Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - The Bad Ones

This beautiful fantasy-tinged horror has changed my opinion about YA. This book has some of the most real and authentic teens I've seen in fiction. It took me right back through my own life, my own intense girlhood friendships, and the rituals of childhood I had almost forgotten. And it was a good story too!

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blakeandbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

3.75⭐️

Thank you to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I want to start off by saying that Albert’s writing is incredible. It is so captivating and immersive, and I truly had such a great time reading this story. I loved how the book started out. I was so invested in the missing persons cases. It was so creepy; and a great YA horror, supernatural mystery. Nora was a great protagonist, and I felt that she was a great developed character, who was smart and focused on trying to find out exactly what was going on in her town and where her best friend went. I loved all of the clues scattered throughout the book, including Beeca’s POVs that happened several months previously and what Nora, James, and others are able to discover while searching for the truth.

I think what made this fall short for me was how long it took to get to the resolution. If it were shorter, possibly 50-75 pages less, I think it would’ve worked better for me not to be able to get distracted so much within the last 3rd of the book.

Overall, I think it was a really fun read, and I am looking forward to reading more of Albert’s work in the future.

Content Warnings

goodwitchs's review

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings: death, murder, death of a parent, toxic friendship, blood, drowning, violence, brief descriptions of sexual violence, grooming

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC!

Love and devotion, while similar, are not exactly the same. Their definitions run alongside one another, sometimes overlapping, their edges bleeding together. In that dark, blurry space where they meet lives Melissa Albert’s The Bad Ones.

Over the course of a single winter night, four people within the same city vanish into thin air. One of the missing is Nora’s best friend, a talented photographer named Becca. Becca and Nora haven’t spoken in three months, until the night that Becca texts Nora “I love you” out of nowhere.

By the time Nora arrives at Becca’s house to talk, her friend is nowhere to be found.

This is a story that starts out creepy and gets a whole lot creepier. The sense of dread was wonderful; it was impossible to look away. The more I learned about the missing people and the city’s dark past, the more questions I had. All I wanted was to stay up all night and finish the book in one sitting.

I enjoyed the characters a lot more than I usually do with YA books. As a narrator, Nora was a character I could empathize with, and who I couldn’t help but root for. She was believable and likable, which is not always the case with teenage protagonists. The glimpses of Becca were even more interesting to me; I would love to read a version from her point of view. And all the side characters — James, Ruth, Sloane, Cat — stood out in their own ways.

The magical aspect is deliciously done. This is not sparkly, Disney-fairy magic. This is dark and primeval and quite possibly not of this earth. It is magic with a taste, a texture. It is feral little girl magic, amplified a thousand times over.

If any of this sounds up your alley, make sure to check out The Bad Ones. You won’t regret it.

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