This book was a rapid-paced and unpredictable read. I appreciated the narrative and the author's writing style. I am eager to explore more of the author's works. Overall, it was an engaging page-turner.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press.

My first Darcy Coates and won’t be the last!! HOLY COW! This was definitely more horror than I usually read, but I could not put it down!! Started off a bit slow, but once it got going it was unstoppable. Mysterious, suspenseful, and shocking. An influencers “island getaway” gone terribly wrong. Would highly recommend this one if you like horror/mystery/suspense/thriller. Thank you NetGalley and Darcy Coates for this ARC—don’t sleep on this one when it releases next week!

This was an amazing book! I loved the cult theme throughout and the twists and turns! It was a page turner and a great read overall!!

Honestly this was fantastic. I know it comes out in a week so my review may not mean much or carry much weight, but the twists really got me. I always guess twists in books and the twists in this totally surprised me. Pacing was consistent and good throughout, the shifting pov were easy to follow, there was a bit too much filler at times but otherwise it was good.

Loved this book as much as her other one I’ve read. The plot twist between Ruth and Zach caught me off guard. It was a nice twist tho. I will be getting a copy when it comes out

It starts like a dream holiday and ends nothing short of a nightmare you can’t wake from.

Ruth, sole survivor of a cult, wins a luxury getaway to Prosperity Island—only to find its beauty hides deadly games, ancient whispers, and a hunger that won’t let go.

A fantastic blend of slasher horror, cult secrets, and influencer drama, this is tense, bloody, and impossible to put down. The author takes you from slow-burn unease, lots of charcater development in the first half of the book to full-blown chaos in a way that’s both gruesome and addictive.

If you like your horror fast paced, creepy, and ceremonial, this is the book for you.

What a disturbing and terrifying thriller! Action packed the entire time and high emotions! How can you resist a thriller with a creepy island, influencers and mention of a cult!

Release date August 26, 2025

I very invested in this book from the beginning. There are so many weird things going on and I was left scratching my head. I wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen. There were twists at every turn. I had no idea what was the story was going to go.

Ruth, our main FMC, is the lone survivor of the cult Petition. She has kept her identity a secret for her entire life.

Eton is an internet celebrity. He decides to host a getaway for five days for his followers & VIPs. From the beginning of landing on the island things start going off the rails. I don’t want to give anything away. I highly recommend you pick this up. This is my first Darcy Coates novel but definitely won’t be my last.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Enjoyed it. This was one festival that I would not want to go to. The title "How Bad Things Can Get" should add worse, much worse, unimaginably horrible. You know things will not end well when you need to take a boat to an island in the middle of nowhere, drops you off and will return in five days. What can happen? I'm sure no one ever dreamed crazy naked people would hunt them down for fun. Throughout the book I kept asking myself what was going on, when people would randomly go missing. All the workers claimed everything was fine with having a smile plaster on their face. Prosperity Island has the whole creepy vibe where terrible things happen. Did I love any of the characters? Not really. Petra, Carson, Hayleigh and Joel were they only ones I hoped wouldn't get maimed by the crazies. That's out of the 600 people who are on the island. Where would I have hid to survive the madness? Nothing fazed these lunatics. They could scale rocks with bare feet, swim out into the ocean, get their head smashed on a rock. They were almost inhuman. Ruth was the central character and really doesn't want to be there. She's hiding a huge secret that supposedly only her boyfriend Zach knows. She 's the surviving child of the Petition cult. Did Zach really love Ruth? His way of getting tickets to the festival points to no. If I survived the terrors on the island, I would probably never leave my house again and sue Eton for every cent he had.

I definitely recommend the book. It was a good mystery/thriller. I enjoyed the story and writing style. I look forward to reading more books by the author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Poisoned Pen Press, through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This book was really interesting. Very fast paced and unpredictable. It centers around a culty island resort, quite gruesome. It was disturbing in the best ways. very gripping. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book!

Darcy Coates is the queen of atmospheric, tense,suspenseful and nail biting thriller that will have you at the edge of your seat, not knowing what’s coming up next.

The story begins with Ruth, Zach, Carson, and Haleigh who have been selected to attend a 5-day excursion/ party at the mysterious Prosperity Island hosted by mega influencer Eton. What was supposed to be a fun game filled experience turns into a nightmare quick when people start disappearing. Our main character Ruth, who we learn is a survivor of a mass murdered cult starts to suspect that maybe she was lured to the island because of her background. Throughout the book we see how Ruth is constantly suspicious and paranoid about her true identity being revealed and how her life is going to change for the worst if her secret is exposed.

If you enjoy atmospheric, tense, twisty book that portrays random acts of violence from complete strangers with motives that are unknown then this is the book for you. This is a wild ride where nothing is what it seems and makes you question “who can you truly trust”. I truly enjoyed this book and was completely shocked by how it ended. At first I didn’t like Ruth too much because I felt like she was just making everything about herself but as you get further along in the book, her character development is amazing.

Thank you NetGalley, Darcy Coates and publisher for sending me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early! I’ve been a Darcy Coates fan for a while, so when I saw I’d been approved for How Bad Things Can Get, I couldn’t wait to get started. On paper, the premise had me hooked right away. A tropical influencer retreat on a remote paradise, promising sun, games, and fun- what could possibly go wrong? From the very first chapter with the cult flashbacks, I knew things were going to get wild.

