Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.
I am back once again with a review. We’re leaving the world of royalty to talk about a good old fashioned thriller this week. If there’s one thing for certain, I will always come back to a good thriller. I need me a good murder mystery in my life. I’m a simple girl who wants for simple things. That thing being solving a fictional murder.
With that, please give a warm round of applause to The Counselors by Jessica Goodman!
As always, a spoiler alert is in order. This is your one and only warning. If you’ve read any other review on my site then you know I can’t be trusted not to spoil the entirety of the books I read. I also must issue a content and trigger warning. One of the plot lines in The Counselors deals with drunk driving and someone being severally injured as a result. This topic cannot be avoided. I suggest skipping this book if the topic will be triggering to you in any way. With that, let’s get to the synopsis.
Today’s story follows Goldie Easton, an 18-year-old who should have graduated from high school when our story begins. Note the term “should.” Goldie didn’t manage to graduate due to a traumatic incident that occurred during winter break. Thanks to this incident, her small hometown of Roxwood treats her like a pariah and she ended up flunking her senior year.
Thankfully it’s now summer! And with summer comes camp. Camp Alpine Lake to be exact. Goldie spent all her summers growing up at camp, for free thanks to her parents both working there, and Alpine Lake is her safe, happy place. She’s too old to be a camper there now, but she’s the perfect age to be a counselor. As are her two besties! Ava and Imogen met Goldie at camp when they were all kids, and the trio have remained friends all these years. Sadly there does seem to be a rift growing between them in the past year. Goldie because of the incident, Ava because of her family life, and Imogen because her two friends aren’t confiding in her as much as they used to.
But Camp Alpine Lake has healing properties. The trio have the whole summer to talk and rebuild their bond. Except not really because the day before the campers are set to arrive a dead body is discovered in the lake. The victim happens to be Goldie’s ex-boyfriend and the last person who saw him alive was Ava. Well, Gang, it looks like we’ve got a mystery on our hands!
Can she do it? Can Goldie solve her ex’s murder? Also, what was he doing at Camp Alpine Lake? Townies don't go to the uber rich, elitist camp and he certainly hated the camp. And does Ava have anything to do with the crime? Or was her encounter with him nothing more than an unfortunate coincidence? Find out in The Counselors.
A mystery set in a summer camp? Sign me up! There is a reason people love summer camp thrillers, and horror media, so much. People want to read about a chilling mystery set in a location that should be a safe, happy place. It’s me. I’m one of those people. I’m a sucker for this kind of juxtaposition, and I know I’m not the only one. I know the minute I said this book was set in a summer camp a bunch of you automatically added it to your TBR list. I know it’s sitting in your Amazon cart as we speak. The vibes? Yeah, they’re good.
I wish I could say the same about the plot. The plot is a little lackluster. Nothing about it is bad, let me make this very clear, the story and writing is a hundred percent fine. You will not find issues with grammar, pacing, the plot is not convoluted, nothing about The Counselors is bad. The story is just cut and dry. It’s nothing I haven’t seen or read before. A murder happens at a summer camp, the young counselor with a major secret is going to solve the crime, one of their best and oldest friends is acting suspicious, and the main character can’t trust the people they thought they knew. I’ve described a lot of books just now, haven’t I?
I can’t come into this review and say I was surprised by anything in The Counselors. I kept reading with a hope that something would pop up and blow my mind. I kept waiting for a major twist to occur, but alas, nothing ever happened. The twists, I’m sorry but I can’t even call them twists but will for lack of a better word, were not necessarily things I anticipated yet I wasn’t surprised by them. My jaw never dropped. No one had to pick me up off the floor. The twists were mainly the main character’s suspicions being transferred to a new person.
As I said though, nothing about the story is bad. Pacing is fine, the plot is technically fine, grammar is fine, characters are fine, everything is fine! If you’re reading this book, you’ll likely get through it quickly. It’s enjoyable enough, but there’s nothing in there that’s never been done before. At the end of the day, The Counselors is mid.
I feel all that’s left to say regarding this book is that it’s Switzerland. It is neutral. There’s nothing wrong with it, but there’s nothing that’s really jumping out at me. It’s the most 2.5 rounding up to 3 star book I’ve read in ages.
With that, I must bid you all adieu. I shall see you all again next week with another new review. If you can’t wait that long then you can always check out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. It stars me and two of my friends and we talk about all sorts of things. Let me tell you a spooky story, or you can listen to us talk Scooby-Doo, Disney, 90s wrestling, and basically anything else you can think of.
Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.
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