The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert - A Review
- madgirlthoughts
- 18 minutes ago
- 3 min read
“Goddess, Goddess, count to five, In the morning, who’s alive…”
I slept with the light on after this one.
Just kidding.
It did send me into a bit of an existential tailspin, though, and that’s always fun, right?
For an introduction to Ms Albert’s work, this was a good first impression.
Care to join me?
One town. One night. Four missing people.
Nora and Becca have been best friends since elementary school, but after a major blowup three months ago, they’re the most withdrawn from each other that anyone has ever seen.
Late one night, Nora receives a text from Becca: "I love you."
With Becca’s traumatic past and Nora’s intimate knowledge of her erratic behaviour and less-than-stellar mental health, Nora is immediately concerned. She rushes over to her best-of-currently-distant-friends' house.
With no sign of trouble, Nora resorts to old habits, trying Becca’s bedroom window, the same way they’ve done a hundred times before.
When she can’t get in? Nora falls asleep on the decking.
Outside. In the snow. In below-freezing temperatures.
When she wakes up the next morning, she’s fine, with absolutely zero right to be so.
On the other hand, overnight, four complete strangers with no connection to one another have vanished into thin air.
A thirteen-year-old girl from a slumber party, a gaggle of peers and two sleeping parents just upstairs.
A high school senior from a graveyard, his best friend less than fifteen feet away.
An art teacher from his car, with his wife and kids waiting for him at home.
And Becca.
As the disappearances are investigated to no avail, Nora begins to find cryptic traces that Becca seems to have left for her, and her only.
Photo keepsakes of their childhood games, an annoyingly cute boy who just wants to help, and a series of ambiguous notes - notes relating to a local urban legend called ‘The Goddess Game.’
Desperate to find her friend and the truth about the other missings, Nora’s life and the boundaries between good, bad, reality, and fantasy are blurred.
In one night, Nora and the whole of Palmetto town are drawn back into a web of childhood fantasies, small-town secrets, disturbing acts of faith, and schoolyard skipping chants.
"Goddess, Goddess, count to five.
In the morning, who’s alive…"
The Bad Ones is, ironically, very, very good.
Albert brings that small-town American horror to life with exceptional flow and an eerie familiarity. I’m not super well-versed in Stephen King, but the bits I know... Albert’s ‘Bad Ones’ would fit right in with Derry, and its weird-killer-clown-demon.
Nora, Becca, and pretty much everyone else are among the most human characters I’ve read in a story so heavily steeped in the supernatural and superstition. They’re messy, they’re kind, they’re mean, they’re doing their best, and you still want to smack them upside the head every other chapter.
I really did enjoy this. I love a good urban myth, with folklore so small-town and localised to the world of the book that the idea of it crawling into your world makes you sit with your back flat against a wall so nothing can sneak up on you.
But I also love human stories, and as I said, even underneath the ghostly tales and suspected hauntings, The Bad Ones is so brutally human. I know there’s a fair amount of raised eyebrows when it comes to the idea of loving “morally grey” characters. You get the ones who actually do, the ones who laugh at the ones who do, and the ones who stretch the definition of “morally grey” to encompass things that are objectively morally fucked.
I’ve found that finding the balance in writing those kinds of characters, monster or human, is realllllllllyyyyyyyy tricky.
If your character is too “good?” No hidden shadows, or secrets they would die (or kill) to keep? BORING.
If your character is too “bad?” With no rhyme or reason, no logic - even if it is objectively skewed? GO TO THERAPY.
As tricky as it is, Albert strikes that balance very well. Maybe, even if your story includes ghosts, gods, demons, or deities, making them inherently human at their core is the best way to build who they are. Monstrous or otherwise.
Look.
I don’t think this story will be for everyone. I mean, name me a story that is, right?
But I would absolutely recommend it - even if it’s just to give it a chance.
You trust me, don't you?
Nora trusted Becca.
Nothing to be scared of. It’s only a silly game after all…
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