The Counselors, by Jessica Goodman, comes out in just over one month and is full of summer camp killer vibes, interesting characters that you can’t quite pin down, and a twisted mystery that will keep you guessing.
The Counselors follows junior camp counselor, Goldie, an eighteen-year-old who has been affiliated with Camp Alpine Lake for nearly her whole life. Both her parents work there, she’s been attending since she was a kid, and now she’s taking the reins as a counselor herself—something she has always dreamed of doing with her two besties, Ava and Imogen. The three girls met at camp years ago, growing up together in long distance friendships and joyfully reuniting at Alpine Lake each summer.
Goldie is a little different than the other campers. Though it’s located in a small, rural town, Alpine Lake caters to the wealthy. The upper echelons. The privileged.
None of which describe Goldie.
Goldie attends the expensive camp for free due to her parents’ employment there, and as she has gotten older, she has become acutely aware that she doesn’t quite fit in, and even though they’ve always accepted her and never made her feel “less than”, her life is very different from Ava and Imogen’s. But she also doesn’t quite fit in in town, either, since her classmates and other people in town associate her with the fancy summer camp, and accuse her of thinking she is better than them or thinking she looks down on them, which lead to her peers excluding and often downright bullying her. (People can be so mean, but not fitting in in your small town and getting relentlessly bullied is definitely an aspect of Goldie’s story I can easily relate to.)
Right before camp starts, tragedy strikes when the head lifeguard heads down to the lake one morning only to find a dead body floating in the water. But the body isn’t just anyone—it’s Goldie’s ex-boyfriend. And as the story unfolds, we find out there’s a lot of skeletons in the closet, and the story of what happened between the two of them is darker and sadder than her friends could have guessed.
Goldie is determined to figure out what exactly happened to Heller, and the story ekes out information slowly because it flashes back and forth between the present, as Goldie balances her camp counselor duties with investigating what could have happened to Heller—and if someone at her beloved camp could be responsible for his death—and the past, where we see Goldie and Heller’s relationship blossom and then meet with the tragedy that tore Goldie’s life as she knew it apart.
The format of the book, flashing back and forth between past and present, really turns this into a slow burn as we try to piece together what happened in the past with what is happening now, and place each person in the story line. There are lots of twists and turns as we follow along with Goldie and try to figure out which leads are legitimate and which are taking her down the wrong path, and one point, as far as I was concerned, everyone was a suspect.
We all know I love a good summer camp setting for some reason, so a summer camp based murder mystery/thriller was really a lot of fun. Nothing like a little stabbing mixed in with your s’mores, right? But aside from the setting and the mystery, The Counselors has a lot of other interesting elements. Goodman herself writes that it is, in part, a commentary on privilege, and what some people get away with vs. others based on wealth, privilege, or simply who they know—things they take for granted—and that’s extremely relatable, too. (The type of thing where if it doesn’t get you fired up, you’re probably not paying attention.) Another aspect I loved was the emphasis on found family, or your friends being like family to you. I always love a good found family theme in a book, especially YA, and Goodman writes it well here, taking three girls who don’t necessarily have much in common and bringing them together as their own version of family based simply on the love they have for one another. I found it really beautiful.
So if you’re looking for a twisty, slow burn thriller with a fun summer camp setting, some cutting commentary on privilege, and a great found family aspect, you will absolutely adore The Counselors. I really enjoyed reading this and thank you again so much to Penguin Teen for my ARC copy (plus who can say no to a book that comes encased in a blood-spattered package? Not me, that’s for sure).
The Counselors is out from Penguin Teen May 31st, 2022! Just in time to ramp up for some summer antics (that hopefully don’t include anything this out of hand)! Be sure to grab your copy and let me know what you think! I can’t wait to discuss it with y’all.
You can also check out my review for another of Goodman’s titles, They Wish They Were Us, here, or if you’re digging the summer vibes, a list of five “vacation gone wrong” thrillers here. And don’t forget to follow my Instagram, @samsaraparchment, for even more book-related content and book reviews/recommendations (along with lots of pretty photos).