In some ways, this is a great summer read: it is set on an island in the summer, and the rich people murder mystery has lots of reveals and drama. On the other hand, this is a dark read that’s equally about Luca’s isolation and pain. It’s also a novel about the inescapable horrors of wealth inequality and the obscene power that a tiny fraction of the population holds.

This is a very different read from This Is What It Feels Like, but it’s no less captivating, and I appreciate how Barrow weaves in broader societal issues into her novels. I also admire an author willing to subvert audience expectations, even when it might frustrate some readers, when it’s in service to the story. I’m definitely interested in what she writes next!

This book unfortunately was not my favorite. I felt like not only was the story not flushed out enough but the characters for me fell flat all the way around. This was really upsetting because the concept of the book is great.

I love it. It's really amazing the plot and flow of the story is amazing. I love everything about it.

I felt like this book was trying hard to be all things to all people and sort of dropped the ball. I'm all for diversity and a good mystery but a lot was jammed in there and not super fleshed out. I was never sure if the missing person was a girlfriend or just a friend. Lots of representation which is great but Luca is Black, plus-sized, queer, she's wealthy but recognizes her privilege and has an Asian girlfriend. It almost seemed forced to me? Not that people fitting this description don't exist but it seemed a little too calculated in an inauthentic way to give one character all these characteristics. Like they wanted it to be as diverse and interesting as it could possibly be so crammed everything into one character.

I thought the mystery part was ponderous and dragged a little. Luca was a little whiny.

A decent set up in this one. We have a mysterious situation, no clear picture of what is actually happening to these teens. But the ultimate reveal of the events feels anticlimactic and lacking in drama or pathos.

Very exciting and fast-paced thriller. Enjoyed reading it until the very last page. Look forward to more by this author.

Thank you so much @simon.audio and @simonteen for my copies of Bad Things Happen Here!

I love YA thrillers so when I heard about Bad Things Happen Here I had to get it!

This was great on audio. Super easy to follow and it kept my attention. I thought the narrator did a great job. The story kept me guessing, and I loved how well and honestly grief and heart ache was discussed through out this book. A great YA thriller for the summer! This one just released last week!

There was so so SO much I loved about this book. The characters were great. The setting was so cool. The twist and ending wasn’t as great as the rest of book. I’m excited to see what else this author has next.

Thank you NetGalley for this copy of Bad Things Happen Here!! What a fun mystery! I really enjoyed how the characters felt realistic (partying, drinking, slight drug use etc) bc sometimes reading YA authors gloss over this. I liked that this author didn’t. I felt for Luca over the loss of her best friend and her sister and all the secrets that happened along the way.

Let me tell you this had the perfect pacing! I love a book with short chapters to keep the plot going but also inter-slicing with longer chapters that have the action. *chefs kiss* I never at any point was bored or wanted to stop! This makes me excited to see what the author has coming out next!

The ending is the onllyyyyy part I wasn’t a fan of. She just gets in her car and leaves?? And doesnt reveal what she knows?? I wanted that sweet sweet justice from turning in the baddie and was left feeling unsatisfied. HOWEVER! I do understand what the author was trying to say & I love that she creates the parallel with that and the real world. I just wanted that moment for Luca (& Whitney!!)

This sapphic mystery is right up my alley. It has interesting depictions of grief and loss, along with collective trauma and how it affects a community in different ways. The mystery was presented in a way that was interesting and continues to make you wonder if there is a paranormal piece at play. The MC had agency that was not unrealistic to the story, and the way that she solved the mystery was really interesting.

I own a couple other books by Rebecca Barrow, but BAD THINGS HAPPEN HERE is the first one I’ve ever read. Right away, I felt hooked into the story. The relationship between Luca and Whitney is so real. I loved the small town, closed circle feel of the group of friends they shared.

As Luca learns that everyone has been keeping secrets, my interest in the story only deepened. I kept coming up with my own theories of what happened and then hanging on as the story pivoted new directions. I couldn’t stop reading. Things happened so fast that I kept wanting to read one more chapter all the way until the very end.

I have thoughts about the end, but I don’t want to give anything away. I think I can safely say that the way it ended felt both true to the character and also not what I expected. It both closed the story and yet left me yearning for more in a good way.

I think it’s hard to tell a story from the perspective of a narrator like Luca, someone who’s grappling with so much grief and betrayal and trauma and not only keep them an engaging narrator but walk the balance between them doing things that feel totally in character but also give the reader the experience we need from a story– to feel like there’s some growth and conclusion. Rebecca Barrow does both and does it all beautifully. I loved this book and can’t wait to read other books she’s written.

