What?! I was on board for about 85% of the book. Camp counselors are always in a good position for spooky things but this one was a bit far fetched. I get revenge plots but this one wasn’t my favorite. I wanted to see how it ended so I got through this pretty quickly and enjoyed a lot of it but not all of it. I could see the appeal for young adult readers that like light mystery books.

I think this is my least favorite from this author, unfortunately. I loved her work so much as a teen, and now that I’m an adult I just feel like I may have outgrown her writing. The ending just felt rushed and just so random.

Another case of 'it's not you, it's me.' I found the writing in this thriller to be predictable and the twists to be eye-rolling, but I'm also an adult familiar with genre conventions and someone who enjoys a good thriller. Young teens and those just starting out might want to give this creepy (but not too creepy) thriller a shot.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review. I enjoyed the time I spent reading this book but I wouldn’t necessarily read it again. The pacing sometimes felt slow and I didn’t always feel connected to the characters.

I really enjoyed other novels by Natasha Preston but this one I wanted to like more than I did.

The Lake by Natasha Preston is a YA thriller. It gave a horror vibe being set at a summer camp, which c'mon I was all about. Camp Pine Lake where Esme and Kayla are now, at seventeen, returning to the camp to train to become counselors. The girls once attended Camp Pine Lake themselves but those are days they prefer to not think about as they promised one another to never speak of what happened the last time they were there. But then Esme and Kayla find a note that reads “THE LAKE NEVER FORGETS” and begins the hunt to find out who knows their secret and how.

Thank you NetGalley.

Thank you for the early read! Natasha Preston is the queen of high school thrillers and THE LAKE did not disappoint!!!

📖My Thoughts📖

This was a fast paced YA thriller. It had many points that kept me on the edge of my seat. Esme’s jittery persona and paranoia during the entire story seems to add to the suspense. I haven’t really read any thrillers that took place at a summer camp, so this was a nice change. I have to admit, while we knew who the person of interest was throughout the majority of the book, the very ending was completely unexpected. Though it didn’t have the same intensity of an adult thriller, it was still pretty good.
Thank you Netgalley, Natasha Preston and Random House Children’s for the opportunity to read and review this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

True to previous experience with Preston, this book kept me on the edge of my seat until the very last word. And the ending left me, once again, shook. If you're looking for a real page-turner, with an ending that will make you want to chuck the book across the room, look no further. This is the one.

I purchased this book for my high school library. My students have enjoyed it. and it has circulated well.
They can not get enough of Natasha Preston. I have to buy multiple copies.

This was my first Natasha Preston and I really enjoyed it! The mystery kept me turning page after page!

I have read EVERY Natasha Preston YA novel. Back to back, I have read them all.

This one surrounded two friends who used to be campers at a Summer Camp and now, they are finally counselors. Something that they have ALWAYS wanted.

Soon after they arrive, things start getting weird and someone is watching them. It seems someone knows a secret of theirs that they have ceased speaking about since they were young.

I have this one 4 stars because while some (most) people love those cliff-hanging endings, they just are not for me and this one literally gave me anxiety. I just NEEDED to know what happened after the last scene and it tore me apart to not have resolution.

I love Preston and always will! She has a spot close to my heart so I will forever recommend anything she writes!

*Special thanks to NetGalley & Delacorte Press for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was.... juvenile. The writing and the characters (which I know they were teenagers, but come on!) was just less than great, as was the plot itself. It went between being super childish, to trying to shock the reader, and it just didn't work.

I found this to be an enjoyable read, keeping me on my toes throughout. The storyline was written well and flowed seamlessly. I look forward to reading more by this author!

Esme and her friend Kayla return to the scene of their crime. AKA, they're new counselors at the camp they went to as kids, where they did a horrible and unforgivable Thing, apparently. You'll find out about it later. First, we you'll get to meet a lot of interesting and unique characters, including new friends and two cute boys. The ideal summer camp experience.

Everything is cool until someone starts stalking the camp and leaving creepy notes and even creepier carcasses. Esme immediately assumes that it's all to do with the Terrible Thing They Did, except she finds out that all of the other counselors-in-training have secrets of their own. Luckily, nobody gets hurt, until very suddenly there's a genre switch and everybody gets hurt. This is a slasher, but the slasher doesn't seem to know what she really wants or how she's going to get it. She's either a genius or absolutely out of her mind. Which makes sense, because when we flash back to age 11 she was already a dang serial killer in training while everyone else was 8 and burning down camp sites. Honestly, the children in this book are precocious.

That said, I really liked this when I thought I knew where it was going. So maybe you will too.

So glad I got a copy to review the lake by Natasha Preston. She is one of my favorite authors and never disappoints! The way she writes is amazing. I love how i get lost in her style and how easy I find myself turning the pages for more.

This is a wonderful, fast paced, young adult murder mystery that I'm sure my students are going to love. They can't seem to get enough Natasha Preston and she keeps delivering!

I was a huge fan of The Twin and so excited for this one! Preston didn’t disappoint with this one either. This is a quick YA thriller that can be read in a day. It’s fast paced and will keep you engaged until the end.

I have always been a Natasha Preston fan but this one missed the mark for me. It’s about two girls who go back to a summer camp with several secrets of their own. It was an easy read but a little too predictable for my taste.

This was a YA, thriller/horror book that was so vivid and movie-like I could just feel myself back at camp again with Esme and Kayla. I was absolutely having flashbacks of meeting other CITs and talking about the cute boys and staying up past campers' bedtimes. All of the setting pieces of this book were great. AND the point of view of the teenagers was very real. However, the plot fell pretty flat for me. We just ran around blindly in terms of not giving anything away from the girls' childhoods and wandering around in the woods and it was suspenseful but....not. So while it was a sort of fun read, it also fell a little short. Great if you love summer camps and thrillers though!

What I Liked
-This was a very twisty thriller based on a summer camp which I really enjoyed.
-Super fast-paced ending.

What I Didn't Like/Wanted More Of [I hate having more negatives than positives but here we are]:
-This book jumped around SO much. Like, annoyingly so.
-The characters and dialogue were SO cringey and annoying and frankly boring. Listening to this book made it worse. I just didn't care about any of them.
-There were absolutely no twists on who the antagonist was, even though the author set it up perfectly for there to be some major twists.
-SO freaking gory and the ending was entirely unnecessary for a YA, summer camp thriller - almost felt a little like AHS 1984 which I also did not like.

You Should Read If You Like
-Honestly I LOVED Natasha Preston's other books so I don't recommend reading this if you feel the same.
Summer camp thrillers
-American Horror Story 1984