I devoured this novel all in one go
.
The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore is a deftly written and self-contained story, centred around a disastrous event that happened to a group of girls at summer camp in 1993. From this event, told in short fragments between every other chapter, the novel branches out in different directions and in each chapter relates the story of each girl in the group, both before and after the incident.

In some ways the novel is like a collection of short stories tied together by this one shared and momentous event. Isabel and Dina’s stories interlink more clearly, without giving anything away, though there are other thematic similarities between the different sections of the book. Nita’s story was my favourite, particularly the part concerning her relationship with her son. And Isabel’s, because to me she seems the most perplexing and sad.

My main criticism of the novel is that the ending seemed a little off. I’m not sure about the last section, following Siobhan after the incident at camp, which I found slightly on the nose and a bit unsatisfactory as an ending.

I also liked how their experience at the camp wasn’t the only formative experience. It happened and was very significant for a few of the girls, but the rest of their lives before or after are talked about in more detail. This is most apparent in Andie’s story, the only one not told from her own perspective, which is interesting for a few reasons. Andie is intriguing, partially because her internal self remains a mystery during the novel, possibly reflecting her hard exterior and self-awareness.

Little snippets of scenes continued to resonate with me after I put the novel down, such as one particular exchange between Nita and Siobhan about leadership after she has broken her ankle. The novel is essentially a series of little scenes like this that inspire contemplation, rather than having one big powerhouse plot that carries the reader along like a train and without room for reflection (which is more like the kind of novels I've been reading lately). The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore was a nice change of pace, and reminded me of the pleasures of reading a novel like this.

I love ensemble pieces, especially those that explore the bounds of friendship between girls instead of pitting them against each other. Unfortunately for me, this wasn’t that sort of book. It felt more like an anthology of short stories loosely connected by a central narrative, which would have been fine if I’d ever felt that the shared experience of a traumatic event at the camp years before, was ever explored. It wasn’t. And it wasn’t examined how this event shaped and changed the girls. There’s some good writing here, but either my expectations were way off as to what this was intended to be, or the execution really was off. Perhaps a little of both. This really wasn’t for me.

"She felt a thrilling, terrifying dissolution of self"

* * *
3 / 5

The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore had a misleading synopsis. I believe I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if I opened it with the correct impression of what it would be about. According to the back, this book is about five girls who attend a camp and go on an overnight kayaking trip to an island. Once there, they find themselves stranded and without adequate adult supervision. And yeah, this does happen, but it takes up about thirty pages of the book.

"Sadiq stared back at her, as if he knew something about her that he wished he didn't, something he could never unknow"

What The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore really is is a collection of short stories. Five girls are on that island and one of them is our opening narrator, who tells us about the camp and the kayaking trip. Interspersed between her sections are the stories of the four other girls, from their childhoods to camp to into their futures. Fu traces the lives of four wildly different young women as they grow up and grew old. These stories are imaginative and diverse and charming, but they also didn't belong to the book I thought I was picking up, a quasi-Lord of the Flies book but with young girls at a camp. 

So whilst I liked these diverges into a sort of speculative look at how different people are drawn together and what they might grow up to be, I ended up getting a bit bored, waiting for what I thought was the real story to start. Of course it never really did. The actual part about being lost on the island was pretty dull and anti-climatic. 

With a better synopsis that more accurately tells the reader what the book is going to be about, The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore could be a fantastic read. But it's hard to enjoy as it deserves when you're eagerly waiting for a tale of wilderness survival that never really happens. 

My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore

A group of girls find themselves stranded on an island on a sleepaway camp. The Lost Girls recounts that fateful day that was supposed to be an adventure for all, soon turns dark and no way home. And no one else knows where they are.

Ah, this was very disappointing. It starts off very strong with all these girls who join this camp but then find themselves trapped on an island and must fight for their survival. The chapters interchange with a POV from one of the girls when they’re on the island and years after the incident occurs. Quickly, the book loses momentum and makes this interesting story about how trauma impacts an individual long after the initial event rather unsatisfying.

The After scenes were actually quite good and peaked my interested quite a lot. And so were the Before scenes but, together, it doesn’t read as cohesive as I would’ve preferred. The lack of connection we have to their past, I think, affects the entire novel. It’s a very disjointed read.

I know this review seems very negative, but I still found this book quite a standout. A lot didn’t work for me in this book but everything else was rather engrossing. Like I mentioned before, I really enjoyed the exploration of how past events emerge long after they’ve happened. Some of these girls seemingly recover, but not everyone does. I really appreciated the characters and their personalities. I did find some point of views more engaging than others. But all their voices shine through despite my predisposition with the novel. I’ll definitely want to read more from Kim Fu.

Synopsis: Everything is fine at Camp Forevermore. It’s not until the girls paddle their kayaks out to an island for an overnight adventure that things start going terribly wrong. Before they know it, they’re forming allegiances and fighting to survive. Will they ever find their way home? And if they do, will they be the same girls who set out for Camp Forevermore?
___

‘The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore’ is dark and at times devastatingly sad. I like this though. It doesn't patronise the reader and is raw in its exploration of the girls’ lives. Kim Fu is clearly a very skilled writer and has a unique ability to make you feel nostalgic for experiences you’ve never had, and to transport you to familiar places to which you’ve never been. I enjoyed her writing style immensely and found the book engaging to read.

Let’s talk about the structure! The experience of the girls at Camp Forevermore is used as a framing device, within which individual narratives of each of the lost girls’ lives are interspersed. This non-linear structure leads the reader to understand the characters more deeply and leads them to empathise with the children's plight as they fight for survival on the island. This feature came with both advantages and disadvantages.

On the one hand, this takes away some of the suspense from the main plot, as every time the story veers off into the future of a character, we know they're going to survive. At the same time, there is still one girl we’re not sure about yet, who is also the character the narrator focuses on during the survival story (told from a limited third person perspective). This helps keep the tension going.

I also can't help feeling that the story may have benefited from some stronger direct links between the girls' camp experience and their lives afterwards. This did happen occasionally, probably the most so with Isabel and Dina, but it could have gone a lot further. In my humble opinion, this would have led to a more cohesive and well-rounded story.

On the other hand, this structure allows the reader to get to know the characters on a personal level. It makes reading about their experiences on the island more engaging, as you become invested in the women they will grow up to be. On top of that, they’re interesting characters. They each have their own struggles and issues, which you sympathise with considering their history. It was a clever structure to use, I just wish there had been more solid links between the past and future experiences of each girl.

The story of the girls on the island gets increasingly interesting as you read on. As the food and water supplies run low, the girls start getting desperate and scared. This brought about a kind of ‘Lord of the Flies’ type vibe. I found myself wishing the survival story on the island went on for a bit longer, with a few more twists and turns, as I felt like I was really getting into it by the time it was over.

Overall, it was a good story. I enjoyed the tangents and the main plot, though I admittedly craved for a slightly different ratio between the two. At times it did feel like I was reading a collection of short stories, as opposed to a novel. It was well written though, fun to read and I polished it off in a couple of days. After deliberating for a while over whether to give it 3 or 4 stars, I settled on 3. It was enjoyable and I’m glad I read it.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and Legend Press for the ARC. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to read this novel and share my honest feedback.