This was a wild and spooky ride! The summer camp vibes were spot on, and the supernatural aspect was amazing. It’s hard to find a good summer camp horror book, but this succeeded!

I thought this was done well. Not super scary but written in a believable way. It was fast paced and loosely based on historical events that happened at this lake. A girl will have to survive a week at this camp and people have been disappearing. What’s happening at this camp?? And will she be the next missing person?
I’ve heard a lot of terrible things about a lake like this near where I live and it’s all I thought about when I finished this.
Thanks Sterling & Stone via NetGalley.

3.75 stars

Loved it. This is my favorites sub-genre. Though it is a ya, it was still very entertaining and had all the greatest elements of this brand of horror. The writing was good and kept me captivated. I will definitely revisit this author in the future.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sylvester Barzey for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Camp Lanier coming out July 16, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I love camp horror stories, so I was excited to check it out. Taylor has had a rough time and has to work at the camp as community service. I loved the writing. I thought it was a good mix of history, slasher and ghost story. The characters were complex. I loved the ending. It was a short read, but loved it. I would definitely check out more books by this author.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys camp horror stories featuring diverse characters!

Camp Lanier is a YA horror with supernatural elements. As far as YA horror goes, it was entertaining though somewhat predictable. I did like Taylor's character, and the history of lake Lanier, but all in all the writing style was a little young for me.
Taylor is a black student in an affluent private school, who is befriended by a group of white girls who convince her to hang out and steal. Though wary she eventually joins in but when they are caught Taylor is the one thrown under the bus. When confronted with jail or community service at Camp Lanier she takes the later. But once there Taylor begins seeing a ghost, hearing cries at night, and when a girl named Mia goes missing and is brushed off as a runaway her and another camper team up to get to the truth. Are the missing kids of Lake Lanier do to runaways or is there a killer running around taking girls that won't be missed.
I give this book a 3.5⭐'s rounded down, but for me it is because the writing is more for a younger audience.
Thank you netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Ghosts, camp and a slasher?!? I had a feeling going into this that I would love it, but I didn't realize just how much! It confronts racism and it is based on a real history of Lake Lanier. That made this book that much more horrific! I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who likes the camp, slasher, haunting tropes. Great for a summer read!

This was a great quick read! I really enjoyed the whole story and plot. Taylor gets thrown under the bus by her "friends" for shoplifting and gets community service at Camp Lanier. She arrives to be told there is no room for her so she can room with Victoria as alternates. The 2 girls become friends. Taylor starts to experience some weird things around camp, hearing things that no one can hear, seeing things that no one can see. She soon learns that every year people tend to go missing at Camp Lanier and are labeled as runaways. She does not believe this and teams up with Liam to figure out what is really going on. Taylor hates all things spooky and hates horror movies, but she needs to find her friend Mia after she mysteriously disappears. She may not like the truth but Taylor brings it out and exposes Camp Lanier for what it really is.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A black teen facing jail time is given a deal and ordered to instead spend a summer at Camp Lanier.

YA Horror is very hit or miss for me, and I honestly didn't realize this was YA when I picked it up. That being said, this reads more on the juvenile side. The main character talks to the reader frequently, and while I can't say that it "didn't work," I just had a hard time with the voice. The side character Victoria was a standout and probably my favorite.

The themes are very heavy-handed, and I'd prefer if they were more nuanced. Again, because it's YA, I'm going to give it a pass.

I enjoyed the horror elements incorporated at the end, even if the execution and writing felt a little amateur.

Overall, I did have a good time, and I think a younger audience or someone who reads more YA and middle grade horror than I do will love this.

When Taylor is accused of committing a crime and sentenced, she is offered a get out of jail card: work a summer at Camp Lanier instead. The offer seems too good to be true, and maybe it is…the idyllic lake holds more than a few secrets, and some secrets are dying to be told.

Camp Lanier is a fast-paced horror that merges slasher and paranormal horror in a great combination that works surprisingly well. Through the entire story there is a constant but gentle reminder that systemic racism in society and Black History in America is more terrifying than a lot of horror books can even dare to imagine. The history behind the story will break your heart and set your pulse racing in equal measure, and every character is well developed. Barzey clearly has a love of the horror genre, and I really enjoyed the Easter eggs that were peppered in to the story (shout out to Gale Prescott).

The book contains minimal gore in favour of building suspense in the story and I think that worked well. My only criticism was that I found the ending a little rushed, I wanted more scenes with the lake and seeing what was there! But overall this was a great read and I loved the history behind the influences of the story at the end to add lots of context

What a ride this book was! Was not expecting the twist and turns that occurred. It sucked me in from the beginning with the gripping story of the FMC and the history behind it. My favorite thing about this book is the history the author gives you after the book is over about Camp Lanier and Oscarville

I downloaded a review copy of this from Netgalley on the basis of its interesting plot, which is a fictionalized version of a real place and events (look up the history of Lake Lanier). This is YA, and a bit on the younger side of YA, so comparing it to something like Tananarive Due's brilliant "The Reformatory" is not really fair, but it immediately read to me like a more simplified/slasher fic version of that book. That's not to say I didn't enjoy this one. While you might not get all the depth and nuance here that's in the Reformatory, let's face it, sometimes you want the full, five-course gourmet meal and sometimes you just want some easy fast food. I read this through in two days, the plot is somewhat predictable if you're at all familiar with horror conventions, but plays with it just enough to keep you wanting to turn the page. The most interesting parts to me were learning the history of lake and the town, and at heart this is a good old fashioned ghost/revenge story, with a bit of camp slasher thrown in and a satisfying, if mostly unsurprising, ending.

