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Difficult Girls by Veronica Bane

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Difficult Girls

Veronica Bane

Random House Children's Books · Hardcover · July 8, 2025

Reading lane: YA Crime Thrillers

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.

At a Glance

Why This Clicks

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

Book Details

Authors
Veronica Bane
Publisher
Random House Children's Books
Published
July 8, 2025
Format
Hardcover
Theme
YA Crime Thrillers · YA Psychological Thrillers
Reading lane
YA Crime Thrillers

Affinity

Publisher Categories

  • Dark Comedy YA

  • YA Mysteries

  • Thrillers & Suspense

About This Book

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. So when f...

Read full description

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. 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.

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