{"id":2396,"date":"2025-03-27T04:56:20","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T04:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=2396"},"modified":"2025-03-27T04:56:20","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T04:56:20","slug":"bad-summer-people-by-emma-rosenblum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=2396","title":{"rendered":"Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Rosenblum\u2019s debut novel \u201cBad Summer People\u201d delivers exactly what its title promises \u2013 a scathing portrait of wealthy vacationers whose moral compasses go missing along with their city shoes when they arrive at their exclusive Fire Island getaway. With sharp dialogue and a deliciously twisted plot, Rosenblum crafts a murder mystery that feels like \u201cBig Little Lies\u201d meets \u201cThe White Lotus,\u201d where the pristine beaches of Salcombe conceal the ugly truths about its seasonal residents.<\/p>\n

Setting the Scene: Welcome to Salcombe<\/h2>\n

Salcombe (pronounced \u201cSaul-com\u201d with a silent \u2018b\u2019 and \u2018e\u2019 \u2013 a pretension that perfectly captures the town\u2019s character) serves as the ideal backdrop for this story. This tiny Fire Island community is populated by successful New Yorkers who escape the city each summer, bringing their wealth, status anxiety<\/a>, and personal problems with them. The boardwalk-connected beachfront homes, yacht club politics, and absence of cars create an insular environment where everyone knows everyone\u2019s business \u2013 or thinks they do.<\/p>\n

What makes Rosenblum\u2019s fictional world so compelling is how vividly she renders this summer enclave. Having grown up vacationing on Fire Island herself, she captures the peculiar rhythms and unspoken rules of these seasonal communities with authentic detail. The annual tennis tournaments, the yacht club status hierarchy, and the way families claim the same spot at the Bay Picnic year after year \u2013 these traditions form the scaffolding for the novel\u2019s more sinister events.<\/p>\n

The Characters: A Cast of Privileged Malcontents<\/h2>\n

The novel rotates through multiple perspectives, giving readers access to the interior lives of several Salcombe residents. At the center are two couples whose decades-long connections hide festering resentments:<\/p>\n

Lauren Parker<\/strong>: The quintessential Upper East Side mom who reluctantly accepted Salcombe over her preferred Hamptons. Beautiful, status-conscious, and increasingly dissatisfied with her marriage.
\nJason Parker<\/strong>: Lauren\u2019s moody husband who has secretly harbored resentment toward his best friend Sam for decades.
\nJen Weinstein<\/strong>: Sam\u2019s seemingly perfect wife with hidden compulsions and a cynical view beneath her psychologist\u2019s composure.
\nSam Weinstein<\/strong>: The golden boy of Salcombe whose life begins to unravel through both professional scandal and personal betrayal.<\/p>\n

Orbiting these central couples are an array of equally compelling characters:<\/p>\n

Rachel Woolf<\/strong>: The perpetually single woman who\u2019s known everyone forever but remains an outsider.
\nRobert Heyworth<\/strong>: The attractive new tennis pro navigating the complex dynamics of his wealthy clients.
\nMicah Holt<\/strong>: A college student and longtime Salcombe resident who sees everything but must decide what to do with what he knows.
\nSusan Steinhagen<\/strong>: The intimidating older woman who runs the tennis program with an iron fist \u2013 until she\u2019s found dead.<\/p>\n

Rosenblum commits to creating characters who are deeply flawed yet recognizably human. Their motivations are often selfish, petty, or misguided, but always understandable within the social ecosystem they inhabit. Few people in this novel qualify as \u201cgood,\u201d but nearly all are interesting.<\/p>\n

Plot: When Paradise Turns Deadly<\/h2>\n

The novel opens with the discovery of a body by eight-year-old Danny Leavitt, then jumps back to show the events leading up to this mysterious death. What begins as a typical summer in Salcombe \u2013 tennis matches, cocktail parties, and barely concealed tensions \u2013 gradually intensifies as affairs are exposed, professional reputations are threatened, and long-buried resentments surface.<\/p>\n

The pacing is masterful, with Rosenblum taking her time establishing the intricate relationships before accelerating toward the fateful storm night when everything comes to a head. Without revealing too much, the central mystery involves not just who might have killed Susan Steinhagen but whether her death was accidental, who witnessed it, and what other secrets might be exposed in the investigation.<\/p>\n

Strengths: Sharp Social Observation and Dark Humor<\/h2>\n

What elevates \u201cBad Summer People\u201d above standard beach read fare is Rosenblum\u2019s keen eye for social dynamics and her biting sense of humor. As the chief content officer at Bustle Digital Group and former executive editor at Elle, she brings her observational skills to the fictional world of Salcombe with precise detail and cutting insight.<\/p>\n

