Bad Creek is a story centered around a group of lifelong friends and their annual return to summer camp, turned occult horror. This book had such great potential, but I think it was simply too long. I struggled to stay focused through the first 60% then proceeded to read the last 40% in one sitting. Overall, this is a solid debut and I’d give this author another chance!

Bad Creek is a visceral and atmospheric debut that blends the grit of small-town secrets with the creeping dread of a ghost story. Peyton June crafts a deeply emotional and haunting narrative centered on three teens—each reeling from grief, guilt, and identity struggles—who return to the town where everything went wrong.

The friendship between Iris, Gum, and Aidan grounds the novel in a powerful emotional core. Their bond feels authentic and complicated, weighed down by the trauma of Glory’s mysterious death and intensified by the supernatural forces that begin to stir. Gum’s haunting by Glory’s decaying ghost is especially disturbing, made more chilling by his internalized fear of being outed in a religiously oppressive town. Meanwhile, Iris’s sleepwalking and obsession with Glory’s eerie drawings build a sense of unease that never lets up.

June doesn’t shy away from big themes—grief, sexuality, religious trauma, misogyny—and weaves them into a story that’s both emotionally raw and genuinely unsettling. The decaying house, the cursed lake, and the legacy of generational violence all add layers to a setting that feels alive in its menace.

Some pacing lags slightly in the middle, and a few revelations feel abrupt rather than earned, but the atmosphere and character arcs carry the weight. This is a fierce debut that fans of Wilder Girls or The Honeys will appreciate—a horror story as much about what haunts us internally as what stalks us in the dark.

Dark, unflinching, and deeply human, Bad Creek lingers like a nightmare you can’t quite shake.

For fans of Mike Flanagan, specifically The Fall of the House of Usher, and Ready or Not. Kept me guessing and wondering if it was real people or something supernatural/paranormal behind everything. Loved how atmospheric it felt and the buildup towards the end.

HAPPY HAPPY PUB DAY TO @peyjune and BAD CREEK💀🖤#gifted

This book was the most perfect creepy, campy, YA summer MUST READ! For all peeps who had that summer spot, that made you a little spooked but held all the best and even the worst memories✨

Also can we talk about @peyjune ‘s lovely illustration throughout the book and in the pr box…like how can one person be sooooo talented!!!!

Thank you again to @nortonyoungreaders for the literal
P E R F E C T summer book PR box! AND THE HAT IS BIG HEAD BETCH APPROVED SO I’LL ALSO BE WEARING AND REPPING BAD CREEK ALL SUMMER🥰🫶🏾✨ #badcreek


4.5⭐️

Three friends, malevolent family secrets, and a murder mystery at the heart of this small town. Iris, Gum, and Aiden are vacationing in Bad Creek, they were all best friends with Iris's sister Glory until Glory dies and now they're finally facing each other again. Iris is convinced that Glory's death wasn't an accident, Gum is hiding his sexuality from his religious family while being haunted by Glory's ghost, and Aiden is still distraught over the drunken argument with Glory before her death that makes him feel like it could have lead to her to death. All three are here to find out what happened to Glory and how their family is connected to it but what they uncover could be the death of them. This was definitely a interesting mystery thriller story for YA readers and I think that other YA readers will have fun with this as a summer read. While it wasn't exactly for me, I do see teens having fun with it.

Release Date: June 17, 2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and W. W. Norton & Company | Norton Young Readers for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

This was an outstanding and entertaining read that I finished in a few hours.
A well written story that kept me hooked from the very beginning.
The characters draw you in and keeps you flipping the pages.
I really enjoyed the writing style. I found myself hooked, turning the pages. 
A great story.

This is the book to pick up this summer if you want to be viscerally creeped out. Through June's unsettlingly distant third person prose and unsettlingly intimate sensory detail, a vivid setting emerges that puts run-of-the-mill haunted summer camps to shame. These ghosts will stick with you, as will the timely commentary on Christian Nationalism and the kids who suffer its collateral damage.

I love a YA small town, creepy mystery. So that and the cover of this really drew me in. I really enjoyed it. From the generational curses, to the eerie town, to the friendships, this was jam packed full of action and atmosphere. This is Peyton June's debut book and it is very well done.

