To say I was beyond excited when I was approved for a new Darcy Coates book is an understatement. This book was such a fun ride and felt like being on an adventure with crime, horror, and thrills at every turn of a page. I also enjoyed the characters in this book, all so different but that means almost any reader can relate to one of them. I think the title of this book says it all, How Bad Things Can get and when they do, it gets even worse but such a fun read. I will be buying a physical copy to share once this is published. Thank you NetGalley!!

Whoa. This was a deep, dark, consuming read. It sucks you in from the beginning (almost cult.-like😉) with a fabulous isle backdrop then does a 180! I couldn’t put it down & wouldn’t even read a paragraph here & there, knowing what was coming. IDK what to say….if you pick it up, you won’t put it down. That’s a rarity for me, I usually force myself through plthe first 20-25% but I enjoyed Coates’ newest from the beginning. There were times it was bleak & sad but always engrossing. I dare anyone to DNF this one. It’s harsh @ times (this isn’t a rom-com) but it’s always “un-put-downable”!

4.5 ⭐️

This is my 4th Darcy Coates novel and they have all been bangers. So good in fact that she’s officially a top 5 horror author for me and I haven’t even made a dent in her portfolio! Her writing is always very fast paced, just enough character development to be enjoyable, and very graphic body horror. I can’t stand horror books that are too wordy and want to flesh out characters to the point where it bogs down the story. *cough* Dan Simmons and Stephen King *cough*. When it comes to horror I just want to get to the horror already and Darcy does a great job of not wasting time.

This book reminded me of Mr. Beast meets The Jonestown Massacre. A viral social media influencer gets hundreds of his fans to join him on an island where they will party and plays games where they can win big money. The games are very dangerous but not near as dangerous as who or what is on the island with them.

This pulls you right in from the beginning and doesn’t let go. Darcy is one of my favorite authors and I’ve read a ton of her books, but this one will take a new spot in my top 3. This is different than her normal spooky vibes but I LOVED it. It’s so well done, suspenseful and gets your heart racing. Such a great summer thriller with a side of horror and gore. An amazing time.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC

I can’t wait to get a physical copy! Out August 26th, 2025

Darcy Coates does it again — This book had me HOOKED! What starts as a week-long island bash for Ruth and her friends quickly spirals into a deadly nightmare in this gripping and gruesome thriller. It’s not all sun and games on Prosperity Island. With a cult past resurfacing and guests starting to vanish, Ruth is forced to confront the secret she’s tried to bury since her childhood. Influencers, accidents, and unspeakable horrors collide in this tense and thrilling tale of just how bad things can get when the party in paradise bares its teeth and the exclusive island escape evolves into entrapment.

This book is SO much more than the synopsis. It was borderline shocking the turns this book made but I loved every chapter of it!!!

The atmosphere was nailed (remote island, festival of people). The mystery was there from the first chapter, which was slowly unveiled as you read on. The short chapters helped me fly through this even faster. Be warned, this book has a lot more horror aspects than expected, but I totally loved it.

I’ve read a few of Darcy’s books at this point and she seems to have a nack for wild-ride thrillers and I am HERE FOR IT.

I always get a thrill of excitement when I know there's a new Darcy Coates book coming out! She's in now firmly in one my favourite authors list with her brilliant narrative skills.
This book isn't a supernatural book but in a sense it's more terrifying as we know cults are a genuine thing with, in cases, deadly results.
I loved the claustrophobic feel with our characters all being confined to an island. The atmosphere throughout the book is tense with it bubbling away to reach a bloodbath climax. I always know I've hit a good book when it's a genuine struggle to stop reading the book but also not wanting to read too quickly for it to then end. This was one of those books for me! Thank you for another wonderful, exciting and tad gory read!

4.5 stars!

Just a really great cult thriller / slasher. Well-paced and never boring, with characters that were easy to root for. Even the side characters were humanized and likable in a way that authors sometimes don't bother with. There were plenty of hints and foreshadowing in the early chapters but I still had no idea where things were going, which just made it even harder to put down. It was an incredibly well crafted plot.

It was way gorier than I expected. Some of the descriptions icked me out so bad. Very well done, written beautifully, just very gross.

"How Bad Things Can Get" by Darcy Coates is about a group of friends who go to the private island of an influencer for a once in a lifetime festival. Things start off fun for the guests of the festival but quickly turn dark and sinister.

