Very Bad People, A Review

Revenge is a Dangerous Game.

SPOILER WARNING READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

I Killed Zoe Spanos Review.

Very Bad People follows Calliope Bolan, a young girl who moves away from home to attend The Tipton Academy after spending most of her childhood in a tiny town where everybody knew everyone’s business. Calliope is also feeling a somewhat recent family tragedy after her Mother was killed in a drowning incident when she drove straight into a lake with her three daughters still in the backseat. Despite excessive police investigation there has never been any official closure on Kathleen’s death and the general consensus is suicide.

Kathleen however had her own connections to Tipton and after Calliope is pegged to join the very same secret society her Mother was once part of she begins to realise that there is more to the story than she’d initially thought. Now officially a ‘ghost’ and part of the Haunt and Rail society, Calliope has access to past secrets and records. Digging a little deeper into the past Calliope hopes to finally close the lid on the Bolan family tragedy, but will she like what she finds?

After absolutely loving I Killed Zoe Spanos last year I was so excited to return to Frick’s writing and dive right into this one. I will say straight off the bat that I did have some issues with the storyline here (which I will discuss below) but I still really enjoyed the overall vibe and academic location. I’m always a sucker for a good boarding school/college based thriller (Where Sleeping Girls Lie, The It Girl) and The Tipton Academy was brilliantly used. The multiple locations explored, day to day class life and of the course the secret society were all really fun and despite some of my issues I definitely still enjoyed the environment here.

I hate to say this but the Haunt and Rail as a secret society were kind of… lame? The ghosts were built up to be this mysterious group that had been active in the college for years and years but when we actually got to see them operate they basically acted like a student council? The group’s ‘top secret missions’ basically consisted of campaigning for better student/staff rights and whilst this is obviously important it’s hardly something you have to meet up in secret to do. The group seemed to take themselves so seriously, meeting up at night and sending coded messages but when you actually got down to it they were a glorified student council at most, it was a little bit silly.

The main mystery here was also a bit of a let down and lacked a lot of the promise and intrigue that I thought it would. Again, don’t get me wrong it was an interesting storyline and I liked following Calliope as she investigated her Mother’s death but so many of the clues along the way turned out to be complete red herrings and the supposed evil society had absolutely nothing to do with any of it. It might just be because I overestimated things here but I was fully expecting a conspiracy with The Haunt and Rail and Kathleen’s murder but the two ended up being completely separate and so much of the build up felt like it was all for nothing? What’s more we only got into the actual murdery parts of the story in the last 50 pages and then that was left completely open ended as well, I was really expecting something else here.

Overall this book wasn’t what I was expecting at all and it might just be on me for overestimating the storyline but for me this book was not in. The main mystery of Kathleen’s murder seemed to fly under the radar, the so called secret society just felt a little too tame and even when we did get into the darker stuff it all left on a massive cliffhanger. I really loved I Killed Zoe Spanos last year but I’m afraid this book wasn’t at the same level for me and I was definitely expecting something else entirely.

I Killed Zoe Spanos, A Review

What happened to Zoe won’t stay buried…

I Killed Zoe Spanos follows Anna Ciccconi, a young girl whose nanny job in The Hamptons takes an unexpected turn when she discovers a unforeseen connection to a missing girl she just happens to bare a striking resemblance to. Arriving at her new job Anna is immediately the talk of the town because of how much she resembles Zoe Spanos, a girl who has been missing for the past few months. Try as she might Anna can not get away from the attention and so becomes drawn to the case as a result, listening to the podcast on Zoe’s disappearance and also befriending her former boyfriend.

As the summer draws on Anna’s obsession only grows and by September she has confessed to Zoe’s murder and is sat awaiting trial. Things aren’t adding up however and Martina Green, Zoe’s friend and said podcaster decides to make things right and sets out to properly investigate, whatever it takes. The thing about small own crimes however is you never quite know who will be involved and soon enough Martina is distrusting even her closest friends and family. Together can Anna and Martina get the truth of Zoe’s disappearance or will Anna’s coerced confession and muddy memories ensure she stays behind bars for the rest of her life?

I Killed Zoe Spanos really was the perfect summer read and I think starting this one just as the weather was starting to get warmer really boosted my reading experience. Anna summering in The Hamptons surrounded by mystery as I myself sat and read in the sun just felt right and as wierd as it may seem the weather really made this one an easy five star read. Of course the book itself was brilliant weather aside and I absolutely loved the mystery here and trying to figure out what was going on. Zoe’s disappearance seemed to have the entire town in a trance and Anna’s similar appearance had her hooked in whether she liked it or not. The podcast elements were also fun and I liked Martina’s POV chapters as she attempted to slueth everything out, soon coming to realise that mysteries involving your closest friends and family aren’t always as fun as they’re cracked up to be.

It soon became clear there was a connection between Anna and Zoe beyond just their similar appearance and whilst I did guess the twist pretty early on I still enjoyed how the book played around with memories and secrets. It was obvious Anna had known Zoe beforehand but why? And how? And more importantly was it connected to her disappearance? Even when I thought i’d sussed some of what was going on there were still so many unanswered questions and in the end it turns out some of the answers were staring at me right in the face, it was one hell of a read.

I will admit it did take me a while to get my head around the timeline of things here and Anna’s false confession in particular I think did confuse me at first because I didn’t get why the police were taking her so seriously when to my knowledge she’d never even met Zoe. Obviously this book did comment on police coercing false confessions but even then it felt like a stretch and this was one of those books were a single conversation could have saved everyone from a whole world of trouble (but then again where would be the fun in that 😂).

Overall I absolutely loved this one and it felt like the perfect way to kick off summer, reading this one whilst tanning in the garden felt like a real killer combo. The mystery here was just brilliant and I just flew through the chapters trying to figure out what was going on, Zoe’s disappearance had me hooked. I also really enjoyed the podcast chapters and whilst the timeline did confuse me at first the end result was massively satisfying.