The Bakersville Dozen

Scavenger hunts are usually fun, but not for high school senior Bailey Holzman. She’s one of the infamous “Bakersville Dozen,” a group of girls unflatteringly depicted in an anonymously made viral video. Things only get worse for her when some of the other girls go missing and she starts receiving scavenger hunt clues leading her to their dead bodies. Teaming up with her best friend, her brother, and her old summer fling, Bailey sets out to save the lives of the remaining girls without breaking the anonymous clue maker’s rules not to contact the police.

McBride’s novel is full of twists and turns, fast-paced with short chapters that make for a page-turning read. Some of the plot twists, however, don’t feel fully developed—they come as a surprise, but they don’t elicit the payoff of a nuanced, novel-long build-up. The book’s wide cast of characters is appropriate for the scope of the plot events but leaves some characters more thinly developed than others. With its focus on the interpersonal relationships affected by the terror and drama Bailey and the others are experiencing, however, the novel offers more than just a thrilling sequence of events.