel with great twists and turns.

This book made me feel like I was 16 again, lonely and in love with my best friend in a way that was dangerous, thrilling, and mostly platonic. The way that the story morphed into feminine rage was so satisfying. I love a good supernatural YA horror, and this has firmly cemented that I'll read anything Melissa Albert puts out. The way she creates characters with such twisted and interwoven relationships is incredible, and the supernatural elements are so well thought out and believable. This novel was so, so very good, and a perfect fall read on a foggy night.

Thank you to Net Galley and Flatiron books for this opportunity to read rate and review this arc which will be available February 20,2024!

This is a ya horror novel about 4 mysterious disappearances in a town haunted by sinister magic magical history. I STRUGGLED to get through this book. I was not engaged, I didn’t care for the characters, the plot was okay. Like this has made me feel like I could take or leave it. It was a good book but just not for me. Give it a try.

I will admit that around the halfway point, I wasn't sure whether I was feeling it or not, but things really started to pick up after that and I'm left feeling mostly satisfied. The story itself is very twisty in that there are parts that read very much like an almost contemporary look into how a friendship can fall apart and how easily childhood belief can shatter before looping back into horror and thriller territory. There is a romance that, at first, felt very forced into the narrative. By the end, though, I sort of came around to it, but it's definitely not my favorite and I do think the story would have probably been better without it. There was enough there in Nora and Becca's frayed friendship alone to carry the entire book without putting a romance alongside it (especially because the romance isn't between Nora and Becca, which would've added a juicy bit of toxicity and complexity to the story, imo). Though I really didn't mind the love interest as a character, he still felt a bit tacked on at times.

There are two things though that I had a bit of a problem with. The first is that there were a few times where the prose dipped into too flowery with metaphors that seemed to have nothing in common in the same paragraph. It was a little much at times, but not wholly unreadable. Though there were times it was a little confusing. The last thing is that I felt like the ending was a bit too rushed. Considering the buildup to the big moment, the aftermath felt breezed through and there are still a few details I'm not entirely clear on. Whether that's intentional or not, I don't know, but it's not something I particularly liked, in the end.

“What becomes of her life when you’re sick of saving it?”

At some point in our lives we’ve all played a version of some sleepover game: Bloody Mary, Candyman, etc. These games are all rooted in urban legends passed around campfires for centuries. But what happens when you start to realize that these legends might not just be legends. For fans of Summer Sons and My Best Friend’s Exorcism, The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert is a jarring look into codependency and semi-toxic friendships with a mix of both body horror and supernatural horror. Albert sets themself apart with this one by taking the typical mystery/horror novel and throwing it on a tilt. It has the feeling of the same books we all know and love, but The Bad Ones has a flavor all its own. Loaded with references to both the past and present, which I love, Albert still keeps the book grounded in the present without giving us that secondhand embarrassment that sometimes comes with teen lingo attempts. Despite a few pacing problems, The Bad Ones is the perfect book for people looking to dive deeper into those intense female friendships that sometimes destroy us in the process. On sale in February 2024, make sure to check out The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert. Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for this ARC.

Ok first I loved Nora and Becca’s friendship and how we really saw their friendship develop during this book. Tbh their friendship kept me in this book and wanting to see how it ended. I simply couldn’t put it down I needed to know what happens and if the story finished without a cliffhanger. Five stars from me I loved it and the cover is gorgeous

The Bad Ones
Melissa Albert
3.5 ⭐️
Genres: Young Adult, Horror, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Suspense, Gothic, Thriller, Contemporary, Magical


Fans of Grady Hendrix and Stranger Things will love The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert!
This YA Gothic/Horror novel is a great introduction to the horror genre for a young adult audience. The emphasis on youth and the friendships we form when we’re young reminded me a bit of some of the themes present in Stephen King’s It.

