I feel a rush of complicated feelings with this one, specially because it is from a genre that I am not used to reading, I wanted to try something new and this one was definitely something that was not similar to any other book I’ve read before.
I have to admit that for the most part of the book I didn't really know what was going on with the plot, or characters, secrets, or the weird stuff that seemed to happen at random.
The characters were as weird, I di not fully understood the, but they were not hateful or in a way that repelled my interest, although they weren’t super interesting either; specially the main character. For my point of view, she was the type of character that the author wan’t to pass as mysterious by giving them a traumatic event of the past that don’t review until the very end, but through the the book they give hints that it was something horrible; that trope is honestly overused and irritating, but anyway.
Honetly the end was the best of the book. Some parts in the middle were also memorable, but the disturbing scenes were the ones that got stuck in my mind.
This book talks about sensible subjects like rape, torture, murder, blood, cults, etc. Make sure you are aware of these warnings before reading the book.

DNF. I made it 50 percent into the audiobook and decided not to read the rest. It lost my attention, the audiobook itself was pretty good.

This was a super atmospheric read! YA Horror is a generally intriguing concept and I typically enjoy a good creepy and mysterious camp setting! Add in a secret society and I’m hooked!

I enjoyed Rubins writing and liked how I felt right at the camp alongside Arlee! It was dark and twisty in an entertaining way but unfortunately this one just ended up being a little too “out there” for me.

This review contains spoilers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

I had found this book through the publishers website before I found it on NetGalley. I was intrigued by the description and the cover. Immediately it was added to my TBR upon publication date.

I was so excited when I was invited to review the audio book and had high expectations for this story by Julia Lynn Rubin.

"Primal Animals" fell flat for me almost immediately and it was a struggle for me to finish it in it's entirety. The main character Arlee Gold was afraid of bugs, liked by other campers but somehow complained constantly of people avoiding her or talking about her, and immediately fell in love with a character I never really felt connected to or felt like I knew.

The secret sisterhood was also confusing. Arlee was told to protect the girls (her new sisters) and to keep things secret and safe. Yet everyone at camp knew what Arlee's mom Sam, supposedly did to a boy when she went to the camp and was part of the secret sisterhood.

To me, this story just felt like 100 good ideas not fully thought out and just thrown together to finish a story, instead of a handful of really good story lines fully planned out around each other to create an adventure for the readers.

While "Primal Animals," wasn't for me, if the description sounds good to you, please give it a shot. I think this book is very polarizing and you may end up loving it!

THANK YOU NETGALLEY FOR THIS ALC!

This book was fantastic! Just the right kind of weird mixed with reality that I love. Arlee is attending a summer camp that her mother just knows she’s gonna love, bc of course she went and made some of the best friends there. The whole camp gives off weird vibes from the beginning and goes even more off the rails when she sees a strange figure with a horse mask.

It’s the vibes for me. The whole ominous feeling throughout. It really sucked me in and kept me going. I literally binged this book in 2 days! I immediately ordered a copy as soon as I finished! I loved the found family friendship. Her bunk mates were all so distinct in my mind. I loved getting some of their backgrounds as well. Winnie 🥺 I love her so much and the slow build of the relationship between her and arlee made my heart so happy!

The last line completely broke my heart! I need all the details please!!!!

Encouraged by her mother to face her fear of bugs, Arlee Gold attends a college prep summer camp where her mother is a legacy. Arlee’s mom continually assures her that she’s going to have the best summer ever. So, there’s nothing to worry about, right?

Wrong. There’s something not quite right about Camp Rockaway and everyone who attends the camp. That’s a huge part of why this YA Horror is so intriguing. The mystery only grows with the introduction of a secret society and murder. But the questions remain: Who is Caroline Gold? Why is she so infamous at Camp Rockaway?

I went into Primal Animals thinking this book was going to be a sweet, cutesy fun summer-camp read. Nuh-huh. This young book is fun, but it is dark! Camp Rockaway turns into Camp Crystal. With that being said, I LOVED this book! Primal Animals held my interest from the beginning, and I read Primal Animals in one sitting. Thank you so much to the narrator for that! The narration by Suzy Jackson is wonderful and held my attention the throughout.

Thank you so much to RB Media and Netgalley for the gifted copy and for the amazing opportunity to read and review Primal Animals.

