Review of Bad Summer People

I love when the title of a book is descriptive. Bad Summer People is a neighborhood mystery about a bunch of conniving people who spend the summer in the same small beach town. But one of them won’t survive the summer… Who is it and who did it? Read the book and find out! Also, read my Review of Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum.

Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum

To be published on May 23, 2023 by Flatiron Books

Plot Summary for Bad Summer People

Jen Weinstein and Lauren Parker are the social queens of the beach town of Salcombe. They know everyone, rule the beach and the tennis court, and are good at getting what they want.

Their husbands, Sam and Jason, have known each other childhood. But of course, even the best relationship can have grudges and secrets.

This summer season just like any other. Until a body is discovered, face down off the side of the boardwalk.

Review of Bad Summer People

Bad Summer People is the kind of book that understands its job (to be a breezy beach read) and just does that job.

In many ways, Bad Summer People reminded me of the very popular Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty.

A lot of 2020s thrillers have used the Big Little Lies format:

First, have someone stumble over an unidentified body, Law and Order style.

Then, present all the possible people the body could be AND all the suspects.

Finally, make us wonder until the end: who was the body and who did it?

I recently did a post on Neighborhood Mysteries and Thrillers and contemplated putting Big Little Lies on the list. It was (I think) set in a Sydney suburb? Or maybe Melbourne?

In any case, I think Bad Summer People does qualify as a neighborhood thriller.

It’s set in Fire Island, somewhere I have never been, but it is off Long Island, New York, and you get there by ferry.

If you’ve watched the Hulu show Fire Island, then you’ll get the running joke in the book in which all the characters say that their town, Salcombe, is “not the gay part of Fire Island.” Which of course, has a cringey “not that there’s anything wrong with that” feel that mocks the book’s rather mockable characters.

The characters in Bad Summer People are liars, cheaters and backstabbers. They are obsessed with tennis, with the fact that Fire Island is just as good as the (more expensive) Hamptons, and with how much they dislike one another. Many of them have been coming to Salcombe for decades, while the marrieds-in are looked at with disdain by the old timers.

Reading Bad Summer People was fun, like sitting next to your most gossipy friend as she dishes the dirt on everyone. It was enjoyable to try to figure out who the victim was (I was wrong) and who the culprit was (I was sort of right).

If (like me) you’re getting annoyed by 400+ page books that really don’t need to be that long and take forever to read, Bad Summer People is a crisply written 275 pages. It’s a multi-POV narrative, one in which most of the characters get to vent about their problems and grudges, and try to justify their own (bad!) behavior.

Yes, these Bad Summer People are enjoyably unlikeable – just like the title says! No matter how your summer is going (mine isn’t promising to be that relaxing) at least we aren’t in Salcombe!

If you’ve read this, or plan to, tell me what you think in the comments!