This novel is the perfect summer slasher! It is dark, unsettling, fast-paced, and gory! It is definitely a page turner full of twists.

I highly recommend this book if you are a fan of slashers and cults! I love Darcy Coates, and this novel did not disappoint me!

Thank you, NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press, for sending me an ARC of this amazing novel! I can't wait to see what Darcy Coates writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a complimentary early release copy of How Bad Things Can Get by Darcy Coates.

How Bad Things Can Get is my first read by Darcy Coates and I’m impressed! This is a book that had been hooked from start to finish, the characters were interesting to follow and the plot was very intriguing! I’m usually not the biggest fan on books that involve cults but the way Darcy Coates went about writing them was fascinating. This is a book that went from one to a hundred quickly, she doesn’t skip out on any of the gory details either which I love!

The characters are fun to read from, there are a few different perspectives throughout the story that I feel really amp up the tension but I liked to see what other characters take on the situation was like! I liked Ruth as a character, she came off a strong lead and I just love characters that can hold their own. The horror/gore is crazy good, it’s hectic and chaotic, something was always happening and it had me questioning things until the very end. The cult stuff did have me a bit hesitant when it was introduced but I found that it wasn’t convoluted, I was actually very interested in the details surrounding Ruth and the cult! Another neat aspect that I enjoyed were the sightings! It brings up a lot of questions when they come up that made the characters/plot even better in my opinion. The ending left me speechless!

This has me excited to pick up some of Darcy Coates other books, I’ve had Ghost Camera and Where He Can’t Find You on my physical tbr for a while plus many of her other titles that I’d like to read on Libby! I think Darcy Coates is going to become another one of my favorite authors! If you love graphic chaotic horror I think you would enjoy this book!

Although this is not my first Darcy Coates book, it felt like discovering the author all over again, getting the thrills and the chills and all the excitement of a brilliantly fresh, dark, cruel, and vicious horror read! The writing is top-notch, and though I was surprised to discover that the book's considered to be a slow-burn, I didn't get that at all: every couple of pages, something new happens, and the build up grows more and more, intriguing hints dropping left and right, the large cast harboring secrets and keeping their cards close to their chest till the very last moment! One thing I would have appreciated more would be a stronger sense of the supernatural (I for one would have never thought to mention "The Blair Witch Project" in this context, as the synopsis does), less ambiguity about it and more pedal to the metal; but overall, I have no complaints: the book is a perfect blend of psychological, cult, survival and island horror, with very strong thriller vibes, and a horrific mystery right in the center.

It starts as an adventure (young people invited to party on a hugely popular influencer's isolated island - what can go wrong wrong, right?), with a secondary plotline about a cult survivor seemingly dragging along - till you realize that it's actually the other way around, and the cult plot's what's been driving the story forward. It's impossible to guess "how bad things can get," though, even when you're given all the necessary information. Coates' imagination knows no bounds, her storytelling skills are first-rate throughout, and the horror, though the gore is kept rather minimal, is definitely not for the faint of heart.

I shouldn't neglect to mention the very, very strong ending! Even if you don't end up loving the central character (I certainly didn't, though I doubt she's meant to be all that relatable), you'll be blown away by the finale's complexity, and Coates' deeply insightful take on cults.

I eagerly recommend the book to readers who enjoy terrific plotting, complex and flawed characters, intense foreshadowing, and intelligent twists. There's something to be said about book that promise the world and actually deliver!

Well, apparently they can get nightmarish!
Yikes. This was gruesome, disturbing and creepy.

I don’t normally read horror. Thrillers, yes, but gory horror has never been my thing. How Bad Things Can Get though, drew me in and I couldn’t put it down.

I loved the premise - YouTube star “Beast” like games, and how things turned morbid and horrifying pretty quickly.

This was truly foreboding the second everyone got off that ship, and arrived at Prosperity Island. I was on edge the whole time.

The FMC was flawed but admirable, due to her past. The Cult aspect was well done, and the pacing was perfect.

I don’t think anyone could have delivered this better than Darcy Coates.