I think readers who enjoyed WHITE RABBIT by Caleb Roehrig or LITTLE & LION by Brandy Colbert will want to read this one.

thank you so much to Netgalley and Colored Pages Blog Tours for gifting me with this eARC in exchange for an honest review!!

I was not expecting this, for real 😱 what started as a murder mystery trying to be solved ended up in a race for the MC trying to save her life, only to see it crumble right in front of her. and I truly enjoyed her journey, it made me feel helpless and insecure about everything, a plot twist by the 60% mark made me question absolutely everything and I was literally not expecting that ending. and the comentary about society, the division between rich and poor, how it can crack almost every relationship, super powerful. i loved how the lgbt+ aspect was so natural tho it hurt a lot as well. everything hurts in this book, specially the suicidal aspect and how real it also felt.

overall, it was a heavy book, one of the coolest murder mysteries I've ever read specially because I never saw coming the ending, which is what makes it even more special after having so bad experiences with other stories like this one. i enjoyed it a lot, special for people who want to get into the genre.

Luca Laine Thomas lives on the island of Parris, a playground for the wealthy and a place with a history of unsolved deaths. There are rumors amongst the locals that the island itself is cursed. After the tragic death of her best friend, Polly, three years before, Luca fully believes in the curse.

When her sister Whitney goes missing after a night out, Luca believes the curse may have struck again and in this case she's sort of correct. Whitney is dead. Another mysterious death that the town will no doubt sweep under the rug and forget in no time, but not Luca. She's going to get to the bottom of these tragedies once and for all. In the midst of all of this, Luca is navigating normal life things like her feelings for the new girl next door. As soon as Naomi moved into Polly's old house, Luca was intrigued.

Initially, due to Whitney's prodding, the two develop a tentative friendship, but after opening up to one another following a few drinks at a party, the friendship quickly escalates. Luca can hardly believe her luck when this beautiful girl seems to be into her as well. The two work together to try to solve the mystery surrounding Whitney's death and of the town in general.

What I wrote above sounds interesting, right? I think so. An island town with a history of unsolved deaths, a possible curse, amateur detectives solving mysteries, teen angst; it all sounds great to me. Unfortunately, the execution of Bad Things Happen Here failed to deliver for me.

I'm not quite sure what happened but this just was not for me. It wasn't what I expected and I didn't enjoy what was served up in replacement of what I was expecting. I was relieved when it was over and that's never a good sign.

Initially, I loved Luca. I thought it was going to be great because I felt so connected to her right away, but then the narrative just fizzled out for me. I became so bored with it that I began to lose my focus. I didn't get the atmosphere or sense of mystery that I was hoping for at all.

Additionally, I felt the investigation taken on by Luca was weak. It didn't stand out to me as a prominent point to the story and I would be hard pressed to recall any of the clues, or avenues of investigation, she was following. I wanted a dark mystery with rich island vibes.

Atmosphere is so important to me and for me, this was a complete miss. This could have been anywhere U.S.A. The town was a non-factor in this story. The tone is morose, moody and for me, a little dry. Yeah, it just wasn't a good fit for my tastes.

With this being said, I know a lot of Readers are loving this one though, so just because it didn't work for me, doesn't mean it won't work for you. If the synopsis sounds intriguing to you, absolutely give it a go. What do you have to lose?!

Thank you to the publisher, Margaret K. McElderry Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. While it wasn't quite the book for me, I know it is going to be a big hit with many Readers!

This is an addictive book, with short chapters that make you turn the page constantly. It definitely has something to it, and the themes woven into this story are ones I wish we saw more often in books. There's much to like about BAD THINGS HAPPEN HERE, but my overall feeling says this: it was good enough, but it missed something.

There are a lot of things this book does well. The foreshadowing was amazing and the writing is full of emotion that leaps off the page right to the reader, but in the end BAD THINGS HAPPEN HERE did underwhelm me a little. I liked the idea of the ending so much, yet it left me unsatisfied since we didn't get answers to something that is literally in the premise of this book.

I did ADORE the representation. Black fat lesbian main character? More of that please! The mental health rep was also just amazing and hit really close to home for me.

I'd still recommend this because I really did appreciate the themes it explored, but personally I wanted more of it. Rebecca Barrow is definitely an author to follow, though!

Thank you to Colored Pages Blog Tours and the publisher for my review copy in exchange for an honest review and promo. All opinions are my own.

Oh my god!!! I LOVED THIS!! Could not put it down. I did not want to stop reading it.

Luca Laine Thomas lives on the gorgeous island of Parris. Parris seems like an idyllic escape, but its history is marred by a curse—the scattered unsolved deaths of young women. Luca has felt the island’s curse watching her for as long as she can remember. Three years ago, the curse took her best friend and she feels the curse lingering waiting to get her next. When the police show up to Luca’s house to tell her family her sister has died, Luca decides to take matters into her own hands.

