Bad Like Us by Gabriella LePore
Spring break is a vibe—until someone gets murdered
Partying with popular classmates they barely know is not what Eva and her BFFs had in mind for their spring break. But things have been off ever since Miles’ academic career took a turn for the worse (they don’t talk about it), so a trip to a private beach lodge might be exactly what they need. And Eva won’t admit it, but the chance to reconnect with Colton is worth putting up with Piper’s constant livestreams to her thousands of “besties.”
At first, it’s all sand and waves, but tensions run high when an anonymous letter shakes up an already-flailing love triangle.
When someone turns up dead, Eva can’t even trust her closest friends—but she thinks she can trust Colton. As they get closer to the truth, they uncover secrets that upend everything they thought they knew about their fellow spring breakers.
Review:
I received an advance galley of this book courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I need to start this review by acknowledging that with this being a young adult book, I’m not exactly the intended audience. I requested this one on Netgalley because the cover gives a slasher vibe, but that’s not at all what this book is. It is a decent mystery, though, and while I didn’t exactly find it especially thrilling or surprising, I feel like teens (who are the intended audience) will likely enjoy it.
The story follows Eva and her group of friends – Noah, Colton & Danny (twin brothers), Miles, Javier, Piper, Karly, and Alice – as they embark on a spring break trip to a private beach lodge owned by Noah’s uncle Paul along the Oregon coast. Eager to escape their daily lives and reconnect, they dive headfirst into a world of parties and relaxation. It was supposed to be a weekend of fun, however, tensions rise when Piper receives an anonymous love letter. Javier (Piper’s current boyfriend) believes it was from Danny (Piper’s ex-boyfriend), and a fight erupts. Tensions run high, and by the end of their last night at the cabin, one of them is dead. Now, the police are involved, and the teens are forced to stay at the cabin while the investigation is underway. Fingers are pointed, and tensions escalate as Eva and the rest of the group try to figure out which of them is the killer.
I was never completely invested in the characters, though Eva, Alice, and Miles were more my speed. I feel like if I had been a part of this friend group, I definitely would have gravitated to them. I also enjoyed the connection between twin brothers Danny and Colton. The flashback scenes, which gave us a closer look at their rocky home life with an unreliable mother, added depth to their characters and made them more sympathetic. Piper was another major player in the story, but I really didn’t care for her. Then again, I don’t really understand the need to document every moment of your life and post it on social media, so that’s likely why she annoyed me. Sadly, the rest of the characters felt really flat. I almost feel like there were too many characters involved.
The focal point of the story is the death of one of the teens. We don’t find out who died until about 1/3 of the way into the story. Once it was revealed who died, I felt like the last 2/3 of the book really dragged. There was a lot of unnecessary drama (but again – when isn’t there drama when you’re dealing with teens?), and when the reveal of what actually happened finally occurred, it didn’t have much of an impact on me – mostly because of my lack of connection with some of the characters.
Overall, I wasn’t shocked or really surprised by anything in this book, though teen readers may feel differently. I, personally, feel as though this story has been told before, and there wasn’t a whole lot that felt new here. That said, the writing is perfectly fine, and I think that fans of YA mystery novels will enjoy this one – especially if they like a familiar story.
