"The Bad Ones" Explores Friendship, Morality, and a Local Legend

Melissa Albert’s fifth novel The Bad Ones has been on my 2024 TBR list, so I put an early hold on it at my library. Luckily, I got to read it shortly after it was released in late February. Although I’ve never read Albert’s novels before, the story had a compelling and unique premise. With small town disappearances, a vengeful goddess, dark magic, and a conflicted friendship, The Bad Ones was a fun and spooky read.

Plot Summary

When four people vanish without a trace one January night, one of them happens to be Nora’s friend, Becca. Even though they haven’t been talking for months, Nora gets a text and rushes over to Becca’s house in the middle of the night, only to find her friend is missing. Nora tries to uncover the truth behind her friend’s disappearance. Her investigations lead her to learn about the local folklore surrounding a goddess who was part of Nora and Becca’s childhood games.

“We read everything we could find on the subject of creation myths, invocations, pagan worship. We loved that there were gods of things as specific as silence and as grand as the sea. A goddess could wrap her arms around the cosmos, or conceal herself in human form.” — Melissa Albert, The Bad Ones

Review

This was the type of book I compulsively read and dreaded it ending. The prologue hooked me, following three different townspeople who encounter a strange girl before they vanish.

As a fiction writer, it’s not often I find a new author who writes in a way that inspires me. Albert’s writing is fantastic. It’s rich with clever metaphors and vivid descriptions. She creates an evocative atmosphere and captures a whole range of emotions from horror to humor. Her prose immersed me int the story and also showcased a deep understanding of the characters and their world.

I went in with no expectations, though I anticipated it to lean a bit more into fantasy. However, this novel is more of a horror mystery. As someone who likes my horror fiction rooted in the real world, I was glad The Bad Ones kept the supernatural elements more subtle. I enjoyed how the otherworldly pieces came together in the end, tying together Nora and Becca’s friendship.

The characterization is sharp. Nora is a complex and fascinating protagonist. Once ostracized for being a liar by her peers, she makes for an enticing and unreliable narrator. Albert also includes a few sections with flashbacks from Becca’s perspective, giving some insight into what led to the dissolution in their bond.

Nora’s friendship with Becca drives the book. The two outcasts spent time in the woods together, creating stories about goddesses and taking photographs. Albert was inspired by urban legends and childhood memories of playing make-believe, hoping to explore that liminal space between childhood and adolescence. Thematically, the book touches on how friendships can change for the worse, especially as we grow up.

Aside from friendship, the book explores themes of morality through the goddess game and its origins. As Nora uncovers the truth behind the disappearances, she learns that her classmates and her best friend might not be who she thought they were. The story has us reflect on how all of us have the potential for darkness and questions who has the right to enact justice.

“Evil was banal, and it was everywhere. That’s why they were here, eating crap coffee and bad sweets at a rest stop perched like a concrete spider over the highway. So Becca could see what it was like to identify the bad ones, mixed into the crowd like arsenic in sugar.” — Melissa Albert, The Bad Ones

In terms of the mystery, it’s well-crafted, complex, and kept me guessing. In addition to the vanishings, the plot is also driven by questions about the goddess’s origins as well as the strange supernatural experiences affecting Nora.

Whereas some mysteries get too heavy-handed at the end in explaining everything, The Bad Ones ties everything together in a cohesive way that made sense for the characters and the story. Although the final reveal wasn’t surprising, it felt satisfying.

If you like character-driven, slow-burn, horror mysteries, check out The Bad Ones.

Originally published on Medium