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I enjoyed the setting and writing in this book, but at times I found that the random flashbacks made the story feel disjointed. They didn't seem to add too much to the plot and otherwise distracted from the main storyline. Even so, this was a quick read and I was curious to see where it would all end up.

I love books that are set in an area where I live. So having this story take place in the Pacific NorthWest, and at a sleep away camp no less, it felt quite relatable. It is definitely well written, with a unqiue and immersive prose. The different perspectives were varied and unique. But because there was so many, it also made me feel disconnected at times. it was an interesting read, but felt it needed to have more details/information.

This didnt work for me at all. It felt all over the place and It was not my cup of tea. It just didn’t work

I couldn't finish the electronic copy of The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore by Kim Fu I received to review because I completely forgot about it so, unfortunately, I won't be reviewing the book.

Thank you.
Wendy Ward
http://wendyrward.tumblr.com/

While I found the premise of this book incredibly intriguing, I don't think that the execution lived up to my anticipation. I found many of the "later in life" narratives tiresome and overly drawn-out. The one character I was most invested in was Siobhan, and I enjoyed reading all of the sections which were set on the island, as the girls struggled for survival. I would have liked more from this story-line and less of the follow-ups. When it came to follow-ups, I would have liked more from Siobhan.

I was rather left adrift by this book. Kim Fu has created 5 very layered characters with what seem to be clear voices. Their one common connection is a shared event from Summer Camp. The event itself was exciting, raised my pulse level, and though a little far fetched for the age group, entertaining. The breakdown for me occurs when I try to find the impact on the 5 characters through the life glimpse Ms Fu provides. Each character is interesting in their own right, and I wish I could have spent more time with each and learned about the ways in which the camp event impacted them, and it would have been to my taste to have had them reconnect at times during their lives.
So, The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore sort of left me unsatisfied.

This book could have probably been a short story because majority of the book felt like it was completely off track from what the story should have been. Great writing but I wasn't invested in the characters and overall felt kind of disappointed that the story didn't deliver.

This was only an OK read for me. I enjoyed parts of the book. The premise is about a group of girls away at summer camp. On an overnight kayak trip they become stranded and have to survive. There are alternating chapters of what happens when the girls grow up. Most of these chapters are pretty weak and the author does not really connect the stories or the girls. The ending was very unsatisfying. The writing was good but the story line should have been better.

(2.5 stars) I read the first 66 pages, skimmed to p. 86 of 190, and gave up. Camp Forevermore is a Pacific Northwest getaway for nine- to eleven-year-old American and Canadian girls. We get a brief introduction to a set of campers from the early nineties on an isolated overnight adventure – they’re pretty hard to keep straight – before diving deep into one’s life for the next 20+ years. First is Nita: her love for her childhood German shepherd, her medical training and sudden career-ending accident, her husband and sons, her beekeeping hobby. But this long interlude means Fu doesn’t sustain the suspense about whatever the bad thing was that happened when the girls were campers. After another short section back on the island with the girls, next up is Andee, whose story is far too similar to that told in The Lauras. It also seems like something of a cheat to focus on her sister Kayla’s Christian conversion when Andee was the camper. A disappointment after Fu’s For Today I Am a Boy.

Unfortunately, I really didn't enjoy this book.

The main thing I liked about this book was the diversity.

I did enjoy the parts of the story that followed the girls when they were at camp and their survival story, however, I really didn't understand the point of the parts of the story that follow the characters as adults. The adult parts of the story would have made more sense to me if it was showing how the events at the camp effected the characters as adults, but that really didn't seem to be what was happening. In fact, one of the adult parts of the story followed one of the girls' sister and not even that girl herself. It just all seemed very pointless.

If this had been a novella with just the girls at camp I would have enjoyed it a lot more but overall I just found this to be a pointless.

What a summer feeling book, despite it snowing in the middle of April here in Ohio. This book took me back to my camping days and I really put my younger self into the characters.

This is good book group fodder. Five girls go off for a survival overnight. This is the story of what happens when you take the adult out of that scenario. Hmmm? What are children really capable of? The story covers the psychology and dynamics of their weekend experience. These are interspersed with the stories of the girls' lives post "camp survivor".

I received an ARC from Netgalley in return for a review.

I neither loved nor hated this book. There were moments where I really enjoyed it and then moments where I couldn't focus to save my life, which is why it took me so long to finish and write the review, missing the release date.

I wanted this book to be a lot more about the experience at Camp Forevermore and less about the present day. I felt myself having to keep referring back to the beginning to keep my characters and their past personalities straight. I feel like this may have worked better if it only really focused on one girl. Or if it were broken into novellas, the first one telling the story of Camp Forevermore and the following telling the stories of the girls one at a time.

I'm actually shocked this doesn't have a higher rating on Goodreads. I loved this story of a group of young girls who try to survive a camping trip gone awry. Each chapter switches to the adult versions of these girls and shows how the trauma of their youth affects them. I thought this had a wonderful creepy vibe, and I was totally enthralled with every page. Loved the format, the characters, and the ending.

