The Lake House is an intriguing YA thriller with a heart-pounding premise about being abandoned on an isolated island. I could relate to Claire's anxiety 110%. I'd love to read more of Durst's work, as the teen-thriller category could stand to expand more.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. The Lake House is available now.

I was so excited about this book because I have loved other books by author Sarah Beth Durst. Yes, those were fantasy and this is not, but her writing was just so wonderful in those other books that I didn’t expect it to matter. Unfortunately, whether the concept or the genre, The Lake House just didn’t work for me.

This book follows Claire, a teen girl who is on her way to a summer camp (that never starts off well, does it horror officionados?). She has two other girls with her: Mariana and Reyva. They are dropped off, the boat speeds away- and then they notice something odd. The Lake House has been completely burned down, leaving nothing behind but a single dead body. They have to somehow survive being stranded in the wilderness and, even worse, something is hunting them.

It’s a decent premise, with a lot of potential. You take a group of people who don’t know each other, plunk them out of their element, tell them to survive, then add an actively evil agent: the makings of a fun book or a spooky movie. For some reason, though, these elements clashed. Sometimes the book felt solely like an outdoor survival type of novel. Much emphasis was placed on gutting fish, hiding tracks, etc. While it was interesting to see these characters learn and adapt to their surroundings, it didn’t mesh well with the other element. That of an evil being (supernatural or human, I’m not telling) that wishes them harm.

Oddly for me, I enjoyed the survival aspect more. It could be because there was more detail to those sections. The author seemed more enthusiastic about those parts, which in turn made me more interested in them. The natural element of danger- that of finding food, shelter, etc- seemed more pressing than the physical danger they were in from the mysterious being. I’m not a survival manual kind of gal, so I was surprised by this.

The other danger felt a little half-baked and underdeveloped. I wish a little more time had been spent building a sense of impending doom with this. And I definitely would have liked more detail or background on it. The premise had so much potential! It just didn’t pay off.

There were things to both like and dislike with the characters. It was refreshing to see three teen girls without the cattiness that is often described in those sorts of interaction. They worked well together and acknowledged each other’s strengths. That was great to see. They weren’t caricatures, although they could have been if written less deftly. Mariana is the “material girl”, but she is also a great mechanic, for example, lending an extra layer to her personality.

Each of them has something about their past or personality that they don’t want others to know. The reader only knows Claire’s secret right away, of course. I liked these secrets because they were believable. Claire has crippling anxiety. As someone with an anxiety disorder, I could relate to that. I do wish that there had been more to her personality than her anxiety, which overshadowed things a bit. On the other hand, I was cheering for her to succeed despite her (justified, in this case) extreme worry.

The things that were done well were, unfortunately, not enough to push The Lake House into the “like” category for me. I fully acknowledge that this is probably a wrong person for this genre sort of situation. Sarah Beth Durst has written other books that I have adored. I would still recommend those to everyone and their cousin. At the end of the day, though, this book just wasn’t for me.

The Lake House is a phenomenal YA thriller from start to finish. Filled to the brim with twists and a captivating plot, this one is sure to keep readers hooked. The characters are well-developed. The story is incredibly fast-paced. This is one not to be missed! Highly recommended! Be sure to check out The Lake House asap.

This book really just took me for a ride. I loved the build up, the character development, and the writing. I would definitely read more from this author!

The Lake House kept me reading all night wanting to know more. It had twists I did not see coming and I found all the characters to be entertaining in their own ways. The ending left me shocked.

This was a terrifying YA thriller, that would be perfect to read when you want to scare yourself!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

Thank you to the author and publisher for an early copy of this book.

I think in general, I enjoyed this book, but there were certain parts of the book that didn't make sense, and left me wanting for more resolution. Overall, while a bit disturbing, I think its a good YA book.

Ominous!

Claire has been sent on an enrichment retreat by her parents. She meets Reyva and Mariana who have also been sent to “grow through experiences” at The Lake House summer camp. The three soon discover that nothing is what they expected. The danger builds along with the creepy foreboding. The teens learn that they have to run and hide to save themselves because no one is coming to help.

Likes/dislikes: I enjoyed the whole mystery of the story. I like how ominous the reveal was. The three main characters grew on me.
Mature content: PG for brief kiss, survival struggles such as hunger and dehydration.
Violence: PG-13 for finding a body killed by shooting, being shot at, being held at knife point, suicidal death by gunshot with no details.
Language: PG-13 for 14 swears, no f-words.

