The Girls from Hush Cabin was a fun thriller reminiscent of Pretty Little Liars that turned camp hi jinx into a high stakes murder mystery. The story kept my attention from the beginning and unfolded information in bites at a time to keep the who-done-it unpredictable but the story building. I thought the flow was good and it was clear that the author thought out not only where she wanted to go with it but how she would unveil the answers to the reader, tying up many loose ends at the resolution of the novel. One of the areas I struggled with was the personalities of the group of friends, I felt that they were very on the nose and almost shallow to fit into their archetypes. I also feel like the victims past transgressions which were a major plot point for the rekindling of the foursomes relationship were not resolved or really discussed further. Lastly, the twist at the very end felt trite and not needed almost like the author was reaching for as happy an ending as possible but it really didn’t make sense with the rest of the novel. Overall I enjoyed this read and would recommend it as a nice cabin or camping read. It’s a relatively easy goin thriller and was fun to see where it was going and watch the characters interact with each other.

Book Title: The Girls from Hush Cabin
Author: Marie Hoy-Henny ~ Debut Author
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Genre: Teen/YA, Mystery
Pub Date: August 15, 2023
My Rating: 3.3 Stars!

Story is told from the POV of Calista, Zoe, Holly, and Denise.
They were best friends and always looked forward to spending time together at summer camp; additionally they loved their camp counselor Violet. But their camping trips ended as some unexplained tragedy forced the camp to close.
Now years later they are together at Violet's funeral, they have changed but they agree that Violet's so-called accidental death just may be murder.
As the story goes on they find out more about really happened all those years ago.

I realize that I am not the target audience for this but as a high school counselor I always enjoy a good YA. It is always fun to mention books I like to my students.
Have to admit I was drawn to this great cover!

Although this wasn’t a big wow for me I have no doubt there is an audience who will totally enjoy it.
I did enjoy reading[author' Marie Hoy-Henny’s Acknowledgement! Also the cover is GREAT!

Want to thank NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for granting me this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for August 15, 2023

The Girls from Hush Cabin was a murder mystery thriller which promised a lot, but ultimately failed to live up to its promise. It concerns four teenage girls (around seventeen) who meet up for the funeral of their former summer camp counsellor (Violet) who drowned in a swimming pool. Set over a brief few days around the time of the funeral, for various reasons the former friends who suspect foul play. The Girls from Hush Cabin has four first person narratives, Zoe, Calistra, Holly and Denise, with this leading to the novels major weakness; I genuinely struggled to separate the narratives and they all merged together. Ultimately, they were too similar, all with their own secrets, and they all blended together and by the time the ending arrived I was beyond caring who the killer was, neither was there any great shock in the very disappointing ending. The girls were supposed to be approaching the end of high school, but came across as much older with underage drinking, man hunting and were all very unlikable.

The story is built around the fact that everybody has secrets and the fact that Violet, whom the four-hero worshipped, manipulated to get what she wanted over those earlier summers from the age of thirteen or so. Although there was an occasional flashback the story could have done with much more of ‘then’ scenes from Hush Cabin, instead of the continual referencing to the earlier events. I am not sure who exactly the book is pitched at, but these bitchy teen girls seemed out of place going to bars underage and getting involved in gangster types, all seemed incredibly unbelievable. In the end of the day the mystery they solved was very underwhelming and this is not a book I would particularly recommend. AGE RANGE 14+

Ahh!! Such a good mystery! It was a great YA mystery reminiscent of Holly Jackson or Maureen Johnson. I would highly recommend this one to any YA or mystery fan!

I found this to be a great-paced mystery YA novel. While I thought this book to be more of a personal 3-star book I would more appropriately rate this as 4 stars or more when taking into account the content as well as the age this book is targeted for. I liked the use of multiple perspectives to spread out information but I will say at times I was lost at whose point of view I was reading. Overall I think this book is worth the buy, especially for a slightly younger audience who likes novels with more modern-day slang used.