This book was incredibly bingeable and I finished it in just two sittings. The pacing, especially in the second half, is electric. The suspense tightens with every twist, building toward a finale that’s chaotic, bloody, and way more brutal than I expected. I loved it. However, if you’re not a fan of gore or graphic violence, you might want to skip this one or at least go in with caution. While I wouldn’t say it was particularly excessive, I can see how it might be too much for some readers.

Thematically, Coates blends in some timely commentary on influencer culture and the dangers of living for clout. The critique is subtle, never preachy, but it adds a sharp edge to the story that’s both unsettling and compelling. The isolation, the cult undertones, the breakdown of trust- it all creates a lingering creepiness that works well. That said, I did find the characters a bit flat. With so many of them, and most sharing similar traits, they sometimes felt interchangeable. As a result, I didn’t ever really feel truly invested in who made it out alive. The island’s lore and setup were intriguing, but some elements weren’t fully developed before the story shifted into full-blown carnage. If you’re looking for layered character work or a slow-burn build, this may not quite hit the mark. It leans more into fast-paced, “fun horror” than atmospheric dread.

All things considered, this was a fast, wild ride and I’m already looking forward to my next Darcy read!

I love Darcy Coates books, have read almost every one she's written. I will continue to read her books, despite me not liking this one at all. There are too many characters. The games are in the background and it feels too unreal with everything that happens.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

How Bad Things Can Get by Darcy Coates
*arc via NetGalley*

𝗤𝗨𝗜𝗖𝗞 𝗣𝗟𝗢𝗧 𝗣𝗘𝗘𝗞
Influencers are invited to Prosperity Island for a five-day content-creator festival. Ruth attends as a plus one but, as a cult survivor, just wants to lay low. But the island has a dark history, and when the games turn deadly, paradise stops feeling so blissful.

𝗛𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗢𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗢𝗡
I am always here for a locked-room thriller - plus influencers, wild games and someone with a cult past - yes please! I loved how fast-paced and snappy the storytelling was. I was totally gripped from the get.

Ruth and Petra were the standouts for me. Ruth’s trauma feels authentic, and Petra is low-key smart as the real brains behind the influencer empire. I loved the multiple POVs, though I was a bit thrown by some - Sophia especially felt a bit random and pointless.

The first half really worked for me - good character setup, tension, secrets - but once the action kicked in, it lost some of that depth. It got very gory toward the end, which isn’t my jam. I get why it went there, but I would’ve preferred something more psychological than splatterfest.

𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗?
I was totally unprepared for the survival nightmare of it all! But if you vibe with influencer drama, cult mysteries, and don’t mind a gore-soaked third act, this is a page-turner.

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for this #gifted ARC.

🎧 audiobook not yet available
📖 Publishes 08•26•25 | 416 pages

Very intense book. I found one error but nothing else. Overall a 4 star. I think more connection to other characters and what happened to others at the end could've been good. Especially her friends.

Darcy Coates will always be a go to author for me. I don’t care if it’s thriller, horror or her grocery list I am here for it and How Bad Things Can Get DID NOT DISAPPOINT.

A dream party for influencer and their fans turns into a nightmare and the island that once was a cult becomes beyond unsettling as things get dark, violent and bloody. For sure gave me Blair Witch Project vibes!!!

Although Where He Can’t Find You and Dead of Winter are two of my favorite books, I think this one has fastly held a candle to them and has become a top 3 favorite for sure.

Wow...the book started off so great and gripped me right away. The various trials and competitions the players had to go through were brutal!
Sadly, for me, when the last 30% happens and the sh*t hits the fan - things go wild and crazy and lost all believability for me and I stopped caring what happened to our MCs.

How bad can things get?

Pretty bad, apparently. Ruth has been hiding from her past since she was 7, keeping her true identity a secret. After surviving a mass-suicide cult, she created as normal of a life for herself as she could. So normal, her boyfriend and his two friends are “randomly” selected to get tickets to the event of the year — a week long all expenses paid vacation at an island festival thrown by multi millionaire personality Eton.

But strange things start happening, and whispers of her hidden identity have Ruth on alert since the yacht cruise brought them to Prosperity Island. Will her secret coming out be the worst thing that happens? How bad could it really get?

Fyre festival meets the purge— this horror novel was made to become the next big film in the genre. As my first horror novel, I really went in with no expectations, and yet Darcy was able to exceed them all. The suspense, the gory details.. very well done.

Wow, this book was a terrifying book….I’m so thankful that Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press allowed me to read this book for my honest review!!!!

✨️Book Review✨️

How Bad Things Can Get
By Darcy Coates

Publish Date: August 26th, 2025

Themes:
🏝 Remote Island
✝️ Religious Cult
😱 Horror

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)

Darcy Coates is known for her atmospheric, chilling horror, and this book absolutely delivers on that front. A group of friends receives an exclusive invitation to a remote island to participate in a reality show—but what begins as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity quickly spirals into a nightmare of isolation, fear, and desperation.

I really liked the horror elements of this one—some scenes were so vividly descriptive that I cringed in the best way. Coates balances gore and atmosphere well, using detail to both shock and unsettle without going overboard.

The tension builds gradually, starting with subtle unease before escalating into a claustrophobic, high-stakes nightmare. I loved how paranoia seeped into the group dynamic, making every decision feel heavier and more dangerous. The pacing is a slow burn at first, but once things start to unravel, the frantic energy and darker turns make it impossible to put down.