I did not enjoy this book. There were too many characters and nothing made sense - the logic score is low for this one. This is the second time I've rated a JLR book 2 stars so I won't read any more by this author.

Good but not scary and nothing truly happened. I think a lot with the secret society and friendships could have happened but more was taken up by anxiety and hatred of bugs than anything else. It is odd because I did enjoy the book but it could have been better.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

This wasn't quite what I was expecting, but in a good way! Summer camp with a sinister twist. Sometimes the pacing felt off but overall I enjoyed this, and the narrator was good.

4 Stars ~
I received an audiobook ARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review, thank you NetGalley!

Primal Animals is a YA Horror novel with LGBTQIA+ and mental illness representation, we love to see that!
This novel follows Arlee at a summer camp for elite college prep, in which she is a legacy. Arlee has a phobia of bugs and her anxiety is at an all-time high being the newbie at Camp Rockaway. Arlee has an off feeling about Camp Rockaway and the people around her, she is invited to join a secret society, where things just become more obscure.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, it was fun, spooky and at some points gut-wrenching. I do feel it had the potential for more of an explanation within the ending, but maybe it is setting up for a sequel? And just to mention, the narration by Suzy Jackson was brilliant.

Parts of this book are not for the faint-hearted, so please check trigger warnings.

This story has a super interesting premise and I was looking forward to listening to the audiobook. While I enjoyed the narration by the talented Suzy Jackson, I wasn't able to get into the story. It was slow and meandering for me and I just couldn't connect with the characters at all. Hence, unfortunately, I did not finish this audiobook.

***Thank you Recorded Books for the gifted listening copy. All opinions expressed are my own.***

Going into this I thought I was going to reading a casual little summer camp mystery. I had no clue we were going into college prep summer camp haunted by an active all women cult dating back the pilgrim era.

I was in shock by the turns through the entire book from opening to those final quarter twists. There were parts that I thought were predictable at first, but then out of nowhere it would flip the complete opposite way.

I do give off one point for no content warnings. This work deals a lot with drinking and assault. I also gave a point off because of frequent the alcohol and drug use of 16 years was. I get it’s a summer camp but that was a bit shocking.

In the end, I did bump it back up to 4 because the content of the story was just so intense and good.

Thank you to #recordedbooks and #netgalley for the audio arc of this book. I would most likely end up purchasing a hard copy of this to read again.

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books, I received this arc for my honest review.

So I wasn't super sure of this book when I started it but by the end of chapter one I WAS HOOKED. The main girl Arlee Gold goes to a prestigious summer camp in South Carolina, the same camp her mother went to and loved, so she decides it'll be good for her to follow in her mom footsteps and make a "fresh start". Little does she know how crazy if not horrifying this summer will be. There's wlw between Arlee and her cabin mate (won't say to ruin it to much). There's a secret society running behind the scenes, murder, emotional trauma, ptsd, and I'm pretty sure this is going to be a series with how the book ended. It had me hanging on to the very end! This was a fantastic book, well written, twist and turns, a horror story just in time for this summer!

Primal Animals is a story about a summer camp, where not everything is as it seems. Arlee Gold has enrolled at Camp Rockaway, not entirely sold on the idea to spend her summer there but determined to use her time there as a new start. But in the midst of camp activities and partying, she is quickly pulled into a much darker story than she’d have ever expected.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. The narration and the writing style were easy to follow, and the story sucked me in from the beginning. My favorite part was probably the atmosphere the book created. The descriptions of the camp, the environment, and the people were so vivid, that I almost felt like I was with the characters at Camp Rockaway. The story itself was also fairly compelling, though I’d have hoped that a little more would’ve happened in the first half of the book. It felt like the first half was mostly set up for things happening later down the line, but it was still enjoyable. The pace definitely picked up in the second half, and that’s when I started really loving this book. The end felt a little rushed, but I still liked the way things wrapped up.

I’d recommend this book to fans of creepy, twisted stories and YA thrillers. Trigger warnings do include sexual assault, blood and gore, and a bunch of dead animals.

Listen, I get why this book isn't for everyone - but it as for me. The reviews I saw were so varied that I was real nervous about picking this one up, but it was the collection of tropes for me. This book is graphic and I would highly recommend looking up trigger warnings. If you don't like gore - do not pick up this book.

