This one was hard for me to read, as it was more gruesome than i expected. Horror readers will enjoy it!

This felt like the best blend of Fyrefest meets Jonestown! I really loved the pacing and Coates knack for layering dread and impending doom in cunning little quips and asides. It was a really fun (and terrifying!) ride!

Darcy Coates gave readers another edge of your seat book. It's filled with scares, gore, and suspense. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it read like a vivid horror movie.

Thank you netgalley and to the publisher for the ARC, this has been an anticipated read for me.

I really enjoyed the plot and characters in the story. I thought it was a good pace and kept me engaged. The twists were twisty and I didn’t expect the ending.

Huge fan of Darcy Coates and this one is her best book yet. I see her growing and growing with each passing book.

Wow. This horror slasher won't be for everyone -- those who are sensitive to graphic and detailed violence and mutilation -- but just as I find myself with most of Darcy's books, I was fully sucked into this terrifying world and after about 1/3 of the way in, I couldn't put it down. There were a lot of characters to keep up with in the beginning, but as the story goes on, the most important players and who should be remembered starts to stick. This was such a wild ride and no one is safe -- it took me right back to some of the shock of "Dead of Winter" but to an even more extreme degree.

This would be PERFECT for a movie/miniseries adaptation and the story plays out viscerally and disturbingly to the extreme. Again, I wouldn't recommend to someone who wasn't a fan of horror/extreme thrillers but if that's your genre, you will devour this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the opportunity to review this ARC!

A cult, a tropical island, and a game of death all wrapped up into one book. I couldn’t pass up the chance to read this Darcy Coates novel, as she’s so well known for her horror and thriller novels (thanks NetGalley for the ARC!). Coates did not disappoint with this one. There’s lots of guessing of who is what throughout the first part of the novel, but we are quickly wrapped up into this story of games created by a viral influencer only interested in gaining more and more views, and the backstory of a cult massacre survivor. How do these two tie together? It’s plausibly frightening.

Darcy is hit or miss for me. I often will question why some of her books are in the horror genre because they're just not scary to me!

I sadly didn't get through this one, it just didn't grab my attention early on.

I plan to order the physical book and try that! Sometimes I just need to read a book physically and not ebook in order to enjoy it.

I'll be sure to update.

Darcy Coates can do no wrong! What a great spooky thriller set with so many twists and turns! Thank you Netgally for the opportunity to read this e-arc!

I had so much fun with this book! In fact, I’m pretty bummed I didn’t get to read this on vacation by the pool!
I found myself unable to stop reading this and was luckily able to start and finish this in a day! I could totally see this being adapted into a movie! I can’t wait to read her next work!

How Bad Things Can Get by Darcy Coates is a chilling thriller set on a tropical island that promises the ultimate vacation but delivers terror instead. When an influencer and his followers arrive for a party, they quickly discover the island's dark secrets—and Ruth, a survivor of a cult, is forced to confront her bloody past. As guests go missing and the games turn deadly, Coates delivers a fast-paced, suspenseful story full of twists. Perfect for fans of psychological horror with a dark, thrilling atmosphere.

I absolutely loved this book. It was exciting, perfectly paced, and had me on the edge of my seat. This is my fourth book by Darcy Coates and I continue to be wowed by her awesome stories. I have already begun telling everyone about this book.

A “lucky” beach festival trip, orchestrated by an Internet sensation along with extravagant games, goes wrong when one participant’s past comes back to haunt her - and everyone else on the island.

This book had me on edge and morbidly curious to see what would happen next. Though the overall plot wasn’t too surprising, this was still filled with suspense and gore, leading me to absolutely devour it. This was a quick read with the perfect amount of detail, backstory, and action so that everything makes sense without becoming monotonous.

Thanks to NetGalley and Darcy Coates for the ARC!

WHOA!!!!!! I don’t usually get ‘scared’ from books as I’m pretty good at separating truth and fiction but this book was SO CREEPY! I couldn’t put it down!!! Highly, highly recommend!

How Bad Things Can Get by Darcy Coates
A party on a remote tropical island, hundreds of fans, and an influencer with big plans—what could go wrong? Turns out, everything.

I almost bailed on this book early on. The influencer angle nearly killed it for me—I don’t get the appeal in real life, and I definitely didn’t want to read about it. But I’m so glad I pushed through. The pacing is fast, the violence is gloriously over the top, and the cult backstory hooked me hard. There's something disturbingly fascinating about people being controlled so completely they'd die for it. The tension keeps ratcheting up, and by the time it hits the explosive climax, I was all in.

Dark, twisted, and relentless—this one surprised me in the best way.