What a great story this was. Firstly, I have to talk about Taylor. She was a straightforward main character with whom to connect. You wanted her to succeed in everything and felt for her when she was knocked back down. I physically yelled at my phone when I read about how her so-called friends did her dirty and got her sent to this bogus camp. This started as a creepy ghost story. The image is indeed under my skin. Then, it took a hard turn into a slasher novel towards the end. I loved how the novel blurred horror genres and showed a little bit each. This was a great ghost story with some fantastic slasher elements.

Thank you NetGalley, Sterling & Stone, and Sylvester Barzey for the early access copy of Camp Lanier.

Camp Lanier follows the story of Taylor Johnson, an on-the-rise basketball star in high school, who finds herself in legal trouble after trying to fit in with her wealthy, white "friends" from her new school. After a failed attempt to shoplift, her friends throw the blame on Taylor, which leaves her with the choice to go to jail or work Camp Lanier to serve her time with community service. Seems like an easy choice. That is until Taylor realizes that Camp Lanier is no ordinary camp.

Urban legends say the camp was built on a Black town that experienced atrocities. When Taylor begins to see and hear things that no one else can, she is left to try to figure out what is happening before she becomes another “runaway.”

Stay away from the lake.

Camp Lanier is a descriptive and gripping YA horror novel.

I wanted to like this but just couldn't. So many parts of this book are disjointed and don't make sense. I understand sending the kids to a work camp and Lake Lanier are both true stories but they didn't blend well in this story. Taylor's accent comes and goes and I just could NOT like her.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC! 

Camp Lanier follows, Taylor, a young black girl who attends a mostly white private school. When her friends get her to steal from a store in the mall, she ends up in more trouble than she thought possible. 
She is sent to a program at Lake Lanier instead of jail, but Camp Lanier has hauntingly dark secrets lurking in its waters. 
Taylor is haunted by the lake’s history and must solve the mystery of years of missing people at the Camp. 

I’ve always been saddened and intrigued with Lake Lanier. I’ve lived in Georgia all my life and our history is full of tragedies like Oscarville. While this story is lightly based on the history of the lake and Forsyth County, GA, this story gives hope for the victims of our history to find peace. I’ve always steered clear of Lake Lanier and will never step foot near that lake. Seriously, stay out of Lake Lanier.

This supernatural YA horror story reads closer to middle grade, in style if not content, with the protagonist constantly addressing the reader directly, and it felt both forced and unimaginative, though maybe a younger audience would find it more inviting. I can get over the style, because even if it didn’t vibe with me it was a clear, artistic decision. But everything just felt so expected. The characters were exactly who you would expect them to be, stereotypes/archetypes to a tee. Even their family histories and traumas felt like boxes being checked without much creativity. There wasn’t anything particularly original or unexpected in the plot, and when the ending is revealed it is exactly what you expect it to be from the start.

I appreciate a story that is focusing the Black experience, and using horror to reflect on institutional and generational horrors that many marginalized people are born into, only to have to face additional horrors on top of that bloody inheritance. But everything in this story felt really ham-fisted; there wasn’t any subtlety or nuance to the story at all. The underlying message, or the fire energizing this story, doesn’t need to be subtle—racism in contemporary America isn’t subtle. But the story itself could have used nuance, it could have explored characters that weren’t so stereotypical and predictable, be they heroic or villainous.

This story might work well for young readers, and I am inclined to give it an extra star to compensate for just how much this is not written for my particular aesthetic or enjoyment—I knew from the first chapter alone it wasn’t writing hat appealed to me. But I have read other horror stories for young readers and enjoyed them, as it is possible to write YA stories that have depth and complications, that build up characters that feel genuine, and that are willing to challenge and push their readers instead of serving them the simplest and most expected version of a thing.

This isn’t a bad book, and the central conceit is engaging and has a lot of potential. It just felt clumsy and expected, not really making the most of its premise.

(Rounded up from 2.5)

I want to thank the author, the publisher Sterling & Stone, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This girl lets herself be influenced by her so-called friends to rob a store... 1. What kind of values ​​does she have that she couldn't deny? 2. Is her need so much that she prefers to be friends with the worst people at school? 3. Why does she complain about when her parents punish her for being a thief? She was expecting a prize, perhaps?
I think she is old enough to help with household expenses, but apparently she only serves to cause more expenses...
14% and the protagonist becomes more unfriendly as the book progresses. Until now the complaints and lamentations do not stop. She even seems plaintive!
Cariño, no sólo eres tonta también eres estúpida y además una malcriada llorona e inútil. Honey, you're dumb and stupid, but also a whiny, useless brat.
Sorry, life is too short to waste it reading about a person who isn't worth the air they breathe.

What an amazing read! I loved it immensely and found it so engaging. I highly recommend it! Don’t miss out!

Thank god this was short and I was able to finish in a day 😵‍💫 This book read like a poorly written YA novel. Truly, it was like a horror story and old student of mine (4th grader mind you) could have written. Everything felt so rushed and cliche.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book

I enjoyed this story for the most part, but I was hoping for more slasher horror. I didn't realize that it was classified as YA. That was my mistake. This book took a while to get to the "scary" parts. I would consider it more of a supernatural read with the real horrors being the racism and injustices that the Black characters had to endure. And, to find out that the town and lake are real and the Oscarville story is based off of true historical events. Just more entitled white folks stealing shit that doesn't belong to them and killing Black people because they don't want them in their community. Assholes!! I loved our FMC, Taylor. Her lingo and sarcasm made this book fun. I know that this was an ARC, but I hope that the writing errors are fixed during editing. It made it hard to read at times. I would definitely recommend it for supernatural lovers.   

Thank you to the author, Sterling & Stone, and NetGalley for granting me digital access in exchange for my honest review!