Joey Carpenter is an insular, gay teenager navigating life in a homophobic town. After a friend\u2019s uncle grooms him, leading him into a creeping relationship that culminates in sexual assault, Joey is eager to escape the explosive aftermath that hangs over him at school and home. As an attendee of the summer getaway Kamp Kromwell, Joey comes out of his shell to defend twins DJ and Lily Foster from bullies alongside newfound friends Kenny Louve and brothers Paul and Asia Demarco. The six misfits form the Kromwell Krew, \u201cbound together, joined like links in a chain.\u201d But as the burgeoning friendships solidify, a frightening local legend surfaces on Folklore Night: The murderous John Tate, \u201cwho had butchered countless women\u201d in the 1960s, buried his unfortunate victims on the grounds of the then under-construction Kamp Kromwell. When \u201cbodies began to spring up like dandelions\u201d and a mistrial set Tate free, the townsfolk of Jasper Mill took justice into their own hands, bringing the story to a horrifying conclusion. The arrival of Jasper Mill exile Floppy Mossy (accompanied by \u201ca flood of ravens\u201d) interrupts a talent show performance; her prophetic dreams signify the return of a terrible spirit that the Kromwell Krew must confront before the night is over. \u00a0The chapters alternate between third- and first-person perspectives, with Joey\u2019s narrative unfolding alongside the dark history of Jasper Mill and its inhabitants. Grea crafts a twisty page-turner populated with characters that feel well drawn, no matter how small their parts in the overall plot. (Even those who tip the story\u2019s delicate balance of good and evil toward darkness are given detailed biographies contextualizing their actions.) While summer camp-themed slashers are familiar territory to horror readers, Grea\u2019s twist on the typical tropes and LGBTQ+ characters refresh the genre with compelling ease.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joey Carpenter is an insular, gay teenager navigating life in a homophobic town. After a friend\u2019s uncle grooms him, leading him into a creeping relationship that culminates in sexual assault, Joey is eager to escape the explosive aftermath that hangs over him at school and home. As an attendee of the summer getaway Kamp Kromwell, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4622"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}