Book Review by Alex White, Craig County Public Library librarian
Goldie Easton has had the worst year of her life. It seems the whole town of Roxwood hates her, she has to repeat her senior year of high school, and she can’t even defend herself by telling the truth. However, her one silver lining is she will be a lifeguard counselor at the best, exclusive summer camp in the area, Camp Alpine Lake.
There she will have a great summer getting to see her best friends, Ava and Imogen, as well as enjoy the fun and perks that come with watching over the children of the wealthiest and most influential people in New England. However, things get serious when one of the towns most beloved and popular hockey players, Heller McConnell, is found dead in the camp’s lake leading many to question if it was truly an accident. Now she has to decide whether she can trust her lifelong friends, whom have plenty of secrets of their own, and find out what’s really going on in what was a seemingly perfect camp.
This is a thrilling who-done-it young adult fiction novel about growing up between a town falling apart from economic depression and a camp full of rich children who don’t have to consider their actions and consequences because they are supported by their parents’ money. Goldie’s most heartbreaking ordeal occurs when she realizes can’t tell her own best friends what she’s going through in fear of them rejecting her because they wouldn’t understand the sacrifices she had to make to her own future to save the future of someone she loves.
However, even though her friends are rich, they still face their own demons and have secrets that they don’t want others to know about for their own future prospects. In order for them to find common ground and help each other achieve lasting happiness, they need to get over the wealth gap and see that they’re really just teenage girls going through growing pains in order to become the women they want to become. While it’s a great mystery, ultimately it’s about friendship and trusting your friends to be there for you even when there are insurmountable odds against them. So dive on in to this touching and thrilling tale, just make sure there’s a lifeguard on duty.