Trauma. Grief. Vengeance. Trust. These are all heavy topics and powerful emotions for anyone to experience, but especially so for teenagers. How can they handle these emotions? What might they do if the emotions are more than they can handle? Especially if there's a supernatural entity to take advantage of that.

Yes, this book is listed as YA horror, but describing it simply as that feels like it does the book a disservice because, sure, there are some creepy horror moments, but ultimately this story is about the longing for connection that so many of us feel, no matter our age. I really enjoyed the journey of this book and the experiences of the characters.

This is the story about Nora whose best friend Becca disappears. Along with Becca, three other people also disappear overnight.

Nora tries to untangle the truth of her best friend's disappearance.

This book was an enjoyable read. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the story and I liked Nora and Becca's friendship. It was kind of a toxic one and I liked reading about it.

The pacing was uneven in my opinion and some of the characters were not well developed. Overall, an entertaining read. I'd recommend this book.

This is exactly the sort of YA book destined to do extremely well, alongside the likes of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder or Plain Bad Heroines.

Melissa Albert is a bit of an odd author for me. She writes books that keep me engaged well enough in gothic atmospheric stories woven with fairytales - or in this case - occult elements. I like the razor edge she navigates between realism and supernatural. I like the way she pinches and pulls at childhood friendships that change and develop as the friends grow into teenagers.

But once I finish reading, the story is easily forgettable. Less than two weeks after reading The Bad Ones I can recall intriguing plot points but basically nothing about the writing style, voice, character personalities, etc. Less than six months after finishing another of her stories The Hazel Wood I can't remember even that much.

What does linger is my impression that this story feels like just the thing for a YA audience right now. Friendships gone awry, a hint of romance, photography, and childhood games turned nightmarish add up in a great combination. 3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an audio ARC in return for an honest review.

Supernatural YA horror? Um yes, sign me up! I remember the hype surrounding Albert's last book Our Crooked Hearts but haven't gotten to it yet, so this was actually my introduction to this author. I unfortunately was denied the arc but was thrilled to get approved for the ALC! This review is specifically for my audio experience.

The Bad Ones is a slow burn YA horror that follows the mystery of four people disappearing in a single night, including the main character Nora's estranged best friend, Becca. Becca leaves breadcrumbs for Nora to follow and the root of everything lies with The Goddess Game, a local children's game rooted in urban legend.

First of all, the Goddess Game sounds scary as heck. But if you've ever played Bloody Mary, then you get the gist of the type of games these are. Sinister and creepy. I LOVED the prologue. Probably my favorite chapter in the book. But this was a strong read. I love the way everything slowly unraveled, and I enjoyed how mature Nora was, so I didn't spend x number of hours rolling my eyes. I also loved how Nora was living with a family member that had chronic health issues and the effect that has had on her life. There were a lot of themes of grief in this one, another component I enjoy. Everything definitely comes together in a satisfying way. My only gripe was the romance. I don't really feel it added much to the story. I would've preferred that time spent elsewhere or if that part of the plot was stronger. But I think YA fans will love it! Might just be a me issue.

I think Emma Galvin did a fantastic job bringing this one to life. Her voice sounded very familiar so I'm sure I've listened to her audio narration before! She delivered the correct amount of emotion and made it easy to keep up with the story without getting lost.

Highly recommend to fans of YA horror with supernatural themes about creepy local legends.

♡ Audiobook Review ♡
♤ Release Date Feb. 20 ♤
•This is my first book by Melissa Albert, and this will NOT be my last! The audiobook kept my attention the ENTIRE time, I just couldn't get enough of this story, and I just wanted MORE and MORE! I finished this book in a day and a half.
•The Bad Ones is a supernatural horror novel about four mysterious disappearances in a town haunted by a sinister magical history.
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♡Thank you Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for this ALC, this is my honest review.

The Bad Ones sets such a spooky tone right from the prologue. A bunch of people in the same town all go missing on the same night under very creepy and mysterious circumstances. Our MC is high school student, Nora, whose best friend Becca disappeared that night, but did she really vanish without a trace? Because Nora keeps finding clues that Becca left for her, and if she can piece them together, maybe she can figure out what happened to her best friend and the other missing people.

I really liked Emma Galvin's narration and portrayal of Nora. Nora is a really great character. I liked her loyalty to Becca and her desire to find the truth even when things start getting weird. I also really liked the mysterious, creepy aspect of the games the girls played as kids. There's a dark, magical element to both these games and the town's history that really had me wanting to find out more.

I'm giving this one 4 stars because I was left with some questions at the end, but I highly recommend picking this one up!

