Overdue Ep 717 – Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum (Aug 25, 2025)

Episode Overview

In this episode of Overdue, Andrew and Craig dive into Bad Summer People, Emma Rosenblum’s juicy debut novel set in a tight-knit, affluent Fire Island beach community. Their chat explores Rosenblum’s social satire of rich New Yorkers behaving badly during a single summer—complete with affairs, small-town politics, tennis drama, and murder. The hosts dissect both the novel’s gossipy pleasures and its nuanced (and sometimes messy) take on moral ambiguity, the nature of community, and privilege, while touching on Fire Island’s real-world reaction to becoming this novel’s inspiration.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Summer Vibes and Book Setup

• The episode opens with classic Overdue banter about the end of summer and the pressures parents feel around camps and school breaks ([02:42–05:20]).

  • “To see when that time is gonna come... regardless of whether Daddy needs five more minutes for something or not, it’s Henry time.” – Andrew [04:31]

• Bad Summer People is introduced as a “bad people behaving badly book” set in a fictionalized Fire Island town ([05:38–06:09]).

  • “I don't wanna draw equivalency between people who make over-ambitious book lists and the people in this book who are really awful.” – Andrew [05:38]

2. Emma Rosenblum: Media, Satire, and Controversy

• Rosenblum’s background: New Yorker, former executive editor at Elle, and chief content officer at Bustle ([07:47–10:19]).
• Her debut novel emerges from summers spent in Fire Island’s insular, real-life community.
  • On inspiration: “Austin was a very good observer of wealthy people. She was very funny about it.” – Andrew, quoting Rosenblum [08:24]
• Naming controversy: The original draft used real residents’ names, leading to local uproar and gossip ([16:47–18:03]).
  • “Apparently people here are sending around my book.” [17:25]
• The hosts delight in how the novel’s release stirred up the actual community, feeding into a “White Lotus meets Succession” vibe ([15:04–19:21]).

3. Setting: The Small-Town Beach Microcosm

• The fictional Salcombe (a stand-in for Saltaire, Fire Island), a self-contained, car-free, generational enclave ([23:06–24:57]).
• Explores the peculiarities of communities where everyone inherits both houses and social roles.
  • “It's all a bunch of camp friends.” – Andrew [25:01]
• The insularity and lack of anonymity breeds constant surveillance and gossip.

4. Structure and Style: Ensemble Cast & Social Satire

• Book framed as a whodunnit: opens with a dead body, then jumps back in time to build suspense ([26:30–27:51]).
  • “It starts like an episode of a TV crime procedural... and the question is, which of these people's body is it?” – Andrew [26:46]
• Multi-POV chapters spotlight various perspectives: the “main four” (Lauren, Jason, Sam, Jen), the tennis pro Robert, the single party-planner Rachel, the elderly Susan, and the town gay kid Micah ([30:12–38:57]).
• The novel’s strength: Each character is tightly drawn, distinct, and immediately recognizable.
  • “Even if they're not deep, you get a really good sense... who all these people are.” – Andrew [40:22]

5. The Characters & Their Web of Secrets

• Lauren: Superficial, married to Jason, having an affair with Robert.
• Jason: Disliked by many, desperate, and cheating with Jen.
• Jen: Charismatic outsider, married to Sam, cheating with half the cast.
• Sam: Perceived as a “good guy,” embroiled in a workplace MeToo accusation (handled with messy ambiguity).
• Robert: Outsider tennis pro, social climber, skimming from the club, feeling used ([33:01–35:38]).
• Rachel: Perennial gossip, emotionally stuck, carries secrets.
• Susan: Elder busybody, brings intergenerational perspective.
• Micah: Young gay man, semi-outsider, “the most pure” character; by the end, he chooses to leave the toxic cycle ([38:14, 58:09]).

6. Themes & Satire

• The novel is a pointed social satire about insular privilege, hypocrisy, and “rich people problems” ([29:07–29:18]).
  • “Nobody in this book has two real problems to rub together.” – Andrew [41:52]
• It skewers the genre’s classics—community as pressure cooker, where “too many people know about too much mess” ([53:29]).
• Issues spotlit include infidelity, in-group politics, self-delusion, class fragility, and a controversial take on MeToo backlash ([48:02–51:01]).