Some of the novel\u2019s most enjoyable passages involve:<\/p>\n

The hilariously competitive women\u2019s doubles tennis tournament
\nBrian Metzner\u2019s finance-bro habit of describing everything in investment terms (\u201cWe killed it in Aspen\u2026 her execution was high, dude\u201d<\/strong><\/em>)
\nThe faux concern masked as genuine friendship among the women
\nThe subtle status indicators, from which ferry to take to which brands to wear<\/p>\n

Rosenblum excels at dialogue that reveals character while advancing the plot, creating conversations that feel both natural and telling. She has a particular talent for capturing the way privilege warps perception, as when Lauren reflects that \u201cthere was nothing worse than a gimpy lady, hobbling around, showing her age\u201d<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 completely missing the irony of her own moral failings.<\/p>\n

Areas for Improvement: Character Development and Pacing<\/h2>\n

Despite its many strengths, \u201cBad Summer People\u201d isn\u2019t without flaws. The large cast of characters means some feel underdeveloped, particularly those outside the core couples. Additionally, the multiple perspective shifts can occasionally disrupt the narrative flow, especially when a new point of view is introduced well into the story.<\/p>\n

The novel\u2019s middle section sometimes meanders, with certain scenes feeling repetitive as characters cycle through similar revelations about their dissatisfactions. Some readers may find the resolution too neat or contrived, particularly given the complex web of motivations established earlier.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most significantly, the characters\u2019 uniform privilege creates a certain sameness to their perspectives. While this homogeneity accurately reflects the insular nature of communities like Salcombe, it limits the novel\u2019s emotional range. Even Silvia, the Parkers\u2019 Filipino nanny, receives only a brief chapter that hints at a more complex outsider perspective.<\/p>\n

The Writing: Smooth, Sharp, and Occasionally Brilliant<\/h2>\n

Rosenblum\u2019s prose hits a sweet spot between literary and commercial fiction \u2013 accessible and propulsive while offering genuine insights and memorable turns of phrase. She excels at descriptive shorthand that efficiently establishes character:<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul was in what looked to be men\u2019s capri pants, his little hairy ankles on display.\u201d<\/h4>\n

The author demonstrates particular skill in handling the chorus-like gossip of the town, showing how information spreads, distorts, and shapes perception through whispers and texts<\/a>. This technique not only feels authentic to the setting but serves the murder mystery elements of the plot.<\/p>\n

Verdict: A Wickedly Entertaining Summer Read With Substance<\/h2>\n

Despite its flaws, \u201cBad Summer People\u201d succeeds as both entertainment and social commentary. Rosenblum has created a world that feels both exclusive and recognizable, populated by characters whose bad decisions make for good reading. The novel balances mystery elements with character study, never losing sight of its central theme: what happens when people who think themselves exempt from consequences must face them anyway.<\/p>\n

For readers who enjoy novels about privileged people behaving badly \u2013 in the vein of Liane Moriarty, Taylor Jenkins Reid, or Emily Henry\u2019s darker moments \u2013 \u201cBad Summer People\u201d offers a satisfying experience that\u2019s perfect for actual beach reading but substantial enough for year-round enjoyment.<\/p>\n

Who Should Read This Book:<\/h3>\n

Fans of character-driven mysteries with multiple perspectives
\nReaders who enjoy social satire about the wealthy
\nAnyone fascinated by the dynamics of exclusive vacation communities
\nThose who appreciate morally complicated characters in realistic situations<\/p>\n

Who Might Want to Skip It:<\/h3>\n

Readers seeking heroic or consistently likable protagonists
\nThose preferring mysteries with procedural elements
\nAnyone triggered by infidelity as a central plot device
\nReaders looking for significant socioeconomic diversity in their fiction<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts: A Promising Debut With Bite<\/h2>\n

As a debut novelist, Rosenblum shows impressive control of multiple characters and timelines while maintaining both narrative tension and thematic coherence. \u201cBad Summer People\u201d announces her as a writer with keen observational skills and the ability to transform social criticism into compelling fiction. While not a flawless debut, it\u2019s an accomplished and thoroughly entertaining one that suggests even better work may lie ahead.<\/p>\n

What lingers after the final page is not just the satisfaction of a mystery resolved but the larger questions the novel raises about community, complicity, and the human capacity for self-deception. In Salcombe, as in life, we\u2019re all just one storm away from having our carefully constructed facades washed away \u2013 and sometimes what\u2019s revealed isn\u2019t pretty.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emma Rosenblum\u2019s debut novel \u201cBad Summer People\u201d delivers exactly what its title promises \u2013 a scathing portrait of wealthy vacationers whose moral compasses go missing along with their city shoes when they arrive at their exclusive Fire Island getaway. With sharp dialogue and a deliciously twisted plot, Rosenblum crafts a murder mystery that feels like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}