Thank You to MacMillan Audio, Flatiron Books, and NetGalley for the audiobook arc of this one! It was great!

This was an amazing little YA read with tones of horror and the supernatural thrown in around the disappearance for 4 some what connected people in the same small town.

Two best friends, Nora and Becca, have a disagreement that leads them down a road that finds one of them missing, along with 3 others. The one left behind takes on a journey to try to find out what happened to the missing and it takes on quite the supernatural twist!

It's a great read that I think will catch readers and fans of supernatural and horror genres.

The audiobook narration was great! Emma Galvin does a great job bringing the right, creepy tone to this audio book!

4.5/5 stars!

The description of The Bad Ones immediately piqued my interest. For a YA read, this book had elements of the supernatural, occult, and a little bit of horror thrown into the plot. As long as the characters avoid the “angsty” vibe that is quite ubiquitous for this trope, I’m a fan!

On one particular night in a very small town, four people vanish. Nora’s best friend is one of the missing and she takes on a personal mission to find out what happened. Reminiscing on their past relationship, decoding messages, and digging up the town’s creepy past; leads Nora to the focus of it all, the Goddess.

The story builds slowly and there are a lot of clues that need to be pieced together by the reader. Would definitely recommend as a change from typical YA haunts. The audio production is well done, as is the narration.

It was the cover of The Bad Ones that first drew me in. How could it not? It’s a literal weeping angel statue. It's the kind of cover Doctor Who fans dream of. While the cover made me pick it up, the story kept me hooked. The Bad Ones starts as a frothy young-adult mystery, which would be enough for me by itself. However, it quickly turns into something much different and much darker. The Bad Ones is a supernatural horror story full of urban legends, unexplained deaths, and adolescent revenge.

Nora and Becca have been inseparable since childhood, and their recent estrangement hasn’t changed Nora’s love for her best friend. When Becca disappears one night – the same night three other people disappear from their town – Nora is determined to find her best friend. The mystery leads Nora back to her and Becca’s childhood interest in the occult and to a game the kids in town know as “The Goddess Game.”

The Bad Ones is one of the best young-adult mystery/thrillers I’ve read in a very long time. I’ve always been partial to young-adult thrillers as adult thrillers can get a little too intense for me. I find young-adult mysteries to toe the line perfectly between “way too stressful” and “not interesting enough.” The Bad Ones is a gothic, haunting mystery that keeps you on the edge of your seat, without any jump scares or too many anxiety-inducing moments.

If you enjoy young-adult mystery thrillers with friendships, dark themes, historical elements, a romantic subplot, and some horror elements, The Bad Ones is sure to be a new favorite.

Audiobook:

Emma Galvin does an excellent job with narrating The Bad Ones audiobook. If you listen to audiobooks, this is an excellent pick-up! Galvin adds the right amount of tension, creepiness, and confusion to Nora’s narrative voice. Galvin previously narrated Hide by Kiersten White and Five Survive by Holly Jackson, so she’s got the thriller, horror vibes down perfectly. You might also recognize her voice from her narration in the Divergent series by Veronica Roth.

Final Thoughts:

I really enjoyed The Bad Ones and highly recommend it to all readers who enjoy a twisty young-adult mystery. I would call it a supernatural thriller or gothic mystery rather than straight-up horror, so this would be a great way to tip-toe into horror for those new to the genre!

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Thanks to Macmillan Audio for an audio review copy of The Bad Ones! All the above thoughts are my own.

Not the book for me. I appreciate a larger presence of realism with any magic/mysticism I am reading.
The dual timeline wasn’t working for me either…wasn’t tense or mysterious enough. This would’ve worked just fine with Becca’s parts first and Nora’s parts following chronologically.

This started out slow and I almost DNF the book but glad I didn't!

I really didn't like the main character but Becca made the story interesting!

Was a unique read and glad I got an advanced copy!

Thanks NetGalley for letting me read and review

This was a solid YA horror witchy read. It reads on the younger YA side, which I wasn’t expecting before diving in, but I was interested and intrigued the whole time!

It was dark and supernatural with a great narration!

This is such a slow burn. I was kind of shocked since it is YA. I’m not used to many YA novels being slow burn. I listened to this on audio and I think that really helped my enjoyment of this book. The main character is kind of annoying but her best friend Becca, reads so interesting. Finding out what happened to Becca kept me interested. The writing so lyrical too. I’m interested in reading the author’s backlist.

