They say never judge a book by its cover, and to that I say, "Bull shit." Prior to reading Camp Death by Jim Ody, I have never heard of the author before, but suddenly this cover kept popping up in various Facebook groups. Some folks might say there's nothing special about the cover, but for me, there's something about it that called to me. I didn't even bother to read the synopsis before grabbing it, so when I started to read it, I was going in totally blind with zero expectations.
Based on title and cover, I thought I was going to be reading a summer camp massacre like Friday the 13th, but after reading the prologue, I realized I was about to read a creature feature. Even better. By the end of the prologue, we know there was one survivor, a girl. You know from this that we will be meeting this stranger again.
Jump two years into the future, and Ody introduces us to our central character, Ritchie, a sixteen year old boy suffering his first heartbreak. We also learn he has a troubled older sister (she's eighteen), although it's never clear what kind of trouble she's going through -- at first. We learn later on what her problem is. It's been decided by their parents that it would be best if they got away from a few days. As a family. Their destination? Camp Death. Actually, it's Camp Deathe, but some smart aleck as crossed out the final "e". We also learn that they will only be spending time as a family at mealtimes; all other times, the kids will be at camp why the parents stay in a hotel on the same grounds. Ritchie admits that if he had known this was going to be the setup, he would have put up more of a fuss, but since they're already there, they might as well make the best of it. Campers being campers, we know we're in for a bunch of spooky stories, and we learn this is the very same camp where, two years prior, there was a massacre. We're not told there was a survivor, but we, as the reader, already know there was. But who is it? Ritchie's sister Sophie, or fellow campers Becca and Claire? Knowing Sophie is troubled, you immediately jump to the conclusion that it's her. But is it? You'll just have to read to find out. And is the Beast still around? Ritchie keeps catching a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye, but he can never see clearly what it is. When Toby, the head counselor for Ritchie and his crew, disappears, we assume that the beast got him. And this is where we learn that there's more going on that we had at first thought.
I admit to being caught up in the story, but this is where it starts to fall apart for me as well. For one, I was expecting a higher body count and less angsty teen drama, but we soon learn that we have a number of unreliable narrators here, which means you really can't trust what you've read so far. I hate unreliable narrators for that very reason. How much is true, and how much is a creation of their own minds? So what could have been a 5 star read has now dropped to a 4. Also, the ending did not work for me. It came totally out of left field, totally jumping the shark, which further contributed to the downgrade. As a reader confronted with a compelling mystery, part of the fun of reading something like this is to piece together the clues to find out who or what is responsible for the events that have occurred. It also raises questions that are never answered, especially where the parents are concerned. When you realize you're dealing with unreliable narrators, you can no longer do this. You also no longer sympathize with the characters because you no longer trust them and the things they say and do.
The book, for the most part, was well written, but it would have benefitted greatly from being turned over to an editor for basic grammar and punctuation. Throughout, the use of commas would have been beneficial, as without them, the reader sometimes stumbles over sentences and needs to backtrack and re-read to understand what the author is actually saying in a particular instance. This happened often enough as to lose another point from me. Again, I know this isn't an issue for many folk, but for this reader, it is.
Overall, Ody has created a compelling tale that keeps you on the edge of your seat because you want to know what's going on. I tend to overanalyze books and movies, or so my friends say, and maybe I'm overthinking things here. But if the unreliable narrators aren't a problem for you, and you can deal with the punctuation issues, I would definitely recommend picking up this one. However, if these things are an issue, I would recommend passing on this one to avoid the frustration you're bound to feel by the end of the book.
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