“The Lake House” by Sarah Beth Durst is the summer camp experience you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. With summer here, it’s time to think of summer camps and camping out. Sarah Beth Durst has thought of the summer camp experience from your worst nightmares.

The girls who expect to spend the summer at an exclusive retreat are in for a disappointment. We see the story progress through the eyes of Claire, one of the girls going to The Lake House for the summer because of parental pressure. Her parents insisted that this small camp where they met would be a perfect experience for Claire. “You’ll learn new skills, have new experiences, and make new friends!” they assured her. We learn in the first sentence that, “Claire excelled at three things: ballet, homework, and identifying all the ways there were to die in any given situation.”

Ironically, that very skill comes in very handy when Claire and the other two girls, Reyva and Mariana, are stranded at the isolated camp. The girls thought that they were arriving late to the start of camp, but when the driver of their boat, Jack, a teenager more of less their age, tells them to follow the path where someone will meet them, they arrive to find a burned down set of buildings. Running away in shock, they then find a dead body.

They believe that everyone died in the fire, and now, with the discovery of the dead body, they realize that there is a killer in the woods with them. There is no cell service or way to charge their phones, they have no food, and they aren’t due to be picked up again for months. How will they survive?

Claire is an unusual main character. She worries constantly about the worst that might happen and visualizes it so clearly that occasionally she blacks out and loses consciousness. She thinks she’s broken, but thinking about the worst that might happen is a boon when you are actually in danger.

Each of the three girls is hiding a secret, something they think has broken them. But together, fighting the thing that is chasing them, they find strength. The writing is pure Durst and as entertaining and quick-paced as any of her books. One of Durst’s many strengths is creating characters we like and describing their situations with enough detail that we feel like we are there with them.

This book is a quick read, but that’s because it’s so engaging that we want to find out what the mysterious thing is that has caused the fire and why the girls were sent to this strange summer camp that doesn’t really feel like a renovated camp. With all the questions that arise while the girls are trying to survive in the woods and escape the danger, the action flies by. It’s a perfect book to pack for your daughter’s summer camp experience or to read while hiking in nature. You’ll look at things differently, and maybe you’ll wonder how long you could survive.

Please note: This review is based on the advance copy provided by the author for review purposes.