An elite summer camp, a secret society, and a girl thrown into the legacy of her mother. This story follows Arlee Gold, all her life she has never been good enough for her mother, she’s failing school, she’s got an extreme phobia of insects, and she’s just not doing great after her dad left. So what does her mom do? Send her to the camp that changed her life, Camp Rockaway. A elite college prep summer camp deep in the North Carolina wilderness (yes send the girl with extreme phobia of insects into the freaking woods filled with insects, brilliant). Arlee suffers from insecurity, shyness, anxiety, and the moment she steps into camp and people discover whose daughter she is, she is instantly made a pariah and feared by everyone but no one will tell her what her mother did to garner this reputation. The only people who welcome her are her bunkmates, and after two days she falls for the girl who sleeps in the bunk above her, Winnie. Soon Arlee must navigate a camp where girls dislike her, where her mother’s legacy haunts her, and when she is invited to join a secret society in which girls must protect the other girls at all cost, she will soon find herself in over her head. Arlee is an unlikable narrator, and the story pacing was off for me. I did appreciate the unsettling camp atmosphere and the in depth descriptions of the insects to highlight how gross they were, but the entire storyline and murder mystery was just kind of meh for me. Arlee was a frustrating character to read from, and if I’m being real honest the ending of the book was just ugh. I honestly was rooting for the camp compared to Arlee. This was set up as a creepy mystery with a Lord of the Flies meets Wicker Man story but kind of missed the mark on both counts for me.

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*