Emma Rosenblum - Bad Summer People

Emma Rosenblum - Bad Summer People 

3.5⭐

Genre:  Mystery, Thriller, Contemporary, Fiction

Pages: 346

Format: Paperback Proof 

Publisher:  Penguin Michael Joseph 

Date Published: 8th June 2023

Huge thank you to Penguin Michael Joseph for sending me this book to read and review.

 

Book Blurb: 

You are cordially invited to summer on New York State's idyllic Fire Island.
Thirty miles of golden sand:
No traffic. No tourists. No trash.

The city elite gathers here every year, trailing kids, their nannies (vital!), wine and seafood imported from Manhattan: hard workers need their playtime.

Take the Parkers and the Weinsteins. Lauren and Jen hold sway on the beach and the tennis court. Their husbands are childhood friends bearing grudges as deep as they are secret.

Their lone single friend, Rachel Woolf, is looking to meet her match, whether he's the new tennis pro - or someone else's husband. She's not picky.

And while this season starts out quietly as any other, it soon changes when beneath the boardwalk, a body is found.

No one is claiming to be a good person. But is someone actually capable of murder?

My Review: 

I expected this book to be like White Lotus, but sadly it was more like a Gossip Girl on vacation. I enjoyed the pacing, the setting and the writing of this book, yet for me the suspense and thrill were missing from it. I expected more of a murder mystery, suspenseful reveals and a plot that kept me on my toes, but I didn’t get any of that. It was just a bunch of rich, obnoxious people cheating on one another and stabbing each other’s backs during the whole summer on a very beautiful island.

The story follows four rich couples who as every year, are enjoying their summer holidays on New York’s Fire Island. All couples have their secrets and lies that lie deep within the island. We also meet a series of side characters who all play some sort of role in these couples' lives. Oh, and then there is a body found on the island and suddenly all the couples are somehow suspected to be linked with the murder. That’s when readers slowly get to know the lies and the secrets that each of the couple is keeping.

I didn’t like any of the characters. I mean there are unlikable characters that I could root for, but none of these couples had any redeeming characteristics apart from moaning, gossiping, sleeping with one another, and hating each other. All of the characters, especially the couples were very two-dimensional. Additionally, there were so many side characters to keep track of and at times I was so confused as to why some of the characters and chapters about them even existed. I wish there were fewer side characters, and the main characters were more developed, which would have added more substance to the story.

I did like, however, how easy was to read this book, and how short chapters somehow made me slightly interested in the plotline. I mean I was also interested as I thought it was going to have more murder mystery in it.

Overall: Easy summer read if you want something forgettable or a palette cleanser in between the books, whilst sitting in the sun by the poolside. This book does lack a deeper message and although the book's premise had so much potential for a proper murder mystery, it just didn’t deliver. Don’t expect to like the characters though and some of them will be pretty forgettable or will make you rage inside. The writing, however, is pretty good, so as are the scene setting and pacing, so at least that is something. 

About the Author:

Emma Rosenblum is chief content officer at Bustle Digital Group, overseeing content and strategy for BDG’s lifestyle, parenting, and culture & innovation portfolios, including Bustle, Elite Daily, Romper, NYLON, The Zoe Report, Romper, Scary Mommy, Fatherly, The Dad, Gawker, Inverse, and Mic. Prior to BDG, Emma served as the executive editor of ELLE. Previously Rosenblum was a senior editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, and before that a senior editor at Glamour. She began her career at New York magazine. She lives in New York City, with her husband and two sons. Bad Summer People is her first novel.

https://www.emma-rosenblum.com/