This book is a fun trifecta of unhinged teenage girls (my fave!), rich kids at summer camp, cults, and ambiguous endings. I am here for it. The atmosphere is spectacular - especially the bugs and how Arlee is afraid of them.

I do agree with some other reviews that Arlee is the worst character, but I think the book still works that way. You can see why Arlee feels the way she does, acts the way she does, and still think she's wrong.

#PrimalAnimals:⁣
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Initial Thought: Someone tell old Arles what’s going on! ⁣
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Review: Primal Animals had the potential to be a real banger. The sinister vibes, the campground setting, the “protect the girls” sisterhood, ooh it was so good. Unfortunately, it took a hot minute to get there and to also get answers. The build up was great, until I got tired of it and was ready for some answers.⁣
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I’m all for any kind of “we will find a way for our kids to be successful” kind of plot. This takes place at Camp Rockaway (now lean back, lean back.. IYKYK), which is a college prep camp. But this place has secrets bigger than my hair at a sorority formal. ⁣
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This is what I’d like to think of when I hear YA horror. I was throughly creeped out, but also questioning what is real? People really were getting away with ANYTHING, and not an eyelash was batted. The flashbacks from Arlee were sinister and had me worried this was about to be a Carrie 2.0. The entire time there’s a lingering question or two. No one wants to talk about it. It’s so taboo. The revelation was extremely dark and actually audibly gassed whenever they were all revealed. I just.. gruesome. ⁣
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I listen to this on audio and so I had other things to distract me while I was listening. (all my laundry is officially done thx) I still felt it took a bit too long to get to the big reveals. I feel like if I didn’t have this things to distract me, I probably would’ve given up or I would’ve flipped a few pages. But, once we got there, oh I was shocked. I just wished we got there quicker. Suzy Jackson MADE this narration, and I highly recommend if you’re going to read this, get it on audio.⁣
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Overall, This bit creepy and sinister with a jaw dropping ending. However, it was met with a lukewarm reception by how long it took to get there. If you’re into horror with a dash (and I mean a sliver) of a summer romance, and love YA, check out Primal Animals! Thank you so much @wednesdaybooks and @recordedbooks for the gifted copy. Primal Animals is out 5/24! ⁣
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QOTD: Give me a horror movie/book/attraction recommendation!

A fun book, not my usual jam but an interesting queer summer camp creep-fest. Points for diversity - not all the girls were white or cis or straight - and the main romance was pretty well developed. Objectively good even if it wasn't to my tastes.

Arlee Gold is about to spend her summer at Camp Rockaway, an elite summer camp that promotes extracurriculars and test scores to get into good colleges. She’s a legacy, in fact, her mother is a legend at camp, though from some of the looks Arlee gets, perhaps her mother is more infamous than anything. Her mother promises this summer will change everything, and when Arlee is invited into a secret sisterhood, she finds out that’s true, though she never planned on dead bodies and nefarious secrets. Protect the girls.

This book moved super quickly, was full of secrets and blood, and had a budding queer romance to boot. Though boarding schools are my number one setting, I also enjoy a summer camp, especially a mysterious one that may have ties to the occult. The pace and twists kept me entertained (and awake) during a long drive home from a road trip last week. I usually get sleepy after an hour or so on an audiobook while driving, but I plowed right on through this one to the end.

Keep an eye out for it next week wherever you get your books and or audiobooks!

3 stars
I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
The narrator was great. But the story was lacking. I didn't care for the ending. It was a bit gross. Also, it got overly descriptive of the clothing. As well as just falling flat. I mean it was okay and I liked some of the characters, but it was a bit predictable. I saw most of the twists coming. But I liked that it was diverse and most of the characters were lovable, but not the main mc.

I was excited about the story at the outset, but ultimately I didn't like where it went or how it was set up. I do think this will work for some people, but it just didn't work for me. It was definitely unsettling and the horror elements came through.

I did enjoy the narrator of the story and felt overall the audiobook was good (ie: I don't think I would have enjoyed the story any more if I'd read it physically instead of via audio)

SPOILERS:
I was confused by the basic motivations of the characters and the point. I was confused when the MC learned of the cult. She went from "WTF is happening" to "these are my sisters" so quick and I did not understand how she got there. I didn't feel the characters or relationships were fleshed out enough for me to be invested.