The book is told from multiple POV's; Iris, Gum & Aidan. Though Iris's sister, Glory, often haunts the narrative. Glory died last year, whilst the families were all on vacation in Bad Creek. Iris doesn't understand why her mums brought her back this year, but she's certain there is something weird surrounding her sister's death. She plans on investigating and getting the truth no matter what. What Iris discovers changes everything she and her friends knew about this town.

Glory was a very outgoing person with a loud and confident personality, she often overshadowed every other character. So it was really interesting to read about the group trying to find their feet without her. The first half of this book felt very slow, It took me a while to get fully immersed in the story. I felt like Glory overpowered so much of the beginning. I get that in a small town, something like that is going to be horrific and a very big thing for everyone. However I did feel like we couldn't really grasp everyone's personalities properly, hence the difficulty connecting. Despite that, the characters developed really well and really came into themselves. I really loved the development of Hudson's character and of course the romance between him and Iris.. As a bisexual girl it was cool to have the main character be bisexual. This book is full of inclusivity, I loved that about it.

The horror definitely ramps up towards the end of the book and I really enjoyed that part. The images were really well descripted and they genuinely gave a chilling vibe. The mystery stayed super twisty and developed in a way that was hard to predict. One thing I will say is that I was often confused. As this features generational curses and stuff like that, there were so many names being thrown around that I often couldn't think of who was who and what family they were in, or their relation to the story. I think in the first half somethings could've been better explained, so that I spent less time being so lost. Whilst I was often lost, there was still something about this book that kept me reading on. Ultimately I went on to really enjoy the book, the last 30% being my favourite. The suspense ramped up, the mystery got twistier and the main characters really came into themselves. I also think the ending had a satisfying conclusion. I wasn't left feeling empty or with any unanswered questions.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I will be looking out for more books by this author in their future career.

Bad Creek confronts the intersection of religion, sexuality, and feminism. A fun romp with queer teens enjoying one last nostalgia at summer camp with a splash of cosmic horror and coming to terms with monsters born and made.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Norton Young Readers for the eARC of this title!**

While the nostalgia was fun in this one and I think there’s a lot of promise, the characters didn’t read much younger than their assigned ages in a lot of cases and I found it distracting.

The story has good bones and I think for a debut this shows a lot of promise. I just couldn’t stop asking myself “wait, how old is this character again?!”

I will give this author a try in the future because they clearly have good ideas and a solid foundation for horror writing!

This is possibly the most creepy and atmospheric book I've read in a while. I was totally hooked from the start and absolutely loved the atmosphere that June builds. The american summer camp vibes alongside the found family, mysteries and ghost was perfect for me. If you're looking for a summer camp ghost story with a couple of twists and a dark depth to it I'd 100% recommend Bad Creek!

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I really liked the atmosphere in this book, and for a debut it was really good! I look forward to reading more by this author :)

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
A YA horror filled with teens solving a mystery, family secrets, and a good old hit of religious trauma. Serving the fictional vacation town of Bad Creek, Michigan, we are introduced to Iris Garren. Her family has reluctantly returned to their yearly vacation destination despite their oldest daughter drowning last summer. But Iris doesn’t believe it was an accident, especially after finding her sister’s journal. Together with her friends, self labeled as the “Disasters 2.0”, they work to find out what actually happened.
I saw some of the authors promo on TikTok and I was very intrigued. So of course I went to request an ARC immediately. I implore you to check out some of her posts about behind the scenes of the book as well. I honestly couldn’t tell what was going to happen until the last third of the book, but after that it became a bit predictable. At least for someone who has seen a fair bit of media in this genre. I also felt like the friend group really wouldn’t have been friends outside of their situation, which may have been somewhat of the point.
Overall I had a good time with Peyton June’s debut and I look forward to seeing what more comes in the future.

I really enjoyed this book! I loved the atmosphere, though I did have to keep reminding myself that it was a lake in the summer because all I kept picturing was a dark foggy lake, which feels like its own character.

I felt on edge the whole time and my suspect list changed constantly, I genuinely couldn’t decide who to trust at some points! While I should have figured out what was going to happen, I didn’t!

Aside from the mystery I also really enjoyed the underlying theme of the kids trying to figure out who they are as people, trying to look past this idea of them that they’re all trying to meet to please other people. I spent a lot of the book feeling angry on their behalf!

