3 Stars Out Of 5
“The four boys went camping in the state park on the mainland the weekend after their high school graduation, eating firecooked meals and playing cards and goofing off, assuming the entire time that the town of Echo Island would still be there when they returned.”
“If this isn’t heaven or hell—and it sure isn’t Echo Island—where are we?”
“Town vanishes. Game over. The end.”
This was admittedly a frustrating read. So much of it was very compelling, edge of your seat. The characters were fairly well developed; maybe a little cookie cutter but each one playing their part well. I enjoyed the storyline of 4 high school graduates return from camping to find everyone in their town has vanished including the animals and that electricity and even batteries no longer worked. In places, the pages flew by.
So where was the frustrating? One was that a big reveal was painfully obvious. But since it is a book geared towards young adults, maybe that gets a pass. But the biggest problem is that about 3/4 through the book, there is a shift from the story (which was keeping my interest) into a lot of talking in super vague and mysterious tones as if to explain what was happening and it was all crazy confusing (don’t want to give too many details to spoil). I kept waiting for it to all make sense and even now after the book is over, I am still confused. And from the looks of other reviewers, I am not alone.
Always a shame when a book holds such promise and starts out with a bang, only to end with a fizzle.
I received this book free from Netgalley and publisher B&H in exchange for an honest review.