I absolutely loved this book!!! I read "Bad Summer People" last year and "Very Bad Company" was even better. Initially I thought this was going to be another boring tech company read but it quickly turned into a page turner and I finished it very quickly. I imagine anyone that works in an office will relate to something in the book. The characters are crazy and it made the book fun and a great read. The CEO of the company is off the charts from his obsession with Winston Churchill to calling everyone by their name 3x in a row when addressing them. We all have these people in our offices!

I can't wait for Emma's next book!

I didn’t find this one to be a dark thriller as described but a quick engaging read that kept me wanting to figure out the ending.

Very Bad Company follows a start up tech company, Aurora, and its employees as they partake in their absurdly expensive company retreat in Miami. The team consists of a bunch of horrible people, all with their own secrets they want to keep: one is secretly pregnant, one is having an affair with a coworker, one lied about a job offer, etc. When one of the employees disappears after the first night, the team must figure out what happened while saving face to ensure the sale of their company, which will make them all a lot of money, still goes through.

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. January LaVoy did a spectacular job keeping the story engaging, even through parts of the book that were a little slower. All of the characters in this book were hard to get on board with since they were all pretty awful. Despite not connecting to any of the characters, I was compelled to figure out the mystery and to read the dynamic between all these terrible people to see who would come out on top.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

Very Bad Company follows a start up tech company, Aurora, and it's employees as they partake in their absurdly expensive company retreat in Miami. The team consists of a bunch of horrible people, all with their own secrets they want to keep: one is secretly pregnant, one is having an affair with a coworker, one lied about a job offer, etc. Basically, the title is extremely accurate. When one of the employees disappears after the first night, the team must figure out what happened while saving face to ensure the sale of their company, which will make them all a lot of money, still goes through.

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. January LaVoy did a spectacular job keeping the story engaging, even through parts of the book that were a little slower. All of the characters in this book were difficult to cheer for. since they were all pretty awful. Despite not connecting to any of the characters, I was compelled to figure out the mystery and to read the dynamic between all these terrible people to see who would come out on top.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

Very Bad Company indeed. I love that the title is a play on the word company. In this book the company and its staff are all very bad.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by the always fabulous January LaVoy. The book has multiple viewpoints and gives us a glimpse into the lives of some truly awful, greedy, rich people. Aurora is a start up tech company founded and run by John. He loves to spend money and is having the company's annual retreat for executives at an expensive hotel in Miami. His assistant, Madison, has worked hard to plan every second of the retreat. Caitlyn is a new hire brought in at a ridiculously high salary and she is not even sure what here job is. Olive, Zach, Jessica, Nikki, Deborah, Martin, and Dallas (I think that's everyone) round out the team of uppity-ups. Unbeknownst to them, there is a huge announcement that will make them all a LOT of money. Unfortunately, one of them goes missing. Instead of worrying about their missing colleague, all of these awful people spend time covering it up, having sex, and stabbing each other in the back. There are absolutely no likeable characters and their willingness to lie, cheat, and do whatever it takes to get ahead and make more money is actually disgusting, which I think is the point of the book. Everyone continually makes horrible decisions and confides to the wrong people. They are all lied to get to the top.

This was a fast-paced listen. There are quite a few characters and at times they blurred together but overall, I liked this book. There is a "resolution" that is very much like what would happen in real life instead of being tied up in a nice bow like a perfect story and I liked that aspect. This is my second book by this author and she knows how to write terrible people. Would definitely recommend this book and will continue to read Emma Rosenblum.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

4.5 rounded up.

A darkly humorous indictment of startup culture. So fun!

Premise - a startup team led by a nasty founder has a corporate retreat on the eve of its sale. What begins as a few days of structured team bonding quickly turns darker when a team member dies and the rest try to cover it up for the sake of the sale. Of course, that’s not the only secret they’re hiding…

The characters are larger than life and yet recognizable as types you run into while working at a startup. It’s hard to explain why some satire works and some doesn’t, but this just did!

📚 Series or Standalone: standalone
📚 Genre: satire
📚 Target Age Group: adult
📚 Cliffhanger: no

✨ Will I Reread: probably
✨ Recommended For: fans of yellowface

💕 Characters: 5/5
💕 Writing: 5/5
💕 Plot: 4/5
💕 Pacing: 4/5
💕 Unputdownability: 4/5
💕 Enjoyment: 5/5
💕 Book Cover: 4/5

Thanks, NetGalley and Flatiron, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Special thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan audio and author Emma Rosenbaum for advance access to the Very Bad Company audiobook.
I was so excited to be chosen. Last year, I read Emma Rosenblum's first book Bad Summer People and loved it.

Very Bad Company is a whodunit that takes place in Miami. A tech startup takes their top employees on a retreat and one of them gets goes missing after the first night. The characters work together to solve the mystery of the death. There were a lot of characters, so it was a bit confusing at times to keep them straight.

I enjoyed the audiobook and would recommend it! It comes out May 14th!

This was a quick read that kept my interest although the characters were mostly unlikable. The CEO main was cringe worthy to the point it made him a charactiure.

Okay I was really, really excited to get this one but it started out soooo slow. It didn’t pick up til like the 60% mark and once it did I was invested, but it almost had me not finishing.

This one fell short for me. The who done it/murder mystery was a very small portion of this story happen in the background. Overall, it seemed to focus on the rich and glamourous execs who sulked about not being as rich or glamourous as they wanted to be. The mystery was overall pretty predictable in my opinion. I found it hard to relate/connect with any of these characters which makes the overall story difficult to enjoy (although I acknowledge they were likely intended to be annoying and unbearable). With this, it was difficult at times to keep the characters straight and their role in the story. I read it quickly but did not necessarily enjoy it all that much.

I did enjoy the narration of the book. It was well done, and the emotions were conveyed appropriately.

Sounded better than it actually was. The plot was a bit chaotic and hard to follow, while at the same time not much happened.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillian Audio. I was super excited to get an advanced copy of this audiobook because I enjoyed Emma Rosenblum's first novel. However this book was a miss for me, unfortunately. I still thought January LaVoy did a great job with the narration even if I didn't like the book. Unfortunately, I just ddn't connect with any of the characters. I would give this book 3 stars and I would still consider reading or listening to Emma Rosenblum's next book!