My only critique was with the climax: when the threat is finally revealed, the resolution felt a little too quick and easy. I would have loved to see a bit more struggle or tension in that final confrontation. That being said, it may have been a conscious choice to keep it accessible for a younger YA audience, and it didn’t take away from the overall impact of the story. I ended up crying into my pillow once it was over.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

While this was a super predictable book, I really enjoyed the story. As a debut, it was very well done and the horror elements were good. I always enjoy a strong friend group and Iris, Gum, Aiden, and Glory were so sweet together. I can understand Iris being so sad after the death of her sister and how she wanted to cling to normality and her friends. This was a really good summer mystery with a nice little twist of horror fantasy elements.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

Bad Creek by Peyton June is a third person multi-POV YA horror set during summer vacation. Iris, Adrian, and Gum have been friends their whole lives, in part because their parents are friends. Glory, Iris’ sister, died last summer and no one seems totally sure exactly what happened. But Bad Creek can’t hide everything forever.

Of the three POVs, the one I preferred the most was Iris’ POV. There’s complexity in how she feels about her sister’s death, the way her mothers are responding to it, and her growing feelings for Hudson, Gum’s cousin and someone she’s never really considered a romantic option yet is suddenly becoming one. Iris also has conflicting feelings over her longtime friends and the things that they aren’t telling her, which drives some of the conflict between them.

This is what I would call ‘Dead Girl Media.’ Glory is haunting the narrative, her death drives the narrative, her death has caused damage to so many relationships, and nobody who loved her is over it. It’s very realistic. When you lose someone who has a significant portion of your life, they do haunt you no matter what your relationship was and it’s worse the younger they were and the more sudden it was.

The horror elements build slowly over time, first with suspense and then we get into the more supernatural elements. The supernatural elements don’t play a very big part overall and I think some of the narrative is more Iris finding out what happened to Glory and why and who was involved. We also get a lot of flashbacks that help to further contextualize the relationships of Gum, Adrian, Iris, and Glory (many are between Adrian and Glory as they were a couple before Glory’s death). The story does move at a fairly brisk pace, but the revelations are more on the slower end.

I would recommend this to fans of horror who love stories where a young woman is haunting the narrative and readers of YA looking to try a horror

3.75 - I’m rounding up to 4 stars.
Murder families? Missing girls? A Monster? I love the dynamic of the disasters 2.0. This was fun. This is exactly my kind of summer read. I didn’t take this too seriously.

My only complaint is it ended a little abruptly. Like the final showdown lasted like a single page and then it was happily ever after.

Thank you W. W Norton & Company for an earc of this in exchange for an honest review!

A Gripping Blend of Supernatural Horror and Social Commentary

Bad Creek by Peyton June is a haunting debut that masterfully intertwines eerie supernatural elements with poignant explorations of grief, identity, and societal pressures. Set in the small town of Bad Creek, Michigan, the story follows Iris, Gum, and Aidan as they return to their annual summer retreat, only to confront the lingering trauma of Iris's sister, Glory, who drowned in the lake the previous year.

The novel excels in its atmospheric tension, drawing readers into a world where the line between the living and the dead blurs. The eerie presence of Glory's ghost, combined with the town's dark secrets, creates a palpable sense of dread that permeates the narrative.

Beyond its supernatural elements, Bad Creek delves into deeper themes of religion, sexuality, and feminism. The characters grapple with personal demons and societal expectations, offering a nuanced portrayal of adolescence and the complexities of identity.

While the novel is compelling, some readers may find certain plot twists familiar within the horror genre. However, the strength of the character development and the rich thematic content more than compensate for this.

In summary, Bad Creek is a chilling and thought-provoking read that will resonate with fans of supernatural horror and those interested in stories that tackle complex social issues. Peyton June has crafted a narrative that is both spine-tingling and emotionally resonant, marking a strong start to what promises to be a promising writing career.

Three friends, Iris, Gum, and Adian are vacationing at Bad creek like they do every summer, but Iris's sister died at the lake the year before. they all have guilty feelings about the last interaction they had with her.

Great creepy read about friends who gather at Bad Creek every summer until one of them--Glory--drowns in the creek. Now they are worried as she was a good swimmer and her death was sudden and unexplained, Now they gather again to reminisce and try to solve the mystery. But what strange things lurk in the creek and can they be stopped? May leave you with shivers!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!