A review by r_j_setser
Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

1.0

 *crickets chirping*

I have no idea why I finished this. Maybe because I received it for free to review and felt guilty abandoning it early? Maybe because I hoped that the resolution would be worth the cringe? I don't know. I just know that I wish I had stopped reading it back at 20% as I felt I should.

There is so much to unpack with this, so I'll start with why I think I kept reading: I liked Grant. And I was curious about what secrets Camp Zero held. There is a truly masterful undertone of suspense in this book. I felt bored throughout most of the story because of how slowly it moved, but the curiosity of what the camp was, the mystery shrouding all of the characters, and the heaviness of the world, all of it together just kept reeling me in. I had to know what happened, even though every revelation and new plot development left me even more appalled than I already was. Truly, this writing is unlike anything I've ever encountered. A slow burn suspense with a plot twist that repulsed me; I've never read anything like it.

However, personally, I almost dropped this book several different times. First, I feel like the main character's job should've been disclosed in the blurb because had I known that she were a "pleasure" worker, I would've known right away that this book wouldn't have been for me. As the blurb is now, I was quite shocked by her career of choice, though I do have to say that I was surprised at how "clean" the s*xual content is in light of that. There are conversations about her work and a couple of very brief, dry descriptions, but there is no spice. So, I chose to honor my pledge to finish and review the book and skipped over the parts that made me uncomfortable and just focus on the story.

I think my biggest reason for disliking this book is the doom and gloom feeling of everything. It was an incredibly depressing book and felt to me like a "all men are evil s*x fanatics and deserve to die" message. I'm all for women-empowerment stories and men paying for their evil deeds, but this one just painted such a focus on the darkness in our world that even the "good" male characters were roped into the same categories as the "bad" ones. And call me naive, but I know that there are still a lot of really good men left in the world.

Upon finishing the book, I just didn't feel satisfied with the plot. There were a lot of implied resolutions, but no absolutes, and honestly that just frustrated me.

Overall, I don't think I'll forget reading this book which is a compliment to the writer, but it's not a book that I would ever recommend to my circle of friends. And as I said earlier, I'm still shocked that I actually finished it.

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