7. Plot Mechanics and The “Bad Summer People” Arc

• The summer builds toward an annual tennis tournament, with social climbing and secrets at full boil.
• Multiple affairs threaten to burst into the open; blackmail, theft, and manipulation follow ([44:38–45:47]).
  • “Lauren... super happy to start sleeping with Robert the tennis pro almost the minute they meet.” [45:04]
• Sam’s workplace scandal is not as it seems—the MeToo accusation is manufactured by his male boss, a narrative choice the hosts discuss as “having its cake and eating it too” ([48:02–50:18]).
• The novel crescendos in classic genre fashion: a “pressure cooker” storm, misdirection around who dies, and all secrets converging at the season’s end ferry ([53:20–55:00]).

8. Murder & Aftermath: Who Dies and Who Gets Away

• The murder: Multiple POVs, misdirection, and not everyone makes it out alive—the dead character’s identity is concealed until late in the novel.
  • “You do not expect the one who dies to have been the one who dies.” – Andrew [54:17]
• Most of the main cast is implicated, none are punished in any meaningful sense ([54:57–57:47]).
  • “At the end... they all get away with it.” – Andrew [54:57]
  • “Nobody’s going to jail. Nobody’s getting what in a perfectly just universe they would deserve to get.” [57:47]
• The community is fractured; some leave, some are permanently ostracized, some “fail upward.”

9. Critical Reflections & Goodreads Reactions

• The hosts review Goodreads' three-star comments: readers' struggle with the unlikeable cast, busy POV-jumping, and the emotional tones of affluent nihilism vs. schadenfreude ([41:02–44:25]).
  • “I'm a big fan of rich people behaving badly books, and we get that in spades here.” – Audrey, Goodreads [42:31]
  • “Everyone is so deeply unlikable. I found myself repeatedly enraged.” – Ranjini, Goodreads [43:44]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It's a book I found on some beach read list... bad, bad rich people in a little Fire Island rich people beach town. And they are all different kinds of bad.” – Andrew [05:55]
• “I would like to do something creative. What if I took this little beach town and gave it a White Lotus slash Succession treatment?” – Craig [15:04]
• “You could write a movie about just people being mad about this book. It'll probably do just fine.” – Andrew [20:15]
• “The thing that this book does well is... you get a really good sense who all these people are, and it makes them easy to keep track of.” – Andrew [40:22]
• “Nobody gets punished... that's kind of the point. Like, even in Succession... bad things happen, but not as bad as dying.” – Craig [57:20]
• “Micah is the one person who... decides, ‘I'm not going back next summer. I'm gonna take a break from this island and these people.’” – Andrew [58:09]

Important Timestamps

• [05:38] — Intro to Bad Summer People; summary of cast and setting
• [07:47–10:19] — Rosenblum’s career and influences
• [16:47–18:03] — Real Fire Island drama over character names
• [23:06–25:01] — Describing the unique Fire Island summer community
• [26:30–27:51] — Prologue: the dead body, framing the novel as a whodunnit
• [30:12–38:57] — Character by character rundown
• [44:38–45:47] — How the secrets and murder plotlines entangle
• [48:02–51:01] — MeToo subplot and the book’s relationship to contemporary issues
• [53:20–55:00] — The novel’s climax: storm and murder revealed
• [54:57–58:58] — Aftermath: the town’s fallout, who leaves, and final moral ambiguity

Conclusion & Takeaways

• Bad Summer People is a propulsive, wry summer read that thrives on regional specificity, a sharply drawn cast, and the voyeuristic pleasure of watching privilege self-destruct.
• Its satire is clever, if sometimes ambiguous in its critique of rich, “bad” people and their largely consequence-free worlds.
• While the entire cast is unlikeable, their foibles are compulsively readable, helped by crisp prose and a reality-based sting—especially for those familiar with New York’s beach house subculture.
• The ending underlines the genre’s dark punchline: society’s worst rarely see real justice, and next summer, another generation will inherit the mess.

Recommended for listeners who enjoy:

• Social satire
• Ensemble, multi-POV storytelling
• White Lotus, Succession, or Big Little Lies
• Dissecting contemporary privilege and community dynamics

Next Episode Tease:
Craig will read The Four Million by O. Henry (“the short story guy, not the candy bar guy”)—expect a classic turn in structure, and another dose of literary mischief!