INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND INDIE BESTSELLER! 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 Goddess, goddess, count to five In the morning, who´s alive? In the course of a single winter´s night, four people vanish without a trace across a small town. Nora´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 town´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 legendary goddess 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.