NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Melissa Albert returns with THE BAD ONES, a supernatural horror novel about four mysterious disappearances in a town haunted by a sinister magical history

In the course of a single winter's night, four people vanish without a trace across a suburban town.

Nora Powell's estranged best friend, Becca, is one of the lost. As Nora tries to untangle the truth of Becca's disappearance, she discovers a darkness in her suburb's past, as well as a string of coded messages Becca left for her to unravel. These clues lead Nora to a piece of local lore: a goddess folk figure of forgotten origins who played a role in Nora and Becca's own childhood games. . . .

An arresting, crossover horror fantasy threaded with dark magic, The Bad Ones is a poison-pen love letter to semi-toxic best friendship, the occult power of childhood play and artistic creation, and the razor-thin line between make believe and belief.