First off, many thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this book as an audio ARC! I greatly appreciate it!
I don't like giving low ratings to books, especially ARCs, but this was a mess.
I fell asleep listening to it a few times, though the concept sounded really cool and I was so ready to dive into this story. The opening really interesting! I even gasped at the end of the prologue! That's not a thing that happens! Then the inciting incident happens and we're saddled with Nora, whose weird, slightly toxic relationship with Becca is the only interesting thing about her. Now Becca. Her, I would have liked a book about! And then we have the male love interest, whose only personality trait is that he's dark and broody and artistic and "not like other guys." Yuck. I don't know what's going on, but this is the second book I've read in a row where the leading lady is obsessed with another girl, yet somehow ends up with a guy. What's that about? The plot started strong, though that didn't last long, and towards the end, it seemed like the plot got lost entirely. And that ending? Wow, a kiss! Why is the forced romance the focus of the ending? Ugh.
One star out of five for The Bad Ones, because as far as books go, this is one of the bad ones.

An unsettling exploration of toxic teenage friendship with paranormal horror vibes.

Melissa Albert perfectly captures the intense feels that accompany being a teenager. Small everyday conversations with parents and friends at lunch felt genuine, which makes the horror elements feel even more real.

The story begins with Becca going missing and her childhood best friend Nora trying to find her. We shift from past to present as we understand all the events that lead to the moment of Becca's disappearance, as well as what happens afterwards as Nora tries to uncover the mystery. Melissa slowly reveals pieces of the story, leaving us unsure if Becca ran away, is the cause of other missing students or is a victim herself. It really made me interrogate my own assumptions.

The pacing of the book is slow, because Melissa focuses on character development at the expense of moving the plot forward. In return we get fully formed main and side characters in a wonderful exploration of teenagehood.

This is a perfect book for a teen/young adult who is interested in exploring horror. As someone who is well versed in the genre, it didn't hit for me the same way it would for a YA audience.

The book is narrated by Emma Galvin, who sounds exactly like a teenager! A foundation of this book is the big emotions that accompany being a teenager, and she perfectly encapsulates that in her performance. The only thing that was a little confusing is I couldn't tell the different from when she was speaking from Beeca's point of view to Nora's point of view. They're both teenage girls from the same place, so perhaps it would have been more clear with a second narrator.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this advanced ALC.

This book is best read after looking in the mirror and saying 'Blood Mary' three times in a row.

I think for the most part this was a case of "it's not you, it's me". The book just wasn't quite what I wanted (I'd been hoping for more of the horror elements early on), and I also think audio wasn't the best medium for me to consume this particular story, as I found it difficult to get my bearings within the story for the first 10% or so.
If you enjoy eerie mysteries with a hint of the paranormal, and if you enjoy nuanced explorations of toxic friendships, then you're likely to want to give this a go.
The closest comps that come to mind would be Katherine Webber's REVERIE and the first bit of Melinda Salisbury's HER DARK WINGS.

This book was hauntingly beautiful. The author leaves a lot of mystery a lot of childhood, best, friend, nostalgia, and a lot of suspense. I cannot believe the twist and turns this author took us on. This was a really good book.

This book has *serious* vibes, which are enhanced by the audiobook performance. Dark, creepy, sinister threats right within your suburban neighborhood. When Nora's best friend, Becca, disappears one night, she is reeling from her loss. But when she also learns two additional teens and a teacher from her school have also disappeared, she suspects something sinister at play. Her suspicions are escalated when Becca seems to have left behind cryptic clues that only Nora can understand. By closely analyzing the clues and reexamining their semi-toxic and co-dependent relationship in the weeks leading up to her disappearance, Nora uncovers a dark magic seemingly tied to local lore and potentially linked to decades of disappearances. With few people to trust and in a race against time, Nora works to solve the mystery. I was hooked from the opening chapter, and really enjoyed the slow burn of the mystery. Each chapter builds on Nora and Becca's childhood game of creating a goddess to serve retribution to the 'bad ones' who hurt them and other vulnerable ones in their community. However, the closer Nora gets to revealing the truth, the blurrier the lines between past/present and good/evil become. Unique, dark, and propulsive, I really enjoyed Albert's newest YA Horror release!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for my advanced copy in exchange for my review.

I liked the plot and everything, but I feel like the pacing really took its time which kind of pulled me out of the story at times. I really enjoyed the horror elements to the story though.

The Bad Ones is a spookily atmospheric tale perfect for a cold night. Four people--three high school students and a teacher--disappear one night in a small midwestern town. The town is shocked by the news, but none so much as Nora, whose estranged best friend is one of the missing. Nora knows something isn't right, and as she dives deeper into each of the victims' lives, and into the history of the town itself, she uncovers secrets that are more dangerous than she could have imagined.

Melissa Albert is great at writing the creepy. As the story unfolds, you can feel the town and the mystery closing in around Nora with an ever-increasing sense of claustrophobia and dread. I was definitely enthralled by this one and devoured it in just a day. It's not perfect--the requisite YA romance feels a bit shoehorned in and the ending comes quick if not the most satisfying--but it's the relationship between Becca and Nora that really carries the day. Albert does a fantastic job of writing two people who love and rely on each other in a way that probably isn't the most healthy, while also feeling stifled and itchy by the friendship that's both at once a lifeline and a noose.