Quick summary: Nora wakes up to find herself on her best friend’s back deck, but her friend, Becca, is nowhere to be found. Nora soon discovers that three people from her small town went missing. They all vanished, without a trace, on the same night Becca did. As the days pass, Nora finds herself trying to find out what happened to her best friend, and how her disappearance is connected to the others. A haunting story about childhood friendship and the traumas that bind us together.

Why I liked it:
* tone & writing style - Albert is a masterful writer. Tone can make or break a horror novel, and this one is spot on.
* the characters aren’t… stupid? - I feel like in the horror/suspense/fantasy genre, you typically run across characters who do not use their brains and just generally lack common sense. I didn’t find that to be the case with the characters in this novel.
* pacing - it moved quickly, but I was also able to stop at the end of each chapter, if necessary.


Why the rating? I feel like there are too many unanswered questions: Spoilers below.
* She wants candy!
* Why was Nora constantly craving hunger? This was obviously because of the goddess, but it was never explicitly stated. The only other time candy was mention was when Ekstrom said that she used Patty’s favorite candy in the altars she created.
* In the arms of the (eyeless) angel…
* Why place so much importance on the eyeless Angel if it amounts to nothing? It’s on the cover of the book and great detail is given about its appearance in the cemetery. Nora even touches its hand and notes that the angel’s “eyes” look misty, and it’s noted that the urban legend says if you touch the angel’s hands and it “cries,” you’ll have an early death.
* She is like a cat in the dark, and then she is the darkness…
* What was/is the goddess? (We learn from Ekstrom that she believes the goddess is Patty. The goddess uses Becca as a means to gain Nora’s trust. But Nora isn’t fully trusting of it, and we learn that it isn’t either of those things. But we never learned *what* it is. Has the goddess/entity always been in Palmetto, or was it something that Ekstrom created herself in the wake of Patty’s death? This was unclear to me.
* Speaking of Ekstrom…
* I know she retires, but what really happens to her? Where does she go? Does she learn that the entity isn’t really Patty? Does she accept it?
* The James of it all…
* James was an interesting addition to the list of characters. I didn’t like him, but I also don’t think he moved the plot forward in a big way. He was there at the photo lab the day after everyone went missing, and he watched as Nora dove into Becca’s pool. But I felt like having both James and Ruth was a little overkill. Ruth could have easily filled the role of James (or vice versa) and I think it would have been fine.

This was thrilling and intense all at once. Magical Realism is done perfectly with a bit of demonic possession.

Melissa Albert does such a great job at creating characters that seem normal/real (in spite of any supernatural occurrences 😆). Her teenagers are believable and these mythologies she creates feel so…possible. I was initially convinced that I might remember a goddess game and kept thinking “did we do that as kids?” because it sounds exactly like every kid’s childhood (at least for gen-xers like me). It was such a wonderful puzzle to sort out, and I loved all the moral grey area. I also loved how Nora’s parents weren’t totally clueless. Their inability to help much was due to Nora acting like a normal teenager - not because they’re so dumb you keep wanting to ask “how do they not notice what’s going on??” I had a hard time putting this book down because I was so curious about what was going on!

Another really awesome story from Melissa Albert. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC to review!

I loved the spooky vibes of this one, and the focus on twisty female friendships. This one did a terrific job at building up the tension and grounding the horror elements in the human. A very compelling read, once I started it was difficult to put down.

The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert is about the mysterious disappearance of four people on a single night in a small Midwestern town. The missing are of various ages and disappear from random places in the town, and it is like they literally winked out of existence, leaving behind their belongings, their jacket, and even in one instance a car, still running and locked. As the story unfolds, it seems as though the people were targeted, and that they harboured dark secrets or troubling thoughts.

The protagonist, Nora, is searching for her friend, Becca, who is one of the missing. As she desperately tries to find her friend, refusing to believe she has run away or been taken, she starts to recall the strange game the town children have played for decades--the Goddess game--and how she and Becca formed Goddesses of their own when younger. She begins to feel strangely and worries that Becca's disappearance and her own physical symptoms are something beyond reasonable explanation.

