Balancing summer camp fun with an eerie vibe is always a great combination. Nothing can go wrong summer camp, right? Wrong. A quaint little horror story for teens that is not too gory but more weird in its happenings. A fast paced read, and something fun to sink your teeth into!

Campy, funny, cute at parts, and keeps you on the edge of your seat! I will definitely be looking out for more like this. I couldn't put it down!

This book wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. The pacing felt very sporadic and hard to follow at times and the storyline felt very predictable.

I did not realize this was a novella/short story before reading, and was so bummed that I finished so quick. I wanted more from this setting and these characters, but not because the author left anything out. I think it would make for a good full length novel.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

This was a fun little mystery thriller and I look forward to reading more by this author in the future.

A perfectly camp ya ‘slasher’ it’s was funny and great for the younger audience! And I really enjoyed it as an adult!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Barrington Stoke and Cynthia Murphy for this copy of Camp Killer, a thrilling YA murder mystery! This was such a fun little story and I had it read in no time! It may have been short but it packed a punch. The action and mystery were there in perfect amounts and I really couldn't tell who was behind everything. If you're looking for a short and not so sweet mystery, this is one for you!

* Please look up trigger warnings before reading *

Thank you, NetGalley and Barrington Stoke, for the chance to read and review Welcome to Camp Killer by Cynthia Murphey!

Welcome to Camp Killer is set at a summer camp in the UK. The estate that the camp is set on is rumored to have a ghost named Dorethea (no relation to Taylor Swift's Dorethea) who committed suicide after meeting her husband's mistress and love child (after killing the three of them).

Holly, one of the eight camp counselors, expects an outdoorsy summer looking after a bunch of kids. What she doesn't know is that something sinister is underfoot, although the bouquet of snakes thrown in Grayson's bed really helped manage her expectations for the summer!

Welcome to Camp Killer is a fun short story (128 pages) that takes its cues from slasher movies. However, keep in mind that it is written for people 13 and above, so any adult reading and reviewing it may not be the right judge. We did read a lot in the Goosebumps series by RL Stine that we came across as kids, so I'm pretty sure a 13-year-old can handle what happens in the book.

The book's length also limits what it can achieve, but that's also part and parcel of the genre. None of us expected significant character growth in Goosebumps, and you can't expect that here either. That being said, a major shortcoming was that the novel made it far too clear that the incidents were the result of human interference and not a ghost's doing; had that been unclear, this book would have been given a full five stars. The movie 'A Haunting in Venice' based on the Agatha Cristie novel 'Hallowe'en Party' is an excellent example; we know that because it is an Agatha Cristie detective story, the end will not involve a ghost, but the movie doesn't allow that to become clear.

Young adults in the woods ready for camp, ghost stories around the camp fire, a bit of dramatics thrown in mix it all together you’ve got this brilliant little read

This book surprised me with how fast paced it was. It was quite a short, and enjoyable read with plenty of twists and turns!

A total thrill-ride of a read! Welcome to Camp Killer is exactly what I'd hoped it would be: a pacey mystery with a healthy body count! If you've read a ton of teen horror or are a fan of similar films, you will enjoy discovering familiar tropes and trying to work out what is really going on. This is the best book from Barrington Stoke that I have read for a long time.

This is a nice little YA horror story. It's quite short, so it's easy to read, and I appreciate that it's dyslexia friendly. I enjoyed the spooky summer camp vibes with the typical ghost story. Towards the end there were a couple of twists that I appreciated, but other than that it's not a very unique story. Still, it was perfectly fine and I had a good time reading it.

I like Cynthia Murphy’s writing and have enjoyed her books before. Didn’t realise how short this one would be - it would have benefitting from a lot more development and plot!

I enjoyed this one for the most part! I didn’t realise it was so short and I think this story would have benefited from being longer. I really enjoy young adult thriller/slashers so I loved that aspect. I just wish we’d had longer to connect with the characters and if the plot had been fleshed out more.

Welcome to Camp Killer is about a group of teenage counselors working in a summer camp in the U.K where everything starts to go horribly wrong. The camp is allegedly supposed to be haunted by the spirit of a woman who passed away a century ago and once the camp opens up for the season and some of the camp counselors start turning up dead, the remaining counselors start to sense that something sinister is going on.

Sadly, this book was definitely not for me. The book started off really good in my opinion, and I absolutely wanted to love this book due to the creepy summer camp vibes and your typical campfire ghost story that feels perfect for this time of year, but I genuinely just wasn’t a fan. The book felt very rushed and short, and it went by very fast, but not in a good way. The dialogue between characters felt very childish and rushed at times, and it just felt all over the place. The plot bored me at times and felt unoriginal, and I felt like the story could have been so much better if the story was a little longer. I did not feel connected to the characters at all and I found most of them to be very annoying and immature. To me, nothing about this book made sense and I thought the ending was just very strange and ended too abruptly.

Overall, the concept of this book was really intriguing and it felt perfect for this time of year, but I just felt that the story could have been a little longer and that the characters could have been more developed. Thank you to NetGalley and Barrington Stoke for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Love Cynthia Murphy books and camp killer is a great read and the fact it’s dyslexia friendly is an added bonus I have already bought it for the library

A YA horror novella that I enjoyed and read in one sitting. I liked the plot and the atmosphere
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

»Welcome To Camp Killer« was a really fast paced book, I read it in one sitting because it was so short. It was just a really nice palate cleanser book and perfect for spooky season, especially because it's pretty gruesome for a YA thriller!

I stupidly forgot to download my ARC on #netgalley in time because I was sick, but I liked the sound of the book so much I searched it out in Waterstones #wsilverburn

A summer camp for kids has been set up in the grounds of a stately home, run by Chad who has previously been involved in American residential camps. Holly has taken a job there, along with 7 other teenagers for the summer, most of their parents had previously been involved in the camps and were keen to get involved.

The last night before the kids arrive, they sit around the campfire and hear of the ghost of Dorothea, who haunts the house and grounds after a tragedy...perhaps we should call it Camp Killer rather than Camp Miller?

It's all a giggle...until the accidents start....

It's not a long book, 121 pages with a relatively large font, but it's stressful, exciting and just doesn't let up from start to finish! It's a young adult book, but not for younger or particularly sensitive readers as there are descriptions of the incidents - not overly gnarly but could be upsetting.

It was clever and I really enjoyed it.

Review also posted to Goodreads but unable to link account.

The writing in this book was very simple and very 'tell not show.' I feel like everything was being explained to me and I wasn't given the opportunity to work out anything for myself. I was unable to finish it as I knew I wasn't going to enjoy it.

However, the book is very short and will definitely appeal to many people!