Perfect for readers that love their thrills tinged with the supernatural.

The audiobook is done really well and I listened to it in one day.

Content warnings for: sexual assault, homophobia, abuse

Melissa Albert has become of my favorite authors. I loved The Hazel Wood series and Our Crooked Hearts. The Bad Ones was no different. When four people go missing overnight, Nora must try to figure out what happened to her friend, Becca, who is one of the people missing. Her friend has left her several clues that leads to a local folktale about a goddess from Becca and Nora's childhood. Nora must figure out if the goddess is responsible for the missing and if she can find her friend.

The Bad Ones was filled with mystery and paranormal intrigue. Although the beginning was slow, the mystery about the missing and the goddess folklore kept me engaged until the story picked up. I also enjoyed the different timelines and POVs that brought the story together. Overall, I couldn't stop listening to this book.

The Bad Ones is out February 20th.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the opportunity to listen and review The Bad Ones. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

The Bad Ones is a YA supernatural mystery surrounding three teens who have disappeared. The MC’s best friend Becca has gone missing along with two other students that seem fairly unconnected. Having found clues that Becca left for her, the narrator starts investigating based in a game they played as children about a vengeful goddess.

This is a really well written story with a slow build up and an intense conclusion. The atmosphere is dreamy and nightmarish all at the same time.

I never rate books 5 stars. A book has to be an absolute masterpiece for me to give it a 5/5 rating, and this book truly was. From the moment it started it captivated me. The authors style of writing is so intelligent yet easy to understand. some of the imagery used in this book is unlike anything I’ve seen in quite a while.

I think I would recommend this book to people who have experience in being an outcast kid experiencing intense childhood friendships, especially if you’re someone who frequently reads Young Adult books. I think the strongest element here is the raw portrayal of messy teenage friendships and the way it ties in to the symbolism at play throughout the story. The weakest is how abrupt the ending was. I think I would have preferred this book in eBook format instead of as an audiobook. I’m not sure I’d pick up another book by the author unless the premise was particularly compelling to me.

Overall, I think the plot was very well-crafted and the way it was put together was relatively coherent. It was a little difficult to ease into, but once I was able to get invested, I was able to buy in and suspend my disbelief. Conflict felt authentic and realistic to teenage drama feeling much bigger when you’re experiencing it. The narrative structure was interesting, and I think it was a good choice on the author’s part. There’s a relatively even layout of dialogue versus prose. Dialogue is a little dramatized, but it’s believable enough overall.

The shift in perspective modes was relatively effective. Due to the chapters out of Nora’s point of view being in third person perspective (as opposed to Nora’s being first person), the point of view shifts are relatively clear. The depth of perspective is consistently strong, zoomed in on the anchor character’s interior world in their specific chapters. This prevents head-hopping and adds an earnestness to the style. The writing style is consistent but effectively malleable to point of view, showing character voice between Nora, Becca, and Ruth. It all has the cadence of teenage youth, overall serious but understandably dramatic for teenagers going through it.

Pacing was mostly straightforward, but a little bit stumbly. Word choice is very direct and precise, and phrasing is easy to understand. There’s a lot of use of description, but it’s rather lean, not overweighing the narrative. Visual and sensory details are very rich with metaphor while still realistic to the point of view characters. It’s not long-winded or overstuffed, but occasionally, it’s very poetic.

A lot of the character dynamics rang true for me. The relationship between Nora and her mother in particular hit home for me—while I can relate to Nora and Becca’s relationship too, I found it very authentic to the experience of growing up with a chronically ill mother. A lot of the side characters kind of meld together in my memory, but they were easy enough to distinguish in the story itself while reading. However, I really appreciated the diversity of the cast here and how casually it’s referenced to. The portrayal of different identities throughout this book felt realistic and natural, but more importantly, I found it to be respectful and authentic.

Melissa Albert is one of those authors that weaves stories that stick with you. I loved this one—the characters were full and complicated, wounded in their own way and so relatable. The plot was twisted and creepy and so GOOD—I love urban legend/superstitions and combine it with two best friends that would do anything for each other and wrap it in a mystery was genius.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced audiobook of this title. Opinions are my own.

A fun premise that lacked execution. The last 50 pages were so incredibly frustrating. What happened to the original plot?!

I’m left thinking, what was the point of the novel? I feel like I took nothing from this and it took from me (mostly my time). Nora was insufferable and the rest was boring. I was waiting and waiting for the horror to come in, but it never did. Would not recommend this read!

The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert was an ARC audiobook and was narrated by Emma Galvin. This was a YA paranormal mystery that kept me guessing. The narrator Emma Galvin was a perfect fit for the novel and she delivered a world full of creepy and eerie places. People go missing and it was scary. What in the world happened?? And who is there during the disappearances?? It’s well written and had a satisfying ending.
High 4 ⭐️ for this one.
Thanks Macmillan Audio via NetGalley.