Exclusive Cover Reveal + Q&A: Rachel Ekstrom Courage’s Sinister Summer Thriller Nothing Bad Happens Here
There’s something about a summer thriller. Whether it’s the picturesque settings, glorious weather, or characters who are somehow just relaxed enough to loosen long-established boundaries, there’s a sense of almost limitless excitement and possibility mixed with the inevitable prospect of very real danger.
This all goes double for books in the young adult space, if only because the characters in this genre all tend to be of an age where the entire concept of summer feels like an especially magical interlude where the pressures of real life don’t necessarily apply. Such is the initial set-up for Rachel Ekstrom Courage’s YA debut, Nothing Bad Happens Here, which follows a girl whose dreams of a perfect New England summer vacation take an unexpected turn when she discovers a body on the beach.
Here’s how the publisher describes the story.
A carefree New England vacation is just what sixteen-year-old Lucia needs to chase her sadness away. At least, according to her mom, who whisks them away for the summer with her ridiculously wealthy new boyfriend. Nothing bad happens in Nantucket, a charming island with cobblestone streets and million-dollar cottages.
But when Lucia stumbles upon the body of a teenage girl on a beach, the discovery reopens old wounds from her past. With the dead girl’s identity a mystery, Lucia takes it upon herself to investigate and crosses paths with Selah and her pack of devil-may-care besties. The three girls are beautiful, chaotic, and a little wild—and they help Lucia forget her crushing sense of grief and loneliness. But as Lucia becomes a part of their shimmering world, she begins to suspect that there are dark secrets hidden in this quiet enclave, and that uncovering them may be the key to solving the dead girl’s murder. Not everything on this island is what it seems…
Nothing Bad Happens Here will hit shelves on April 22, 2025, but we’ve got a first look at its sinister, summery cover—as well as a chat with Rachel Ekstrom Courage herself about the inspiration behind the story and what to expect.
Paste Magazine: Tell us about Nothing Bad Happens Here! What can readers expect from this story?
Rachel Ekstrom Courage: More than anything, I wanted to write a Nantucket vacation in book form, with bike rides over bouncy cobblestone streets and blustery days at the beach. I want readers to feel like they’re giggling over chocolate frappes with a group of new friends, to remember the frustration of being stuck at a summer job when it’s gorgeous outside, to experience the dangerous thrill of swimming in the ocean at night…but all through a dark and slightly cracked lens.
I spent so many wonderful childhood and teenage summers on Nantucket, but as an only child, most of my friends were the books I got at the local library and Mitchell’s Book Corner: novels by Joan Aiken, Lois Duncan, Peter Benchley, and (of course) Elin Hilderbrand. And because Nantucket is so atmospheric—with fog and lighthouses and windswept moors—it’s an easy place to lose yourself in daydreams and I’d find myself wishing that something exciting would happen to me. Those feelings inspired my writing, which is why there are contemporary thriller elements in Nothing Bad Happens Here and a few nautical myths and fairy tales swimming throughout the story, too.
Paste: What can you share with us about your heroine, Lucia, and her journey over the course of this book?
Courage: Lucia starts out at sea—literally and figuratively, lonely and drifting. She’s had an unusually tough year at school and her mom’s new boyfriend invites them to spend a summer on Nantucket, an island so charming and far away from her “real life” back home in Pittsburgh that it feels like nothing bad could ever happen there. But even though Lucia makes some glamorous new friends (and even gets to know a cute boy), it’s not long before she finds out that terrible things can happen anywhere, even on this picture-perfect island that seems so insulated by wealth, thirty miles out to sea.
Even when it’s hard to know what she should do, it’s when Lucia stops running away from these terrible things—and starts facing them instead of being subsumed by them—that she starts to figure out who she really is (and who she wants to be).
Paste: What excited you most about this book while you were writing it? Is there something in particular you can’t wait for readers to experience for themselves?
Courage: I don’t want to give too much away, but a big theme for me is “joyful chaos” and I really enjoyed writing characters who embrace that vibe: girls who do whatever they want, whenever they want, and unapologetically live life to the fullest.
My favorite part to write was a scene where Lucia goes to Surfside Beach with her new friends for a sun-soaked beach day. If you haven’t been to a New England beach before, sometimes they’re rocky or freezing cold or full of seaweed that pulls at your legs. Surfside is a gorgeous beach, but it has really strong surf that can drag you under—even knock the wind out of you—until you figure out how to ride the waves. So if you can be brave and get though the scary parts, it is really the best thing ever (kind of like writing a book).
Paste: This is your debut YA novel—what made you want to dip your toe, so to speak, into writing in the young adult space? How has it been different or more challenging than writing adult mysteries?
Courage: Wanting to write a more ominous version of a classic Nantucket summer, I knew Nothing Bad Happens Here was always going to be YA—and I have to say, it felt really natural for me to write from the point of view of an angsty teenager! I think everyone remembers the feelings and frustrations of not being fully in control of their lives, the loneliness, the self-consciousness, and the jumbled-up emotions.
The challenge, for me, was that I set out to write a fun beach book that you’d sneak-read on your lap at the dinner table (like I used to do) and I didn’t realize that writing would be such an emotional experience because of everything I put my characters through. I made myself laugh while I was writing my adult cozy mystery, but there were definitely times that this one made me cry.
Paste: I have a particular weak spot for stories about…well, let’s just say I support women’s rights but I am also here for women’s wrongs. I love this recent trend in the YA space about exploring chaotic and even borderline toxic female relationships. Talk to me about this story’s particular girl gang and what made you want to write about them?
Courage: I was so excited to explore the fantasy of being taken under the wings of a magnetic and mysterious friend group. At the beginning of the story, Lucia has withdrawn into her memories and books and she isn’t really living. A people-pleaser, she avoids conflict and feels like she has to be on her best behavior all the time—so it’s literally thrilling for her to fall in with “the Three,” who don’t seem to care about what anybody thinks.
One of my favorite movies is Daisies, an art film from the 60s about two friends who don’t seem to live by any set of rules, and there’s definitely a little bit of Daisies in the Three. But on another level, her new friends act like buoys for Lucia, who’s been slowly sinking in ocean of sadness. Sometimes you need a fabulous night out to take your mind off your own drama, or a good shopping spree and makeover montage to cheer you up. Is this new friendship a bad or good influence on Lucia—and what makes the Three so special, anyway?
I’ll leave that up to the reader.
Nothing Bad Happens Here will hit shelves on April 22, 2025, but you can pre-order it right now.
Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter @LacyMB