This book was fantastic! The writing is beautifully descriptive and tense; with each passing chapter, I wanted to know more and unravel the mystery faster. I love this sort of creeping horror and the legends that small towns or Midwestern places can cultivate, probably because that's where I live. It's easy to get into the mindset of the story.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

At first, I was like meh, then a little confused than OH MY GOD this is amazing! The number of times my jaw hit the floor when I was reading was a little embarrassing (considering I was reading this during my downtime at work).
The start of the book felt a little slow and at times I was a little confused because of the back and forth in the timelines, new characters seemingly popping in all of a sudden and just an overflow of information. But then the story really started to fall into place, and it was amazing, jaw dropping, and I couldn't put it down. The way the Urban legend took form was something I never expected, each step of the puzzle solved only led to more questions.
Overall, I thought it was a great mix of mystery, supernatural and a little bit of horror. I can't wait to read more books by Melissa and I was so glad I was chosen to have access to this ARC from NetGalley.

This was an extremely solid horror mystery that kept me hooked the entire time. I loved the writing and the way that the author would describe things, and I especially loved the little details about background characters that served to flesh them out. Specifically, Nora's mom having pain flare ups - they didn't affect the story, but they made me and my chronic pain feel so seen.

My only complaint would be that (and this could possibly be a spoiler) the eventual m/f relationship felt forced. I thought he needed to be a more prominent fixture in the novel for that to have worked for me.

I LOVED this book. It is the perfect combination of teenage angst and horror all swirled together into one enthralling story. Albert makes it feel as if magic is just a step away, but taking that step may require more sacrifice than you realize. Nora and Becca were perfectly flawed in a way that made them feel like realistic teenage girls. Each reveal is layered in a perfect order that takes the reader on a thrilling, horrific ride. The Bad Ones draws you into the goddess game and doesn't let you go until it is done with you.

I found this to be a fun and interesting take on YA Horror! I liked the twistiness and the spooky atmosphere.

The vibes and mystery of this book are perfect for spooky season. However, it felt very similar to Melissa's other book Our Crooked Hearts. At times I really just wanted to get through the story to see what happens. Even then it feels like not that much happened at all. It wasn't a very satisfying story.
It dragged a bit and I was getting bored. I also felt like the romance was weird and out of place and it should have just been omitted.

3 stars as the writing wasn't terrible and I actually finished the book to see where it was going.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the earc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for giving me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really wasn’t sure what to expect going into this book. It seemed like there were numerous different story threads, all vying to pull the reader after them, all potentially headed in different directions. But, from the moment I began reading I was pulled in, and pulled along by those threads— I trusted the author to get me (and the story) where we needed to be, even though I wasn’t sure how we were going to get there.

That’s a generally obtuse way of saying that this is a mystery novel— a very well structured, well plotted, and well planned mystery novel. Too often mystery novels fall prey to over-planning— leaving the author with too many stray threads to clean up— or under planning— making the mystery simply too easy for the reader to solve and therefore not as engaging. “The Bad Ones” had the exact right amount of planning to keep the story interesting and engaging, but not over complicated. I was drawn in from the very beginning, the sense of urgency and prickling unease that spread through the pages spurring me on, and made me not want to put it down. The stakes were always high, to the point that you wanted to keep reading, but not so much that you felt overwhelmed.

The characters all felt real, the story itself just on the edge of probability that will have you questioning whether something like this really *could* happen. Or whether it should.

The Bad Ones continues Melissa Albert’s trend of writing complex stories. This one bent more towards fantasy horror. Nora and Becca’s friendship is told in chapter’s both in the present and the past. Mostly told from Nora’s perspective, there are a few chapters from Becca’s POV.
As always, Melissa Albert’s writing style draws the reader in. From the beginning I wanted to know the what’s and the why’s of what was going on. My only gripe came from the ending, which I believe was deliberate. I wanted to know more. It felt a bit incomplete to me. Overall though a perfect fall read. Many thanks the NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this story.