2/5 stars. To be released August 2023.

The Girls from Hush Cabin is a mystery thriller that follows four girls who are reunited for their camp counselor’s untimely funeral. Once the girls are back together, they realize something is not right with their counselor’s death. The girls seek to unravel the secrets she was hiding, all while trying to keep their own ties and their own secrets in the dark as well.

There was a lot happening in this book. The story is told through alternative points of view from each of the girls. They all have different secrets and motivations, some which are more believable than others. It checked all the boxes for your typical YA thriller but was just lacking the special spark to make it super engaging and interesting. As the book went on, I felt more annoyed by the characters and the scenarios they were placed in that I was completely disconnected by the time the mystery was solved.

I received and electronic copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I was just bored and not nearly invested enough to care about the secrets Violet made the girls keep during their years at camp. I think this book could have benefitted from a little more world building and character development. Zoe being cast as an easy alcoholic early on felt surface level and her narrated chapters didn't make her seem any less shallow. The other three girls were not even interesting enough to really remember and all four girls were hard to distinguish from each other.

<i>I received this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Going into this book, it sounded right up my alley! Suspense! A desolate summer camp, full of secrets and intrigue! Murder! Four girls with complicated pasts! Lesbians! I was down.

Unfortunately, <i>The Girls from Hush Cabin</i> didn't deliver for me, and I think it was mainly because of the way the story is structured. Most of the book takes place over the span of a couple of days, with four former cabin-mates reconvening after the death of their camp counsellor Violet. They all have differing feelings about Violet but one thing is clear - she had a lot of power over them. They immediately suspect that she was murdered and decide - for no reason, really - to try and solve the case.

Cue them royally screwing everything up. All the time. Although they have very distinct personalities, none of the girls really rang true for me. I didn't get the sense that real people would ever act the way they did. <spoiler>They were also very abusive toward Holly and this was completely excused and swept under the rug. Denise was on the verge of a breakdown for 99% of the book and none of them seem to actually pick up on it. Just... odd. You know?</spoiler> I get that this is YA and maybe I'm just too far from that age to really understand what they're going through or what their motivations would be...

The real issue though, imo, is that the story is based around "the girls from hush cabin" but we rarely, if ever, get to ... go to Hush Cabin and Camp Bellwood. Summer camps are inherently creepy. Just ask the horror genre. Flashback chapters would have GREATLY improved this book. Not only would it have given us a window into Violet's behaviour, but we could have <i>seen</i> how much the girls have "changed", since we keep getting <i>told</i> they've changed. The juxtaposition between four innocent girls and the damaged almost-women they become would have been jarring and lovely, and I think upped the stakes and tension.

In the end, I just didn't care about the mystery and thought the ending was rushed and haphazard. I couldn't tell any of the dudes apart. Mostly, I felt this book could use a careful and thorough edit to assist with structure and pacing. With that help, I think it could make a decent <i>Pretty Little Liars</i> young adult series.

Thanks again to NetGalley and the Publisher!

I love books that are told from differents POVs, and this one wasn´t the exception. I liked that each one of the girls had a very unique personality, which made it easy to recognize who was the one telling the story in each chapter. I felt that the book was pretty slow paced at the beggining, and the end was a little bit rushed for me. .
Learning about the girls different secrets was very entertaining, and made the book hard to stop reading.
It didn´t blew my mind, but I did enjoyed it a lot.

4 once upon a time friends come together again to go to the funeral of their beloved camp counsellor. They become suspicious her death wasn't actually an accident .
I loved the concept of the 4 friends coming together.
Love the cover.
The book itself just wasn't for me.
I felt like rhe characters were perhaps a little too one dimensional.
The characters seemed to have such a backstory right off the bat that I found confusing .

This book felt very one dimensional and shallow. I do not think that any of the teenage girls acted like actual teenage girls in any sense.

Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.