Reviews - The Counselors | The StoryGraph

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1.36k reviews for:

The Counselors

Jessica Goodman

3.48 AVERAGE

kassyballard's review against another edition

3.0

mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

awalllibrarian's review against another edition

3.0

emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

sassicaligirl's review against another edition

3.0

FIVE STARS FOR THE WRITING
TWO STARS FOR THE PLOT

This is a hard book for me to rate. The writing was phenomenal. The characters were incredible and I loved them. But it felt like the author was worried no one would read a book about a summer camp so she randomly tossed it a "plot" in the last pages. I definitely recommend giving it a read but I couldn't give someone a synopsis or even know how to explain the book to someone if I was asked.

bookwormextreme's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

grimdark_dad's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Not my favorite Jessica Goodman thus far. Where [book:They'll Never Catch Us|55648616] had that thriller feeling, this one lacks the tension from her previous novels. Maybe because I didn't feel like the stakes were as high? I also figured out the mystery/twist a little early in the novel, which might be a side effect of reading a lot of YA mystery/thriller books. I'm generally good at guessing them now.

Outside of the plot, I also didn't find the characters to be all that likeable. I mean, they were fine. Just getting along. But I wasn't super invested in their stories or the circumstances that they found themselves in. I was pretty disappointed by the ending because I also felt like there was something missing? It just didn't feel satisfying overall as a book.

That being said, if you love summer camp vibes with a bit of murder mystery, this might be up your alley! It just wan't necessarily my cup of tea.

Content Warnings

docmollyreads's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

allisonhollingsworth's review against another edition

2.0

“That was before we learned the truth. About Ava, Imogen, and me—and how far we’d go to protect each other even after we had been exposed.” This YA thriller follows a girl named Goldie, and every summer she’s spent at Camp Alpine Lake. She loves it there, where a lot of more wealthy kids go, and even though her family is not necessarily weather herself, with her parents’ connections to the family she is able to go and in turn rubs some people from her small town the wrong way, because the campers always come for the summer to their town and while they are a major money maker for the town, they don’t tip well and aren’t always nice. So right away we’ve established some tension between these two parts of Goldie’s like, and it’s like she’s almost two different people. At camp, she has two best friends, Ava and Imogen. During the summer this book takes place in, Goldie has gone through a traumatic event that her friends don’t know about: she fell in love with a boy named Heller. One night after they left a party with too much to drink, Heller hits one of their peers who is paralyzed. Terrified about what this will mean for his future, he asks Goldie if they can tell everyone she was driving, and she agrees (!). Listen, I know that love makes you do crazy things, but that’s just gross that he asks her to do that. And not only that, but he basically ignores her after the accident and she is forced to sign an NDA to keep silent. Fast forward to this summer, Heller winds up dead in Alpine Lake. The two people who run the camp, Stu and Mellie, say that it’s just an accident, but I knew there was more to it. I wouldn’t say that i predicted what they were up to, but once Goldie mentions that there a place on campus where students aren’t allowed to go, I knew they were up to something. I thought maybe they were hiding dead bodies in there or something. The actual truth was a lot less exciting. Basically they were embezzling, and Heller had found that out and was trying to reveal the truth. They killed him to keep everything quiet. And I guess what it came down to was that I just didn’t… care. I wanted there to be a bigger punch. A bigger conspiracy. I felt a bit disappointed. I also felt mixed feelings about how badly Goldie was trying to get justice for Heller. I know things are always complicated but I didn’t care about Heller so in turn I had a hard time caring about what our main character cared about - basically figuring out what happened to him. The friendship between the three girls was interesting. I like how they were all hiding something from each other and finally admitting those secrets to each other made them closer. So I liked that aspect of the story, but it didn’t really tie into the Heller story in my opinion, so I could leave it.

thedreamer's review against another edition

3.0

mysterious slow-paced

amandathebookishlibrarian's review against another edition

4.25

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Content Warnings

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