Difficult Girls
Random House Children's Books · Hardcover · July 8, 2025
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A teen girl’s attempt at social reinvention takes a deadly turn when a co-worker disappears—and she learns she may have been the last person to see the missing girl—in this razor-sharp, murderously funny thriller debut.
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- Who it’s for
- Social reinvention meets a missing co-worker in a thriller with a wicked sense of humor.
- Themes
- Social reinvention, Secrets from the past, Missing-person mystery
- Pacing
- Fast
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A teen girl’s attempt at social reinvention takes a deadly turn when a co-worker disappears—and she learns she may have been the last person to see the missing girl—in this razor-sharp, murderously funny thriller debut. After the incident last year, Greta Riley Green is looking for reinvention—a fresh start—and a job at Hyper Kid Magic Land, the local amusement park, seems like the perfect way to forge a new path . . . no matter what it takes.
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So when fate pulls Greta into Mercy Goodwin’s orbit, it feels like things are looking up. Beautiful and confident, Mercy dazzles audiences daily. And at the first party of the summer, she picks Greta to confide in. Mercy has a secret to share, if Greta will just meet her the next day. It’s a sign that Greta’s truly fitting in. Only, when the time comes, Mercy is a no-show—as she is everyday after that—and Greta knows something’s wrong. She can’t help thinking back to the night of the party. Did Mercy seem upset? Terrified, even? Could she be in trouble? It wouldn’t be the first time a talented young performer came to a sinister end at Hyper Kid. . . . Of course, Greta has her own issues with the past, and the more she uncovers Hyper Kid’s secrets, the more her own threaten to surface. This job was meant to be a reboot, a summer without trouble. But trouble, it seems, finds Greta, and her past—and the bloody past of Hyper Kid—is about to catch up with her.
Fresh Start, Dark Turn
Social reinvention meets a missing co-worker in a thriller with a wicked sense of humor.
Come here for
- A teen’s bid to fit in, tangled with an unsettling disappearance
- Amusement-park secrets and a summer that refuses to stay trouble-free
Expect
- Edgy suspense with a murderously funny edge
- A past that keeps pressing into the present
Where it sits
| YA Mysteries | 70% |
|---|---|
| YA Horror | 46% |
| Thrillers & Suspense | 34% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Dark Comedy YA
- YA Mysteries
- Thrillers & Suspense
- Authors
- Veronica Bane
- Publisher
- Random House Children's Books
- Published
- July 8, 2025
- Format
- Hardcover
- Theme
- Social reinvention · Secrets from the past · Missing-person mystery
- Reading lane
- Dark Comedy YA