Another YA book that, like [book:Greenglass House|18222716], is just a little to cute by half, a little too in love with itself. Still, it's a rousing read. ( )

That was one of the most unexpected books I have ever read. I'm glad I took a chance on it. I thought it was going to be some ya horror camp trope but it's not in the slightest. For those readers who don't like horror (including myself), this is actually a fantasy novel. And that's all I'll say about that.

I would like to add the more that I think it's interesting that the narrator's dilemma actually becomes the readers' as well. Reading this book felt like I was the one looking in all the mirrors (that won't make sense unless you read the book).

What an awesome book! It's laid out in a pretty cool way, with the different acts, and each cabins different adventures are very entertaining. The different stories slowly come together, each cabin unknowingly helping the other cabins, and all the stories come together nicely in the end. I highly recommend this book to prettty much anyone, it's just a good story.

I won this from a goodreads giveaway ( )

This is an...odd book. I finished it, and it was quite lengthy, but I'm not sure I would recommend it.

Twenty-five campers have been invited to summer camp. They are divided into five cabins. Each cabin has an adventure. Cabin 1 is participating in the All-Camp Sports and Follies. This is their chance to beat the posh campers across the lake and Kadie is determined that this will be the year they win. But is she really a returning camper? And are the rival campers even human? Cabin 2 is being stalked by a murderer...or are they? They're a disparate group but they can come together to survive anything - they hope. Cabin 3 is on a quest, united in their goal of discovering a secret treasure. But perhaps they should have thought about it a little more before taking off into the woods... Cabin 4 has 4 best friends and one lonely girl who meet their soulmates, but they're not quite what they seem... and Cabin 5 is in serious trouble right from the start.

SPOILERS

So, the story is told jumping back and forth from cabin to cabin. People "die" (although none of the campers actually gets killed) and various chapters end on cliffhangers. Some of the campers are just focused on survival, some are working through personal problems and issues, some have realized that Something is Going On. Throughout the story, the theme of a popular series of girls' adventure stories is woven and readers also hear from a narrator, with more and more hints that everything is stage-managed. We never really discover the exact nature of the beings that are running the camp, but the implication is that they're some kind of faery since iron injures them. There is a conclusion of types; the narrator is freed, both from the creatures and her own mental prison, the girls are rescued more or less intact, and no mention is made of the fate of previous campers and personnel who didn't survive their summer adventure.

This is certainly intriguing, and I continued reading to the end of all 413 pages to see what happened, but I found myself fervently wishing that the story would get on with it at several points. It's not really a horror story, although people are attacked frequently, not really a fantasy although magic does exist, and not a love story although kisses are exchanged. One story line follows a girl who is panicked that her cabin mates will discover her soulmate is a girl, but it's not the focus of their plot thread. Several descriptions imply racial diversity, but it's rarely specified. Ultimately it's a weird and unique blend that I think would have done better if it had been about 100 pages shorter.

Verdict: A good story, but I can't think of an audience - it would have to be one that is comfortable both with first kisses, spider monsters, and narrow escapes from death as well as soul-searching. That's kind of a limited field. Also, it's over 400 pages long. I enjoyed it, but can't quite recommend it. I'd say it's an additional purchase for a specific type of middle school reader.

ISBN: 9781512415971; Published 2017 by Carolrhoda Lab; Borrowed from another library in my consortium

This is a weird and wonderful book.

It ostentatiously tells the story of a group of girls who are mailed invitations to attend a summer camp, and who accept these invitations, ready to head off to what they assume will be a week full of smores, songs and sleeping under the stars.

But this story goes places they, and you,will never see coming.

The mysterious narrator had me guessing from the start, as did the unique structure of the book, set up as if it was being run as a play (though the chapters are in prose, not script). There's the group facing off against their rich archenemy camp across the lake, the group running from a murderously mad former camper, the group on a heroic quest, the group who seem to have found their soulmates, and the group just trying to survive as their cabin turns against them.

McCoy plays with popular narrative tropes from both movies and books, and gives readers a fabulous Cabin in the Woods-esque feel, where we know from the start that our expectations and understandings of human nature are being toyed with by a talented writer who has so much more going on than meets the eye. ( )