The writing is not enjoyable, at all. I cannot connect to the characters in any capacity; I neither like nor dislike them. With that and a slow moving plot, this isn’t worth finishing. I do hope others enjoy it though!

Thirteen year old Ben is just trying to get his little brother and himself to a safer environment away from their abusive aunt. In doing so, he broke many laws and is now facing juvenile court. As an option instead of detention, Ben is sent away to a wilderness camp that specializes in helping troublesome boys.

This camp is nothing like he has experienced before. They are in the mountains of Montana, a far cry from where he grew up in Louisiana. He secretly loves the environment and some of the experiences but the worry for his little brother overshadows everything.

Ben starts noticing some odd behaviors with the counselors and a lot of things that just didn’t add up. He eventually saw that the camp and the counselors were hiding something and it was really extreme.

I was glued to this story. There was a huge undercurrent of creepiness throughout that completely engulfed me. I had to know what was going on, there were too many questions!! Ben as the main character was perfect. He was sensitive and very smart but also clever. Because of this, he learns what is going on and is determined to leave.

I have to admit, the big reveal fell flat for me. I’m not one to love some of the paranormal aspects in horror books. And while I had high hopes, it just didn’t do it for me. However, I was so invested in Ben and his friends that I was still committed to their story. There were many intense, life-threatening situations about survival and more. They really made the book exciting for me!

Thank you to @AtriaBooks and @NetGalley for the copy!

The book releases July 2, 2024.

Thanks to the publisher at Atria Books, NetGalley, and of course the Authors for a ARC of Wilderness Reform, very grateful!!

This story was a very slow burn but goodness, it was hard to put the book down…

A troubled teenager Ben has been sent to a remote reform camp program and it doesn’t take him long to notice theirs something weird going on with the counselors in charge.

He forms bonds with the boys in his cabin. Together they uncover what’s really going on at this camp and work together to try to make it out alive.

I don’t want to give too much away & although this was a slow read, the ending was everything I needed. I absolutely loved this amazing adventurous story!
10/10

5 stars

The highest compliment I can give to an author is to call them a story teller. These 2 have proven yet again that they are true story tellers. Their pacing and build up to climax is immaculate, the characters are so well developed you feel as if you know them personally , and the world building brings you directly into the story.

I was already a fan when I read Old Country, but this book proves it wasn’t a one hit wonder. These guys are here to stay.

This book follows a young boy named Ben. He gets into trouble while trying to flee from his aunt. His aunt strikes a plea deal to send him to a wilderness reform camp to avoid jail.

Ben starts to enjoy the majority of camp events but notices the counselors act very strange. Then one night a boy appears in there cabin, bloody and on the run and everything changes. Ben and his friends don't trust the counselors.

From there it takes a few strange turns. Overall the story was good but also ended with any follow up as to what happens after.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

It was hard to stay engaged with this storyline, which is a bummer since the synopsis sounded so promising! Still a decent read, I was just left feeling like I wanted a little more engagement.

A very slow burn that takes a long time to go anywhere, this is a story of Benjamin, a 13 year old delinquent who is sent to a wilderness reform camp in Montana. At first, everything seems fine but the camp counselors are just a little bit 'off' and he soon realizes that everything is not as it seems. This seemed like more of a young adult read as it's mostly centered around teenage boys being bad and encountering supernatural entities. The character development is good but the pacing really needs some work. There's no definitive antagonist, and nothing really happens in the book until you are about 70% in. There are lots of flowery descriptions of the wilderness that take up at least a third of the book before any action kicks in. When it does, it's well done and the ending is good, it just took a long time to get there.

I was drawn to this book by the cover and premise. Unfortunately, it fell flat for me. It was definitely a slow burn and more about character development rather than a suspenseful thriller. The ending did make up for some of the slowness, but I'm just not a fan of the slow pace.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books | Atria/Emily Bestler Books for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately this book just did not grab my attention. The beginning moves incredibly slowly and it caused me to completely lose interest,

Man this book could’ve been something amazing, but for me it was just ok. My first Query brothers book and though it had a super intriguing blurb, this book fell flat in a few different areas for me.