I’m new to the thriller genre, but whew queer thrillers? I love them so much. This one, Dead End Girls, Ace of Spades, The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester? Sign me up for all of them immediately. When I started Bad Things Happen Here, I didn’t expect to inhale the book in one sitting. The story and writing were so gripping I did not want this book to end! I loved the journey and investigation we go on with Luca at the head.

Luca was such an easy character to root for. She's fat, queer, Black/biracial, disabled and constantly feels like she doesn't belong in Parris. The curse only makes it more apparent. I loved seeing her explore her sense of self and become more confident in who she is and what she deserves.

This was my first book by Rebecca Barrow, but it certainly won’t be my last!

Rep: Black/biracial fat sapphic cis female MC with depression and intrusive thoughts, Asian American sapphic cis female side character, Black/biracial cishet female side character, various white side characters.

CWs: Murder, death, death of child, blood, violence, injury/injury detail, mental illness (depression, intrusive thoughts). Moderate: Racism, infidelity, police intimidation, self harm, grief, suicidal thoughts, drug use, car accident and DUI, vomit. Minor: fatphobia.

This book was a page turner. There is a lot of tough topics in this book like self harm, deaths of family members, drug use. Luca’s sister dies and she is convinced there is a curse on her town so she starts investigating and finds out things she never expected.

So I like a good thriller and this one had the bones, but lots of red herrings and by the time it ended, I was like “what did I just read?” The ending was open-ended too.

All around a weird book, but not bad. Just not necessarily my cup of tea.

Thanks NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this novel sounded so haunting and intriguing,and that's what drew me in. Unfortunately, after reading, and without spoiling anything, I feel the premise was a bit misleading. The story felt more of a contemporary coming of age with some mystery thrown in it than a mystery/thriller. While I appreciate the parts where our mc investigates, the story moved really slowly until around the last 15%, where everything starts unraveling. I didn't feel that pull that made me want to turn the pages while reading and not everything is tied up. Luca was quite the unlikeable protagonist, nevertheless, I really liked the diversity portrayed in this and mental health and I think it's important to explore them in stories! I think fans of thought provoking contemporaries will enjoy it. I'm more of a mystery/thriller junkie, therefore, this wasn't exactly my jam in the end. It was just an okay read.

This novel is gritty and propulsive. The author deftly intertwines relatable language, interesting characters and an intriguing plot. The subtle portrayal of mental illness is refreshing in its normalcy since that is exactly how many sufferers come to think of it. The fact that the book does not revolve around the mental illness but instead is a part of a character, like size or gender, makes it unique. The plot, which seems so familiar, could be the screenplay of the latest movie. The visualization accomplished by the narrative is stellar.

Bad Things Happen Here by Rebecca Barrow
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Luca has lived on the island of Parris all her life. But it is a cursed island. Bad things happen here. Like three years ago when her best friend Polly went missing and was found dead a few days later. The police ruled it an accident but Luca knows it wasn’t an accident. It was the curse. Who will it come for next?
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3⭐️⭐️⭐️ I struggled with this one a bit. I wanted to know what happened the night the curse strikes again, and I kind of guessed right what happened. But there were several fun little surprises in there for me.
I think Luca was written well, and I was rooting for her to get to the bottom of things.
I felt really bad for Jada’s character. And I liked how at the end Luca understood Jada better.
Ultimately, it was good but I didn’t love it.

I picked Bad Things Happen Here up on a whim the day after I was approved for an ARC on Netgalley and I didn’t put it down until I was finished. Something about this book completely sucked me and I was instantly awed by Barrow’s writing. The story follows recent high school graduate Luca who is convinced that the island she lives on is cursed. Three years ago her best friend was killed and now something devastating also destroys Luca’s life. (Another reason I’m glad I usually don’t read synopsis’s since this “something” is revealed in the summary for the book.) But these recent deaths aren’t the only ones that haunt the island that Luca lives on and she is determined to solve the curse before it can take her too.

The setting of this book was fantastic. The creepy island vibes where you aren’t ever sure if things are as they seem. And the curse element was important to both the story and to Luca. I love how the curse was always just hiding under the surface and how it affected the people of the island. The characters were all flawed and imperfect which made them feel incredibly realistic. I also love the way Barrow dealt with Luca’s complex feelings about her gayness and how it helped form the story.

Beyond being a compelling mystery this was a well done coming of age contemporary that I swiftly fell in love with. I read this book a month ago and I still think about the ending. Which, by the way, might have been a bit over the top but also perfect.