My Thoughts: The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore was nothing like what I’d expected it to be. That can be a good thing, or a bad thing. I’d expected a book that told the story of five girls who survived a disastrous kayaking trip at a summer camp, followed by how their lives and friendships were forever affected. What I got was a series of loosely connected short stories. In between chapters focusing on the girls as women, the story of Camp Forevermore was slowly revealed. It was by far my favorite part of the book because this was the only portion of the book where their relationships lived. The remainder of the chapters each focused on a different girl: what brought her to Camp Forevermore, her family, and where the rest of her life took her. Only two of the girls ever had any sort of contact beyond the camp. What Kim Fu actually delivered were the stories of five different women, loosely connected by a common childhood event. The stories ranged from compelling to underwhelming. Had the description of The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore been what was actually delivered, I think I’d have enjoyed Fu’s book much more.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review "The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore
by Kim Fu." While I liked the idea behind it, the story was following too many characters. It was difficult to follow and the formatting for the digital edition was horrible. The sentences were so close together. I did not finish this book. If the digital format was changed, I may be willing to give it another go.

Phew. Well, I made it through. I am glad this was so short, otherwise I would have had to DNF it and I absolutely detest having to do that. I really struggled with this one. It was so all over the place for me, just not my style at all. It was nothing like what I expected and I'm not sure what exactly the author was trying to get across. I thought, going in, that I did but my thoughts of a modern, girl version of Lord of Flies was completely off base. The writing itself was smart but lackluster, ultimately leaving me so that I just did not care one hoot about any of the characters. I would have preferred a more linear narrative, possibly with vignettes of how that shared experience affected the girls later lives, to this disjointed, completely chaotic story. I know many readers will enjoy this, however, it just was not the book for me.

When I first read the premise of this book I was intrigued. This is the story of five girls who go to a summer adventure camp called Camp Forevermore. They are assigned to the same group for an island adventure and kayak trip where they are meant to learn survival skills with a counselor who has been a fixture at the camp for years. From that point on the author shows what survival really means by intertwining this story with the story of their lives. ⠀⠀

Unfortunately, the structure of this book was not for me. In rather long sections, the author follows each of the girls stories and explores how this one trip defines and influences the rest of their lives. I see what the author was attempting, but each story seemed rushed and their lives went by in a blur. Maybe if she had only focused on pieces of their lives and spent more time on the main story I would have found it more interesting. I began getting antsy and bored towards the end with every character being easily predictable. ⠀⠀

Honestly, this book was downright depressing for me to read. I did not feel like there was much that was uplifting-but maybe it wasn’t meant to be uplifting. If you like survival type stories, you may like this one.
⠀⠀
Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. ⠀

This was a really interesting read. The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore just came out in February and it already has a bit of a lowish rating on goodreads, which is usually a deterrent for me, but I’m obsessed with camping and I was really intrigued by the premise, so I decided to go ahead with it anyways.

The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore tells the story of 5 girls around ages 10-12 who attend a sleep-away camp in Washington State. The girls are from all over the region, including British Columbia. The highlight of the camp is supposed to be an overnight kayaking trip to a remote island, but this kayak trip goes horribly awry and leaves the girls stranded on an island. The book tells the story of what happened to the girls, while simultaneously flashing forward in each of the girls lives to see how they later fared.

The structure of this story was really interesting. Throughout the main story of what happened at Camp Forevermore, we get a short story for each of the girls future lives. These stories don’t really reference what happened at camp and in my opinion could each be viewed as separate short stories, but generally examine how they might have been affected by what happened on that fateful kayaking trip.

Because of this, the novel read more like a collection of short stories to me, but I didn’t mind it because each sub-story felt fully formed and realized and the writing was really beautiful. It didn’t deliver on what I was expecting from this book, but it was still a really nice piece of writing, so I didn’t mind. I think Kim Fu got the atmosphere of the story just right and I think the cover perfectly reflects that atmosphere too.

My complaint would be that it was a bit short. I was really into the main story at Forevermore and I would have liked to see this part of the novel developed a little more. It had a bit of a Lord of the Flies vibe and explored how children act and develop when left alone in stressful situations without adult support and I would have liked to see these themes explored in a little more depth and a bit better tied in with the futures of each girl. I also thought it was a weird choice to tell Kayla’s story instead of Andee’s. Andee is one of the 5 girls on the island, why tell her sister’s story instead of hers? I didn’t really get why the author choose to do this and was one of the reasons I thought the flash forwards could also work as short stories, since some of them seemed to have very little to do with what actually happened at camp.

Overall though, I did really like this, which goes to show you can’t always trust the goodreads ratings. I thought the writing was strong and the story was beautifully told. It’s a bit of a slow-burn novel, but it worked in this context. Plus I love supporting Canadian authors!