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A Long Stretch of Bad Days

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A Long Stretch of Bad Days

By: Mindy McGinnis
Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
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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.

©2023 Mindy McGinnis (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers Crime Mysteries & Detectives Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Mystery Fiction Exciting
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Mindy writes books with female characters who have strong voices and who tend to face struggles rather than burying them. The main character, Lydia, in this first person tale speaks with a self assured voice from the very beginning, but she builds toward a voice that offers less certainty and more personal insight as the suspense unfolds and as she commits to a relationship with a young women with less money and less privilege than she has. The friendship starts off as self serving for Lydia, but ultimately ends up more real and rewarding than anything she’s experienced so far in her life. To me, the best part about this book, is the space Lydia is able to make between herself and her parents beliefs as well as her recognition that small communities can foster sympathies where there should be none and can nurture the idea that offering understanding is only for the those who have money. This book is definitely a book of suspense but also it’s laced with messages about autonomy, about money protecting people from consequences, and about standing for generosity of spirit when judging others.

Class privilege

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Author and narrator both are in top form here. This novel has moments of drama as well as comedy, and great dialogue. Brittany was the perfect choice for narrator, able to go from one voice to another, inflections too, in no time flat. Plan to check out more from them both.

Mindy and Brittany both knock it out of the park.

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Suspense with laughs:

it was nice to see nods to her past works such as
"5 toed cat Heroine"
"A hero, Heroine I corrected "
such Easter eggs are the showing of a great author becoming a true master... and still, as in many other works, the influence of other masters show through, whether intentionally or not... "Swallow with a click"
the end of the string may not have been the hardest Tale to predict... but the path it took as it unwound was great & full of laughs (once literally laughing until tears came)

"watching as the final sparks settle into coals, and thinking about the cracks of the world, which the unlucky few could fall through."
A Long Stretch of Bad Days by Mindy McGinnis

suspense with laughs

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Mindy McGinnis is what Jesus would read if he wanted to read YA. It’s science.

Fantastic as always

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