This book has everything. A gripping thriller that kept you turning the page the entire time, along with a lovely tale of friendship and loving and embracing who you are. The summertime "enrichment retreat" for three young girls is sent.

The Lake House was on fire, and the camp director was dead, when these tardy guests finally arrived. They believe they are alone, thus their major concerns are with surviving and escaping the wilderness. But they quickly discover that they are not alone; a man armed with a gun is after them. Finding food and water is only the first step in their deepest form of survival.

interesting and entertaining, I will be definitely be reading more from this author.

The Lake House is Sarah Beth Durst’s YA thriller that does overtime as a survival horror. It follows three teen girls who arrive at the Maine-based Lake House camp expecting a sun-soaked summer of adventures and fun on the island but instead find themselves trapped in a terrifying nightmare.

Our protagonist is Claire, a world-class worrier. A pessimist at heart, she always thinks of the worst-case scenario in every situation, obsessing over every single detail so that she can be prepared when things inevitably go wrong. This year, she’s working on her extracurriculars in preparation for college, and her parents have signed her up for summer camp at Lake House she can add an off-the-grid experience to her application as well as make some new friends.

But when Claire arrives with Reyva and Mariana, her fellow would-be campers, all the girls discover at the site of Lake House is a burned-out husk of a building. Now that the boat that brought them here is gone and there’s no cell service, they’re also stuck. Worse, once they start exploring the surrounding woods, they also find the body of their camp director, dead by gunshot wound. Frightened and confused, the girls have no way off the island and must find a source of food and shelter before the storm arrives, not to mention the possibility of a killer on the loose.

I had mixed feelings about The Lake House. The vibe it’s going for is a bit of old-school slasher horror meets One of Us is Lying, which provides plenty of oomph to get the ball rolling. And roll it does, at least for the first half. We have three girls trapped at camp Lake House, or what’s left of it, each with their own reasons for being there, each with their own unique set of skills to bring to the table. For a while it was an awesome and suspenseful survival story, with shades of Lost. Claire’s anxiety and wariness ends up being an asset to the group as she alerts her new friends to all the potential dangers they could face out in the wilderness.

It goes on like this, with the characters sharing their stories and their strengths as they overcome the terrors thrown their way. Eventually though, we hit a peak and the intrigue high starts to wear off, leaving behind the doldrums. The horror element fades to the background as the plot trots out trope after thriller trope, even as the story’s overall pacing hits a wall. While there was no actual slowdown per se, it just felt like we were going around in circles stalling for time as we made virtually no headway on solving the greater mystery.

To be fair, if I hadn’t read any of the author’s previous work, I might have enjoyed this one a lot more. But having no less than half a dozen of Durst’s other books under my belt including her Queens of Renthia series and Bone Maker (my personal favorite), The Lake House simply felt underdeveloped and dull in comparison. Its premise was also too simplistic, the writing lacking in the deeper nuances that I know Durst is capable of, which is why I can’t see this as anything but a letdown. I suppose it’s fine if you aren’t expecting too much, but the author has written better books and I would recommend passing on this one.

This was an enjoyable edge-of-your-seat fast paced survival thriller with supernatural elements featuring strong female characters. I ended up enjoying it, although in the beginning, thanks to Claire's Debbie Downer vibes it was looking like a DNF. Surprisingly, by the end Claire ended up being my favorite character. (I just wish she would get help her panic attacks!) I have to say this book turned out completely differently than I had expected. The supernatural aspect fully took me by surprise.

More like 3.5?

This definitely had a twist I wasn't expecting, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I appreciated the survivalist elements and the way the girls bonded with and supported each other.

Definitely kept me on my toes! Totally expected it to go one way and it went a completely different way. It was enjoyable and will definitely be recommending this one!

Thank you to HCC Frenzy for an eARC via netgalley for me to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

CWs: guns, abandoned camp, injury detail (minor), panic attacks

This was a really interesting one. I figured out the twists pretty early because it was leading in that direction, but it still kept me fully engaged as I waited to see what would happen to the characters. The writing style was gripping, and the plot moved at a good pace for this kind of thriller.
I thought the characters were good. Claire, Reyva, and Mariana were all different, but they connected well to each other. I thought their friendship was sweet especially with how intimate and vulnerable they had to become due to their situation.
I thought the supernatural type twist was intriguing, but I also feel as if I’ve read some things that are similar. It didn’t feel like something that really surprised me, but it was interesting to see how the characters reacted.

