A Long Stretch of Bad Days
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- $169.00
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- $169.00
Descripción editorial
2024 Whippoorwill Award Honor Book
2025–2026 MASL Gateway Award Finalist
From award-winning author Mindy McGinnis comes a thrilling and gripping YA mystery about a small town’s past and the secrets unearthed by way of two teen girls—and a podcast. Perfect for fans of Sadie, The Cheerleaders, and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.
A lifetime of hard work has put Lydia Chass on track to attend a prestigious journalism program and leave Henley behind—until a school error leaves her a credit short of graduating.
Bristal Jamison has a bad reputation and a foul mouth, but she also needs one more credit to graduate. An unexpected partnership forms as the two remake Lydia’s town history podcast to investigate the Long Stretch of Bad Days—a week when Henley was hit by a tornado and a flash flood as well as its first, only, and unsolved murder.
As their investigation unearths buried secrets, some don’t want them to see the light. When the threats escalate, the girls have to uncover the truth before the dark history of Henley catches up with them.
Small Town Mystery: In a town where politeness is everything, Lydia and Bristal’s podcast starts asking questions about the one week everyone wants to forget.Teen Detectives: The valedictorian and the town troublemaker team up to earn a history credit, but find themselves in the middle of a dangerous investigation.A Decades-Old Murder: The town’s first and only homicide happened during a chaotic week of natural disasters. Now, someone will do anything to keep the truth buried with the victim.YA Suspense: As the girls get closer to the truth, anonymous threats escalate, turning their school project into a race for survival.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This animated and good-humored tale by McGinnis (The Last Laugh) features an intrepid teenage odd couple working together to gain entry into a prestigious journalism program by solving a mystery. Due to a mistake made by her high school guidance counselor, 18-year-old valedictorian Lydia Chass has just learned that she doesn't have enough history credits to graduate. Her school principal suggests that if Lydia—who hosts a podcast called On the Ground in Flyover Country—records some episodes on the history of her Henley, Ohio, town, he'll grant her the necessary credits. Hoping to give the podcast some much-needed grit, Lydia recruits acerbic classmate Bristal Jamison, who's in a similar bind. They decide to focus on the 1994 unsolved murder of 65-year-old local trailer resident Randall Boggs, which leads them to a cold case involving a missing teenage girl. Together, the girls uncover decades-old secrets and reveal chilling truths about their small town and its close-knit community. Lydia and Bristal's wry banter, their polar opposite characterizations, and their evolving, convoluted friendship lend a refreshing and dark joviality to this cleverly realized feminist thriller. All main characters are white. Ages 14–up.