This book was so fun and unique! Sinister and spooky, with so many twists! This was my first book by Melissa Albert, and now I will definitely be putting her others on my tbr! She is a fantastic writer. The only thing is it was a slow burn at first, and I felt at times it was dragging on - but then again I have short attention span so it’s probably a me thing!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced audiobook for my honest review.

Much thanks to Melissa Albert, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Possible spoilers

This isn't horror. Just because some people disappear and a Reeper-esque figure appears once in a while? A little blood is shed? *fart noise* The tone's tense but not eyes-wide WTF tense. You won't be leaving the lights on tonight. This is a suspenseful and slightly dark YA mystery with fantastical elements. Which is plenty of genre.

That aside, The Bad Ones was okay. After the intrigue of the prologue, it takes its damn time getting interesting again. Slow burn for sure. I'd have appreciated if Nora spent more time investigating and a little less time being traumatized. She was baffled, understandably, but a fire needed to be lit under her butt. She seemed to think she had all the time in the world to sleuth; the stakes could have been upped if she'd also been haunted by knowing the more time passed, the less likely it was Becca would be found. Or found alive. Either way.

Also on the slow burn point, Albert spent too much time on the goddess lore. The legend was great but felt redundant after it was regurgitated by several different people. Yes, we needed different angles to narrow scope, but the point was belabored. Weird things happen when you invoke the goddess. We get it.

It's tempting to rain hellfire on the narrative for switching POV and time periods too much. I do think there was too much of it; I love me a linear chronology and timeline. But we also scream at authors to show not tell, so it's damned-do, damned-don't. With Becca missing in the present, it was valuable to flash back and build the relationship between her and Nora. I could have lived without flashing back to the 60s, though---changing to that perspective jarred me, and I had trouble keeping up. Did we need that in such detail, or could the teacher lady---I forget her name, too many to remember---have summed it up in a few sentences?

I loved James. On one hand I wanted to tell Nora she didn't have time for a crush at the moment, but on the other---James. He was such a sweetie. Sympathetic and likeable despite being a poor little rich boy.

I'm glad it ended the way it did; I was afraid there would be death for the sake of horror. Leaving the book on a good note helped me feel satisfied with the story.

Overall, not exceptional but pretty solid. It won me over to Albert better than The Hazel Wood ever did.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio / Macmillan Young Listeners for this audiobook!

Four people vanish from a small town on the same night - one of them being Becca, Nora’s estranged best friend. Nora is convinced Becca is leaving coded messages for her and delves back into the Goddess game they played as kids, and the town’s dark history as a result.

While I’m not a big YA reader, this dark, supernatural book has such a good cover and mention of witchy vibes that I had to pick it up! It really does err more on the horror side, and while it was a bit long, the story was interesting and really unique! I really enjoyed the narration by Emma Galvin.

Read this if you:
- Want a witchy YA read
- Like an ominous, dark horror story
- Ever played in the forest as a child

From the first few chapters of Melissa Albert's "The Bad Ones," I found myself drawn into a web of mystery that I couldn't escape. It's one of those books that instantly captured my attention, and made it impossible to put down. I had an urgency to gather every clue and figure out why people were disappearing. Throughout the book, the desire to unravel the mystery intensified, and I found myself on the edge of my seat, eagerly turning each page. Albert's storytelling brilliance shines through as the plot delves into dark corners, leaving me haunted and hungry for more. For anyone who enjoys reading horror books. “The Bad Ones” should be added to your list right now.

This was a fast paced read where Nora, the main character, is trying to figure out what happened to her friend, Becca, who is missing. In the same town, 3 other people go missing after seeing a girl who apologizes and then a black mist appears. Nora was left clues by her best friend as to where she may be, and she is led on a mysterious journey. The town also has a history of paranormal, magical happenings and other people have been missing or found dead. I highly enjoyed this read, and it absolutely made me wonder what was happening in this town.

The Bad Ones was a bit of a slow burn but I could not stop listening to this audiobook. I’ll be honest, I was a little lost as to what was going on but in a good way as I kept trying to puzzle it out. The resolution did feel a little rushed, but still it was satisfying. Melissa Albert did such a great job at capturing a typical teenager in the main character, Nora. It was so refreshing to read about a teen acting like a teen and not a watered down version of an adult. This book did have twists and turns along with some creepy elements. The narrator was great and did an amazing job adding inflection and emotion to the story. Everything combined, this made for an addictive and enjoyable listening experience!