First and foremost, the pacing. I can appreciate a slow burn build up in plot but I feel this book took it a bit far. It took me way too long to read this book because with nothing happening in the first half, I kept losing interest and attention and having to reread parts.

Secondly, while I enjoyed the characters and their development and the intuitiveness of our main character, I felt they did not represent the ages that were depicted. But boys will be troublesome boys so I can let that slide but it was in my head the entire time reading (probably because my daughter is 11 and close in age).

Now even though the story did drag and to me lacked any real action or horror until the very end, the ending was superb! I just needed that action to hit way earlier. Sadly I felt no major plot twists either. I did LOVE the setting though. There was an ominous foreboding vibe within the camp in the Montana wilderness that I did really enjoy. A decent read but not my favorite.

A slow horror burn that culminated in an explosive ending. 13-year-old juvenile delinquent Benjamin Thibodeaux from Louisiana is sent to Bear Springs Academy in Montana as an alternative to juvie. As he is learning survival skills and observing the excessive friendliness of the staff, he realizes not everything is as it seems. Perfect for fans of teen boy horror stories that involve camping and supernatural beings.

Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Wow! I picked up Wilderness Reform in the morning and didn't put it down until I finished in the evening! I love adventure and survival stories and mixed in with this one is the supernatural. Highly recommended!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this digital ARC.

Ben is 13 when he is sent to Montana. He has been caught stealing and it is either this wilderness camp or juvenile detention. His abusive aunt signs the paper for him to go, and before he can even say goodbye to his little brother, he is on a plane to Montana.
On the surface, it seems like not a bad place. But the camp counselors exhibit some strange behaviors. Especially Reid, the man who brought Ben here. Soon Ben is convinced that this place harbors many dark secrets. His only choice is to run using every ounce of determination to get back home or be changed forever.
Ben’s abilities at times seemed a bit too well developed for his age and life experience. It is fiction though, and once I moved past that, I enjoyed trying to figure out what was going on at this seemingly idyllic camp.

Unfortunately, this one wasn’t for me. I liked Old Country, but thought it lacked depth - and it’s also the case in this one. It’s such a slow burn, nothing scary or exciting happens at all in the first 70-ish percent of the story. No real antagonist. Just not well done.

I really wanted to like this book but unfortunately it was not for me. I had to DNF it.
It is definitely a slow burn and I just don't have enough patience for it. At about 15% I started to skip sections of it and knew it was time to give up. The cover though is very cool!

Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books and the author for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Ugh, I wish this had been a faster read. I'm generally pretty bad with a slow burn, especially when I really need something to grab my attention. The ending was great, but getting there was a STRUGGLE.

Wilderness reform was a slow burn, but ended with a big bang. I enjoyed all the hiking, fishing, and camping content, and the relationship building with Ben and the other teens was great. I think you need to have interest in the great outdoors, and also be okay with a slow start to enjoy this book. I love the cover!! Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an advance copy!

"If I actually manage to escape this place, I'll never set foot anywhere near the mountains again as long as I fucking live."
Can’t say I blame you there, Ben. What drew me in to this book was its wicked cover. I mean, who doesn’t love a creepy camp story? That is exactly what you will get between these pages.

After a series of bad choices thirteen year old Ben is being charged with a serious crime. In order to avoid the juvie system, he is charted off to a wilderness reform program—Bear Springs Academy—for teens in the middle of the Rockies. The program is advertised as one of the best in the country, providing wilderness therapy and all the tools troubled teens need to build confidence. Upon arrival, Ben is met with the counselors’ over-enthusiastic grins juxtaposed against the campers’ sullen expressions and he doesn’t have a good feeling about it. Heeding warnings of evil from other campers, Ben discovers that he is going to have to fight to survive.

This was my first experience with Querys’ writing as I have not yet made it around to <Old Country> so I didn’t have any expectations going in.

