Saturday, May 11, 2024

Bad Summer People is the trash you’ve been searching for

Bad Summer People is a total trash beach read, and I loved every minute of it. 

Author Emma Rosenblum is the chief content officer for a women’s magazine named Bustle and this 2023 novel is her first, with her second, curiously titled Very Bad Business, apparently due for release this month.

She grew up in New York and lives in Manhattan, with a bio that sounds suspiciously similar to the characters in this book, which takes place on Fire Island and was inspired by the excellent TV shows The White Lotus and Succession.

The action begins when, near summer’s end, a boy finds a dead body along the boardwalk of a summer-vacation beach town. Then the action shifts back to the start of summer as we get to know some of the town’s seasonal visitors. Jason and Lauren are married and hang out with Sam and Jen. There’s also childhood friend Rachel, young bartender Micah, and tennis-pro Robert. These and others carry on with their unlikeable behavior through the season, with the tennis tournament at the club being the center of the action. Then one night a big storm hits and the murder occurs, which lead us down an Agatha Christy-like path towards figuring out how this happened and if anyone is responsible.

I can’t recommend this book enough. Read it now.

5 out of 5 stars

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