Bad Tourists by Cato Carver Analysis + Spoilers! When a Friend Group Suspense book gets crossed with a Vacation Thriller, I am always interested. Darcy invites three friends on a lavish Maldives vacation to celebrate her divorce. But hidden secrets start to emerge and nothing is as it seems. Let’s discuss the book!
Jen’s Quick Take: Bad Tourists by Caro Carver
- I have done an extensive analysis on what I like to call Friend Group Suspense books and there are two main variations: the “friends return to the scene of the crime” ones, like A Step Past Darkness , The Darling Girls or Listen for the Lie and the “friends getaway trip goes very wrong” like The Guilt Trip, One by One (the Freida McFadden version) or The Fury. Bad Tourists is in category two
- Set at a lavish and isolated resort in the Maldives, Bad Tourists is also a Vacation Thriller and uses that isolation effectively
- Based on White Lotus Season Three, I also put this on my list of Books to Read if You Love HBO’s White Lotus.
- Yes, this one got a bit out-there at the end, but I didn’t mind it because the clues were there and it wasn’t an out-of-nowhere kind of surprise
- Published on July 9 by Avid Reader/ Simon & Schuster
- 336 pages
- Thanks to the publisher for the advance review copy.
Bad Tourists by Caro Carver: Analysis + Spoilers
I love a book that seems to be going in a predictable direction and then suddenly takes a TURN. Or two.
Better yet if at least one of those turns happen before the end of the book.
The first twist (not a spoiler) in Bad Tourists is how the women knew one another: a very interesting reveal which seemed to take the book in a certain direction. Then the book took another major turn.
The Maldives setting in Bad Tourists was also fun and effectively-used
Though the books are quite different, Bad Tourists did have some similarities to One Perfect Couple. Both have remote Indian Ocean setting and a feminist slant.
But there were differences too. One Perfect Couple has one narrator, while Bad Tourists has multiple narrators:
- recently divorced mom Darcy
- anxious Welsh ghostwriter Kate
- glamorous single mom and influencer Camilla
- newly wed honeymooner Jade
- Kate’s ex-husband Jacob
Spoilers for Bad Tourist and the Ending Explained
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