Bad Summer People Quotes

“The cheating thing was her own thing. As a psychologist, Jen knew she was addicted to the novelty of it, that she thrived on the adrenaline of the secret.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“Happiness isn’t always what you think it will be,”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“You know what, Max? Everyone has stuff. I’m sure you and Jessica have stuff. Brian and I have stuff. Just have a little fucking sympathy for people.” Jessica’s eyes nearly rocketed out of her head. Max looked down, embarrassed, his bird neck arching awkwardly.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“Jen couldn’t blame him for stealing from these people. Didn’t they deserve it? Steve jangling his Rolex in Robert’s face. Brian Metzner going on about his investment portfolios. Jeanette Oberman bragging about how she was going to take Greg for millions. How much money could Robert have even taken? Ten thousand? Twenty? That was nothing to anyone here, including Jen.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“Jen was continually aghast at the lack of awareness many people in Salcombe displayed about their wealth and privilege.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“Rachel reminded herself that for all of Lauren’s beauty and style, her husband was having sex with another woman. That made her feel somewhat better.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“She was adept at handling difficult personalities, stroking people’s egos, and allowing them to think they were in charge.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“Micah nearly laughed out loud. At least now he knew for sure that Robert wasn’t gay. Was this what happened when you got old? You destroyed your marriage and lost your mind? Or was that just a Salcombe thing?”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“That was the professor in her. She felt like the world was her classroom, and her role was to make sure things were in order.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“Why was she allowing herself to get dragged into this nonsense? She must be bored. Now that Garry was gone, she needed a new hobby beyond tennis. Maybe she should get into bridge.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“You’d have thought Rachel Woolf was the next Serena Williams by how hard she took her loss in the semifinals to Lauren and Jen.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“The kids were all together at Jen and Sam’s house, watching a movie and eating microwave popcorn, unaware that their parents’ marriages were both on the verge of imploding.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“Oh, stop feeling sorry for yourself,” said Sam. “You’re a shit stirrer from way back. You’ve always been like this.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“nearing eighty, a real yenta, always up for a chat and a drink.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“He and Lauren had barely spoken about it at all. His wife had an uncanny ability to compartmentalize. He was beginning to think she was slightly psychotic, with the violent outbursts and unpredictability. But maybe they all were.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“And men just weren’t as competitive or bitchy as women.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“And there was something exciting about sharing a major secret.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“Salcombe was ruined for them, too, thanks to their parents’ misbehavior.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“Lauren bugged the shit out of him, but didn’t everyone’s wife bug the shit out of them?”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“And guess what?” Sam”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“He’d liked how Julie and her family had been. Understated, private. They couldn’t be bothered to compete with others, because they knew they were superior.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“Was this what happened when you got old? You destroyed your marriage and lost your mind?”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“wonder if there’s a way we can sue the town,” said his dad, Max. “I’m not paying two million dollars for my beach house, plus fifty thousand in property taxes, for my son to find a corpse. Someone needs to pay for this.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“Jason thought, leaning into this rich-housewife lifestyle in a way that repelled him.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“from New Jersey who’d pretended to be from England, who’d created a character that specifically, smartly, preyed on the status-obsessed dupes of the Upper East Side.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“Mimi had come from a Botox touch-up, and her forehead was speckled with red dots where the needle had entered.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“You need to stop doing things just because everyone else is,” he’d say, after she’d insist on going to a certain vacation spot in St. Barts, or hiring the most sought-after tutor, or joining the golf club in Westchester that half of Braeburn belonged to.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“Lisa was “studying” to be a life coach, the trendy new career of choice for bored stay-at-home moms who may have once chosen to become interior decorators or handbag designers.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“It could have been 1960 or 1990 or 2022. That’s what Jason said he liked best about the island, that sense of timelessness, that nothing had changed, that the modern world didn’t exist.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

“Occasionally, Robert would be struck with the anxiety that he wasn’t “living up to his potential,” as his mom put it. He’d miss Julie and her fancy life in New York among the art snobs and finance bros. He didn’t want to be a tennis pro for the rest of his life, did he?”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People