Great idea for a story, but I just couldn’t get into this one. I felt ‘meh’ about the characters and eventually the whole plot. 

 

Energy: Artificial. Chatty. Enthusiastic. 

🐺 Growls: Storytelling felt middle grade with adult themes. Explaining to the reader what cancel culture is, what fentanyl does, how social media works…it the target audience people who live off-planet? Having characters ask dumb questions and needing obvious things explained to them. Over-mystifying every little thing to be a Big Secret. 

 

🐕 Howls: Not knowing why anyone chose to go to the camp, while not-so-subtly referring to it in every conversation got annoying. Too dialogue heavy with lots of humming-and-hawing. Slog pacing in the middle became boring and formulaic. Too long. Felt cartoony (might be better on a screen for impact from the costumes and stuff). Cheesy amateur sleuthing overshadows the high stakes survival. Unconvincing instant-love romance. 

 

🐩 Tail Wags: Not knowing why anyone chose to go to the camp (at first) builds character suspense since we are getting to know them but wondering how we’ll feel about them after we find out. The slasher scenes.  

Scene: 🇺🇸 Upstate New York at an adults-only disconnection camp with no technology.

Perspectives: The star of a quirky sitcom recently cancelled after a Twitter comment. Snippets of perspective of other characters at key moments (previous camper, current campers, staff). Snippets of social media & comments about characters. A text conversation between two unknown parties. 

Timeline: Current (2020s). Linear. 

Cred: Campy over-the-top

 

Pine. Dirt. Gong. Campfire crackling. Burnt marshmallows. Yoga mat. Canteen. Lake lapping shore. Rising sun. Picnic bench. Wooden cross. Carved bark. Costume party. 

 

Content Heads-Up: Doxxing, online threats. Animal death (very brief; rats). Infidelity (very brief). Gore, blood, murder, wounds (graphic, on page). Loss of sibling, grief. Religious abuse, trauma. Child abuse (confinement, punishment). Panic attacks. Homophobia (from family; rejection, shaming, ‘conversion’ attempts, abuse). Relationship break-up. Gambling addiction (brief mention). Suicide (off page mention).

 

Rep: Black, White, and Chinese American. Olive, dark, and pale skin tones. Bisexual, pansexual, heterosexual, lesbian, gay. Cisgender.

 

📚 Format: Library Digital