Book Review | The Counselors by Jessica Goodman

Summary: Camp Alpine Lake is the only place where Goldie Easton feels safe. She’s always had a special connection to the place, even before she was old enough to attend. The camp is the lifeline of Roxwood, the small town she lives in. Alpine Lake provides jobs, money and prestige to the region.

Few Roxwood locals, though, get to reap the rewards of living so close to the glam summer that camp, with its five-figure tuition and rich kids who have been dumped there for eight weeks by their powerful parents. Goldie’s one of them. Even with her “townie” background, Goldie has never felt more at home at camp and now she’s back as a counselor, desperate for summer to start and her best friends, Ava and Imogen, to arrive. Because Goldie has a terrible dark secret she’s been keeping and she is more in need of the comfort than ever.

But Goldie’s not the only person at camp who has been lying. When a teen turns up dead in the lake late one night, she knows that the death couldn’t have been an accident. She also knows that Ava was at the lake that same night. What did Ava see and what does she know? Why hasn’t she said anything to Goldie about the death? Worse-what did Ava do? But asking questions offers no answers, only broken bonds of lifelong friendship, with hidden danger and betrayals deeper than Goldie ever imagined.

Rating: 3.5

My Thoughts: The summary of this book gave me Friday the 13th vibes and being a huge horror fan, I was excited to read this book. Overall, it was a good book. I honestly had trouble rating this one. I read it in less than 24 hours because I had to know who the killer was. And, the author did an excellent job of keeping me guessing and I didn’t figure out who it was until literally right before the reveal.

That being said, I had to go with 3.5 stars. The story was great and the writing phenomenal. I connected with Goldie and enjoyed her character development. But, I absolutely hated the ending. I hate who the killer was and their reasoning behind it. It made a five star book not so great. I still recommend reading it, though!