The atmosphere of The Bad Ones is eerie from the beginning and I love that. There is a nostalgia in the opening of the book- the fact that if begins with what feels very much like the opening of a tale on "Are you afraid of the Dark?". It is a mood that I am there for.

This book would definitely fall under the subgenre that I like to call strange girlhood stories.

I will say that the pacing /plot takes some patience for it to fully take off but once it does things begin to slot into place making this YA supernatural/horror one that I enjoyed and definitely feel like I will be recommending around the spooky season to teens and young adults at the library.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me a chance to listen to this in advance to its release date.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this audio ARC. I initially really enjoyed this book but slowly became disinterested as the story developed. Also, I was left waiting for the "horror" to happen and was left unsatisfied. I finished but wish I hadn't.

I’m always delighted to see an author who is truly a gifted writer choose to write Young adult fiction m, or fantasy, or mysteries instead of Literary Fiction, a genre with no shortage of quality writing.

I expect Melissa Albert’s work attracts a lot of plot readers at least initially, but I hope her skill as a writer eventually becomes something readers notice and appreciate as they delve into her work.

I love the Hazel Wood books, and was sadly less enamored of Our Crooked Hearts, which was of course well written but less appealing in terms of plot.

So I’m thrilled to see a return to form here from Albert, who has written a terrifically original, well-plotted, and gorgeously written dark fantasy for the YA audience.

Typically gods don’t make great foes in fiction for a number of reasons, but Albert has used that concept exceptionally well, and written a story equal parts creepy and resonant. I loved the characters and the writing, as well as the unsettling, evocatively macabre atmosphere.

This is a great pick for audio format as well, as the narrator is absolutely fantastic.

An auto-read author if there ever was one, I can’t wait to see what Albert gives us next.

This book is going to be one of my favorites of the year. It’s only January and I’m saying that with my full chest.

This book tackles so many concepts that I’m obsessed with; mythology, complex relationships, complex characters, the validity of religion not being the organized practice but the concept of belief, and teen angst (because in a way we never outgrow it).

My favorite part of any story is the characters, I will choose complex characters and interpersonal relationships over a complex plot any day. These characters were incredibly written. Nora and Becca are such beautifully flawed characters, as is her relationship. One of my favorite quotes from this book comes from Nora’s reflection on their friendship, “what becomes of her life when you're sick of saving it?”. I loved the way their friendship was portrayed, not as this perfect thing to envy but as a complex mess of trauma, codependency, and a deep love and understanding of one another. I suppose I can say pretty much the same thing about every character, no one was perfect. Everyone was messy in a way that was just so realistic and beautiful. Normally when authors spend this much time on the characters and relationships the plot will suffer, but not this one. It explores some really interesting concepts without going too overboard and losing the audience. The story focuses a bit on mythology but in a way that will not alienate any readers because the characters wind up creating their own myths. It calls to mind an idea I’ve explored in books before, the concept of religious beliefs being far more important than the organizational structure of modern religions. Our beliefs are what give religion value, the belief is what makes it real. What you believe in cannot be limited to what some person tells you, your beliefs are your own choice and have validity because you believe them. This book explores that but in a way that is accessible to any audience. I would get so enveloped by these concepts then the author would pepper in some teen romance or other very trivial matter and it just added a whole other interesting and fun layer to this already complex concoction.

One of my horror pet peeves is the long period of time when characters are fighting the idea of what’s happening to them/around them. For example, in a haunted house story when the characters get into a big fight about how ghosts aren’t real or when they try to explain what’s happening to an outside party no one believes them. I feel it wastes so much time and it takes me out of the story because if I was in that situation I would immediately believe everything the person was telling me. This book glides through that with such grace, I kept waiting for the other main characters to tell Nora she was being crazy and grief was clouding her judgment, but they didn’t. It was so refreshing and just added to the beauty of the friendships the author was creating.

This book walks a nice line with the horror elements, they’re certainly there but not super intensely. I believe people who aren’t crazy about the horror genre will still really enjoy this book. There are a couple of creepy moments and the plot is a bit fantastical in the way horror stories are, but it’s not a scary book.

The audiobook is absolutely wonderful, Emma Galvin did a fantastic job. I was able to fall right into the story. I wish I could say more about what a wonderful job they did but I guess the testament to a good audiobook narrator is how much you don’t think of them because they just blend into the story so well.