The Counselors by: Jessica Goodman [book review]
Book: The Counselors
By: Jessica Goodman
Published: May 31, 2022
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 343
Genre: YA Thriller
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About The Counselors:
Goldie Easton only feels safe at Camp Alpine Lake.
Even before she was able to attend she always had a special connection to the place. The camp is the lifeline of Roxwood. It provides jobs and money to the area but only a few people in the area get to reap the rewards. Unfortunately, the camp has a five-figure tuition, and rich kids are usually dumped there for eight weeks by their powerful parents.
Even though she has a townie background, Goldie always feels at home there. And now she gets to go back for the summer with her best friends Ava and Imogen. But Goldie has a dark secret she has been keeping and she is in desperate need of the comfort of the camp.
When a kid turns up dead at the lake Goldie knows that it couldn’t have been an accident. It doesn’t help that she knows that her best friend Ava was at the lake the same night.
Did Ava see anything? Why hasn’t she talked to Goldie about what happened? Did Ava do something that Goldie never thought she was capable of?
Asking questions doesn’t help and instead, it breaks the bond of lifelong friendship. With camp ending soon Goldie needs to find who it is before the camp winds up being closed for good.
What I thought about The Counselors:
The Counselors is a YA Thriller that I randomly picked up at Target and I’m so glad that I did. It would honestly suck to be an outsider in your hometown just because you can go to that camp that the rest of them can’t go to.
Granted that’s the only thing about this book as that’s weird to me. I always thought they were supposed to be inclusive. Then again I haven’t been to camp or looked into them. So, that’s probably why it stands out to me. There are probably tons of camps out there that are for the elite. The rich and the powerful. I don’t think it helps that I haven’t experienced the United States let alone anything outside. So things like this seem out of the ordinary to me.
The Counselors is a pretty fast-paced YA Thriller. There are tons of twists and turns and the book is really able to grab your attention.
Lately, it seems like YA Thrillers are hit or miss with me. I’m either very disappointed or very excited about it. The Counselors probably just so happens to be one of my favorite YA thrillers lately.
I feel like Jessica Goodman does a great job of making you feel for the main character. For the most part, I’m rooting for Goldie throughout the whole story. I have to admit that Jessica does a great job making you feel bad for the main character as well. She has a very big secret that I wish she’d tell her friends from the get-go. It’s that kind of secret that if your friends are true friends then they aren’t going to judge you for it.
I feel like this is the main negative about the story. She claims these girls are like her sisters but doesn’t trust them enough to tell them her secret.
The Counselor has a lot of twists and turns and is worth the read.
So would I recommend the book? Yes, yes I would. Granted this is one of those books that’s going to be hit or miss for others, but I would still recommend at least trying it out.
If you love YA thrillers then make sure to check out my post on YA Thrillers to check out.