Esme and her best freind Kayla didn’t mean for anything bad to happen when they snuck out that night.
The big kids had done the same – slipping out of their summer camp cabins to have a campfire of their own in the surrounding forest.
Things went spectacularly wrong for Esme and Kayla, and ten years later they still hide their guilty secret. When a summer camp pamphlet arrives in the mail, Esme wonders whether she could actually return to the place so etched on her conscience, this time as a CIT (Counselor in Training), looking after a group of 8 and 9 year olds for the summer.
Maybe it’s a way to redeem themselves and diminish their guilt from when they were only 8 years old themselves?
Although it feels strange to be back in the place they swore to never speak of again, the friends settle into their new positions, meet other CIT’s who are pretty cute in the bargain and enjoy the fun activities.
At least until they find a note. Then graffiti, an axe and initials carved next to their bunk. They know these initials. they know who was there that night ten years ago. More threats come. Esme is super paranoid as the threats intensify. She knows one person who may have revenge in mind, but who is helping them? Is it someone within the camp?
Finally a Face-off at the end of a gun barrel is the only way left – but the revenge doesn’t mean a bullet for Esme, but something much worse.
The Lake might be hung on the well used trope of someone or something terrorising a lakeside summer camp, and this is even mentioned by the characters themselves, but the rising tension, increasing paranoia and building guilt is engrossing and exciting.
The girls weren’t the only ones carrying a guilty secret about that night, which intensifies the stress levels throughout the camp. They know they’re being watched from the trees too which adds a creep factor into the narrative.
Esme’s paranoia is clear to the reader as we read her thoughts and dialogue – most of the time clashing as she hides her decade old secret. Should you pay the ultimate price for a mistake made when you were only 8 years old?
Author – Natasha Preston
Age – 12+
(2021, Penguin Random House, Guilt, Camping, Murder, Crime, Betrayal, Growing up, Mystery, Revenge, Romance, Secret, Fire)