Survival x mental health x creepy things happening = oh yes!

What happens when you arrive at your summer camp… only to find it burned out and a dead body is nearby? What if the only way back to civilization is by boat? And what if that boat won’t be here for another couple of months? Yup. Survival time.

Meet Claire, Reyva, Mariana. Three girls late for summer camp but very eager to get started. Each of them has their reasons to be there (well, OK, mostly it was their families telling them to go there) and I loved how when things go south they bond and stick together. I have read plenty of survival stuff with the characters splitting ways or arguing. Instead these girls try to make the most of it and use ingenuity and creativity to survive. They listen to each other. They talk about all sorts of things. You could just see them become fast friends. Which made me both giddy but also terrified me. I am sorry, I just read a few too many survival horror/thriller with the characters dropping like flies. I was so worried that the same would happen here.

The MC is of course Claire, who has her fair share of problems, but we really get to know the other 2 characters as well. From likes to family to good things and bad things. I loved that Claire found her people. She really could use some love.

Then there is the survival part and whatever is haunting/hunting them. Because something wants to keep them on this place and is not letting them go. And we find out more and more what is going on and I loved every bit. I will keep it vague. I don’t want to give too much away because this is the kind of book that you need to discover. But I loved every bit of it, it was grim, it was dark, it was dangerous. And things really get hairy and scary. I was just rooting for my girls to survive and get the heck out of there. To safety.

The only thing that made me skim parts or get frustrated was that we really dove into the mental health of our MC. She is anxious, which is fine and I like that representation, but at times we just were a bit TOO much in her head instead of out of there. I just wanted to focus on the now. Not whatever went on in her head.

Oh, and funnily, at one point I thought the author had made a mistake at the end (when they catch a fish) but then THAT happens and I was like, OMG, I totally forgot about that, that is brilliant.

All in all, I loved the characters, loved the survival mode, loved that it wasn’t just a human stalking them but something much darker which made everything way more awesome. I would recommend this one.