Claire, Reyva, and Mariana arrive on a remote lake for a summer camp that their parents went to when they were kids. Their parents all decided to send them now since the camp is reopening after being closed for years. However, when they get to the camp, the house has burned down. Then they find a dead body in the woods. It’s too late for them to return to the mainland because the boat that dropped them off has left. The three girls must conquer their fears to survive the mysterious dangers of the lake house.

I don’t usually like survival stories like this one, but I was intrigued by the premise of this story. I really enjoyed it! The three girls had to figure out how to survive on the island with only the things they had brought for camp, but they also encountered other challenges throughout the story. There were a lot of unpredictable twists that kept the story suspenseful. There was a bit of a supernatural twist to the end of the story too that surprised me, but it all came together in the end.

The Lake House is a suspenseful new YA story!

Thank you HCC Frenzy for providing a digital copy of this book.

Content warnings: panic attacks, death, suicide, anxiety, broken bones, fire, gunshot death

If you liked the video games Until Dawn and/or The Quarry then this is the book for you! It hits a lot of the same notes: survival, murderous stranger, summer camp, and touch of the surreal. As far as books are concerned, if you liked The Woods Are Always Watching by Stephanie Perkins this is definitely something you might enjoy!

Our protagonist, Claire, thought her biggest worry at camp this summer was going to be trying to fit in. She's never been "normal," instead anticipating every worse case scenario. It turns out that habit is going to make her uniquely fit for the situation she finds herself in alongside two other young woman: their camp has burned to the ground, and they have no way to get help. What follows is a wild story of the three unlikely friends surviving the elements, a guy who wants to kill them, and a supernatural force that never wants them to leave the island.

I think I would have liked to know going in that we were headed towards the more surreal. I was really concerned it was going to go the Until Dawn route and use an indigenous belief but it didn't, as far as I can tell, which I can appreciate. I understand why they might not have marketed this aspect of it, but I think it ultimately set somewhat false expectations. There are only a few other things that I wasn't a huge fan of, one being some repetitive dialogue, but nothing insurmountable (the other big thing is below hidden because of spoilers).

If this sounds like something you'd be into, I really recommend it! A great summer read that I absolutely flew through and found myself looking forward to getting to read.

Spoiler: The part at the end when they forget about Jack felt rushed to me-- I understand it was the demon or whatever trying to get the girls to forget he was there but to me it didn't feel like that was fully fleshed out. Part of that I think is that they clearly didn't do a good job convincing the police why they forgot about him. I think it was pulled off really well in the writing, the girls forgetting about him, but I think the resolution could have been more believable. Not something that ruined it for me, just something I noticed.

I wanted to love this one but sadly it just didn't live up to what I was hoping for. I really loved the Queens of Renthia series by this author and I wished she would bring that kind of thing to her ya books. Because, although those were sold as adult they are so much better and very Ya for the most part. This one felt more like it had a great set up but failed to really execute what it needed to do. The dialogue kept getting in the way of the story and the characters were just kind of meh.

It is a survival thriller set on remote island vacation. Three teenage girls were sent to a summer camp their parents loved so much but so many things were not as they expected.
This book has great distinct characters, they are strong and vulnerable and their friendship bonding is very touching.

I loved the setting, survival mode was excellent and thrilling (I swear now I put a lighter and Swiss army knife in my purse just in case) - wet clothes, lack of food and rain water to drink, attempts to build a fire, forest everywhere which was both beautiful and scary.
Short chapters often ended up with a cliffhanger and I just couldn’t stop reading.

What didn’t fully work for me is a major twist at the end, it was not expected and felt a little bit out of place.

But it was still a very enjoyable and exciting read with lots of fascinating details.

This book had it all. A thriller that kept your mind turning through the entire story, as well as a touching story about friendship and accepting and loving who you are. Three young girls are sent to an "enrichment retreat" for the summer. Only when these late arrivals were dropped off at the waters edge, they find the Lake House burned and the camp director dead. Thinking they are alone, their main focus is on survival and finding a way out of the forest. However, they soon find out they are not alone, a man with a gun is hunting them. Their survival moves beyond finding food and water to survival of the deepest kind. These girls use all their resources to try to stay alive and outsmart the killer, discovering themselves and each other along the way. This book has you rooting for the underdog with your heart racing and your mind turning. This was my first book by this author, but it won't be my last!

In this summer camp turns survival story where three girls must do anything they can to survive after being left alone in a remote woods off the coast of Maine. But are they really alone?

A story of friendship, survival, and using what makes you different to make you stronger this is a can’t miss book.