Very Bad People

Starred review from February 28, 2022
Calliope Bolan, who is white, begins her junior year hoping to escape her small hometown, where everyone knows her and her two sisters as survivors of an unexplained car accident that killed their mother six years prior. A legacy student just transferring to New York boarding school Tipton Academy, Calliope is quickly tapped to become a “ghost” like her mom before her—a member of Tipton’s intersectionally inclusive secret society, Haunt and Rail, which fights for social justice on campus via awareness-raising “larks.” Calliope finds a sense of purpose in the group, but when the ghosts go after someone on campus whom they believe to be a sexual predator, Calliope begins to doubt their methods—and starts noticing connections between the organization and her mother’s death. Frick (I Killed Zoe Spanos), who treats her protagonist’s trauma with care, considers ethical quandaries about corrupt systems and moral vs. political authority while providing ample twists and references to fairy tale archetypes. Nuanced and startling in turn, this is a satisfyingly smart and thrilling tale. Ages 14–up. Agent: Erin Harris, Folio Literary.

March 15, 2022
Grades 9-12 The Bolan girls--Calliope, Lorelai, and Serafina--are known in their small town because of a tragic accident: they survived a car crash, and their mother did not. Six years later, Calliope, feeling suffocated by the attention, jumps at the opportunity to attend prestigious Tipton Academy. While trying to solve the mystery of why her mother crashed their van, she's drawn into the Haunt and Rail, a secret society focused on social justice, though she may regret the association more than she realizes. Her mother was also involved in the Haunt and Rail, which offers only more questions about her initiation. When the society's actions cause trouble with a faculty member, Calliope's past and future collide in a terrifying way. Frick (I Killed Zoe Spanos, 2020) has penned another smart thriller peppered with excellent turns of phrase--here the sisters are "part survival story, part fable, part cautionary tale." This joins the growing ranks of dark academia books, which should increase its demand. Recommended for all libraries.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2022

Gr 8 Up-Calliope Bolan's transfer to Tipton Academy to escape the village that can't stop talking about her mom's death-and her own near-death-is not the escape she intends it to be when she gets wrapped up in a secret society. Haunt and Rail is dedicated to righting the wrongs at Tipton through pranks and "larks" and they set their sights on taking down a teacher for his inappropriate relationship with students. But Calliope's time with Haunt and Rail is further complicated by what role the society may have played in her mother's death. Can Calliope unlock the secrets of the past without getting tangled up in the present? Frick brings the campus to life in small, daily tidbits and chapters, and while the resolution to one half of the story is less than satisfying, it feels perfectly juxtaposed by the other ending. The characters' race and ethnicity was not stated. VERDICT A solid campus mystery for readers who want the intrigue of a secret society and a death to unravel, but who don't want the gory details. Add especially to collections frequented by a younger high school crowd.-Aryssa Damron

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 1, 2022
A chance encounter prompts a high school junior to wonder whether her mother's death six years before wasn't all that accidental. Hardly has Calliope Bolan arrived as a transfer student to Tipton, the exclusive boarding school in Alyson-on-Hudson that her mom and aunt attended, than a passing glimpse of a stranger who is somehow familiar sets her on a course toward a tangle of shocking family revelations--few if any of which even attentive readers will see coming. Never one to skimp on rising suspense and extreme plot twists, though, Frick also casts her teenage protagonist into a heady series of exploits as a new member of the Haunt and Rail Society, a decades-old secret group on campus that undertakes everything from wonderfully clever "larks" designed to raise awareness of inequities like underpaid kitchen staff to a campaign to expose a popular teacher as a sexual predator that escalates in a frighteningly proactive way. Ultimately Calliope comes to realize that nearly everything she thought she had understood about her classmates, her parents, and even her own motives has been wrong, and that saddles her with some hard choices to make...including one life-changing final twist. Aside from her bisexual aunt's wife, who is Black and Filipina, Calliope and her family are White; names and other cues identify her fellow students as diverse in race, ethnicity, and nationality. A doozy of a ride, with thrills and chills aplenty. (campus map) (Thriller. 13-18)

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.