Thank you so much Poisoned Pen Press and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.75⭐️

Think…Fear Factor (Hunger Games style) meets late 90’s MTV Spring Break…but on a secluded private island…hosted by Mr. Beast…and sprinkle in some Jonestownesque cultish action just for the fun of it!! If that isn’t enough to intrigue you then idk what to tell you. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Darcy Coates has a way of sucking me in to her books on the first page and makes me not want to put it down! I’m gonna lose my job one of these days because of her—so hopefully she can hire me in some capacity to read her work, bounce ideas off of or just to hang out. Idk we will figure it out! 😂

You definitely need to add this to your TBR! 🖤

I mean, I should have known what I was getting into - it’s Darcy Coates. She doesn’t hold back, and her newest book is no exception. It started out slow, but like a train building momentum, the tension picked up speed until we were full steam ahead into chaos.

Ruth is trying to lay low. Not easy when you’re the lone survivor of a cult mass suicide that every true crime podcast on the planet is still obsessed with. She’s spent decades hiding her identity and trying to outrun her trauma. So when her boyfriend Zach invites her to a remote tropical island for a week-long fan retreat hosted by a wildly popular influencer, it feels like the perfect escape.

Spoiler: it’s not.

Whispers of a curse start circulating. Guests start dying - graphically, in true Coates fashion. And someone on the island knows exactly who Ruth really is.

This was such a solid thriller-horror mashup. Ruth felt layered and real, constantly walking the line between survivor and hunted. Her backstory unraveled in bite-sized pieces, with flashbacks woven seamlessly into the building dread. I second-guessed everyone. That lingering question of who (if anyone) would make it out alive kept me turning pages late into the night.

Heads up: the death scenes are vivid. If you’re squeamish, maybe don’t snack while reading.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

3.5/5;

This was a pretty slow burn. We got little bits of action, but nothing really started under about 65-70% through. I enjoyed the suspense of what would become of Ruth’s past and we had some great little twists within the friend group. If Darcy Coates does a great job with the gory, disgusting details. Overall, I enjoyed it, and I thought the author did a great job of actually incorporating the cult into this.

Sooo when I received this ARC all my plans went out the window. I’ve been waiting for this book, and I’m happy to say it was totally worth the wait. A festival gone wrong, cult activity, and a bunch of shady people doing shady stuff. All in all, this was fantastic. I loved the story, I loved the characters, and I loved the way it ended. Hands down, such a great book. This will be out at the end of August so make sure to add it to your list! Thanks to NetGalley for the copy of this ARC!

"How Bad Things Can Get" by Darcy Coates was a chilling, thrilling ride of a book. You can never go wrong with one of her spooky books! Great book.

I really enjoyed this one! It leans more psychological than some of Darcy Coates’ other books, but the slow build of tension and sense of isolation kept me hooked. It’s a quieter, more personal kind of fear, but no less chilling. As always, I’ll read anything she puts out.

This book is definitely a slow burn. The first 25% of the book is character building, and can be a little tedious. Once we get past the first game on the island, things start to pick up. The main character, Ruth, is connected as the only survivor of a cult, and she has done well keeping that part of her life under wraps. But during the week long stay on a remote tropical island with a famous YouTuber, things start happening that have her second guessing herself. Odd things start happening, the staff begin to act...strange. She begins to have visions. And the visions are terrifying. Will the visions come true? Or will she find a way to save herself and others before time runs out?

This book reminded me a lot of the 1932 movie "The Most Dangerous Game,' (and the movie is great, you should watch it.) All of the characters have underlying motives for the actions that they take; all with varied success. Ms. Coates does a lot of foreshadowing in the first half that helps you see the timeline of what happens in the back half that leads to the final "game." And I always like books where none of the characters are incredibly likeable, and this book has those types of characters in spades.

I have read a few of Ms. Coates' books and really enjoyed them, and this one was no exception. I feel that some of the first quarter could have been pared down, and that the repetition of talking about the cult was meant to build tension, but it actually caused the plot to stall a bit.

This was one hell of a ride.. I mean, read!
SHEEEESH.

This was a thriller that I could not put down. It was wild. It was chaos. It was pandemonium. I really enjoyed it.
This book gave me so many shivers, it was so off putting and creepy. It also gave me some good visuals that made me feel grossed out, like honestly some pretty disturbing stuff. Hats off to you Darcy!

The twists were good too, and they were woven into the plot perfectly.

My only issue was that it was a little confusing to keep track of some of the character POV and the fact there was so many names dropped and I just couldn't keep up. That's a me problem for sure, but it affects how I read the book

Overall, one hell of a book and I LOVED it!!!
THANK YOU NETGALLEY FOR THE ARC!