The action scenes that played out in this book were incredible and full of heart-pounding terror. This story takes the slower approach to getting started and the pace did seem to waver in places; I wasn’t entirely engaged in this story until about 25% of the way through. The prose was flourishing with descriptions of the wilderness and while some of it was necessary for world building, I found it to be a little over done. My admiration for our main character, Ben, was not immediate—his character is written as one with extreme brilliance but it came off more as sociopathy to me—but his actions and motives for his behaviors are explained and by the end, he had won me over. Still, we spend a lot of time inside Ben’s head and it became a bit monotonous.

Overall, I liked this story even if it took some time to become invested. I plan to go back and read Querys' first novel and hope to see more from them in the future.

P.S. there are graphic depictions of animal death (hunting) for those that are sensitive to it.

Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for the digital copy! Out 07/02/2024!

In the synopsis for this book, we find out that a 13-year-old boy named Ben is in some trouble. He stole some boats on the bayous of Louisiana, broke into some cabins, and robbed a gas station with a harmless airsoft gun. What we don’t know is that he had a very good reason for committing these crimes. Nonetheless, he was caught and was going to be sent to juvenile detention, which he was fine with - half his friends are there anyway. The only problem? His little brother, Wade.

Their mother died when the boys were very young, and their Aunt Nicki had been raising them since. She is abusive, as are the men who ramble in and out of her life, and Ben takes most of the abuse to save Wade. If he’s sent away, who will be there for his brother? As he’s thinking about how long his sentence may be, he finds out it will only be three months; instead of going to a detention center, he is going to Montana to spend the summer at a wilderness boot camp that claims to change young delinquents into upstanding citizens.

After the long flight, then even longer drive, he arrives at the camp to see a lot of boys who are similar to him, except for one thing. Had anyone cared about Ben, or paid attention to him while he was growing up, they’d know he’s a savant. As it was, nobody cared enough to realize how special Ben’s mind is, and that turns into a fatal mistake for these counselors, with their fake smiles and manic positive energy.

It doesn’t take Ben long to realize something is wrong with the counselors. Like, really wrong. They never stop smiling, and they all seem dumb, constantly staring off in the distance with their dead eyes and permagrins. As Ben starts digging, he begins to realize this camp is not a regular camp for wayward boys. And that’s when the insanity starts…

This book was super creepy, and super suspenseful. This camp, and its director, Reid, are evil. The question is, can these boys escape the fate that awaits them at the end of the summer? Can they escape at all? You’ll find out, and it’s both thrilling and terrifying. This had a slight Stephen King vibe, and I think fans of his will like this horrifying story. Four stars.

(Thank you to Atria, Emily Bestler Books, Matt Query, Harrison Query and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on July 2, 2024.)

3 stars

I was so anxious to read this book based on my love of these authors' first book, Old Country and clearly I'm not alone in that. The premise of Wilderness Reform seemed full of potential, and include me in the people who love this cover.. Unfortunately, not every book is for every reader and this one just did not work for me. That does not mean that I would not recommend it to others.

There were things I enjoyed about this story including the outdoor setting, the isolation horror, and the developing friendships. I also enjoy a slow burn story that takes its time to develop, but I would warn readers that this was an extreme slow burn. The actual horror takes a really, really long time to appear and I know that's not something everyone likes.

I had a difficult time with multiple aspects of this story. First and foremost was the age of the main character, along with the other boys sent to the camp. None of them ever read as children/ear.ly teens for me. The attempt to explain the adult-like thinking of the main character did not ring true for me and as much as I tried to suspend my disbelief, I just couldn't get there. Also, none of the boys seemed like juvenile offenders and the camp never felt like a place that held juvenile criminals. This read like a summer camp or adventure experience teaching young boys wilderness skills.

Once I allowed myself to just go with the story and not question things so much, I managed to enjoy the last 20% of the book. As others have already said, the ending bloody good fun. If you enjoy a really slow burn, outdoor wilderness survival, male-centric story, this might be for you.