Darin Miller

Everyone has a past—some darker than others.

Take Charlie’s, for example. Even after all these years, there’s no escaping the dark recollections that lay like landmines in the subconscious mind, triggered without warning by the most innocuous events. Always the black sheep of the family, Charlie struggles to find self-worth despite considerable personal achievement, and when older brother, Tommy, asks an unexpected favor, Charlie can’t help but wonder wherein lies the trap. Tommy always has opinions on Charlie’s life choices and rarely hesitates from expressing them.

Still, it’s strangely satisfying to be deemed responsible enough to be asked to care for Tommy’s pre-teen daughter, Alex, when he and his wife, Lindsey’s European summer vacation plans are jeopardized by Alex’s absolute refusal to go to summer camp as planned. She’s had a falling out with her bestie and swears she’ll bolt at the first opportunity if she’s forced to go. It’s an opportunity to spend some quality time with the niece, and since Charlie’s own lady love, Becca, is already committed to staying with her own family for a spell to assist in caring for her ailing father, it’s practically a no-brainer. After all, it isn’t like Charlie can tag along with her. Becca’s family doesn’t approve of their relationship, and it would just be additional strain on an already stressful situation. Tommy would consider it a great personal favor if Charlie might somehow gain some insight into whatever the heck is going on with Alex. She’s certainly not opening up to her parents, whom she has now taken to calling by their first names simply because it irritates them. As added incentive, it gives Charlie an excuse for a cross-country excursion to Colorado on a newly restored motorcycle that is both a gift and an albatross that tethers Charlie to a past largely informed by its former owner and Charlie’s childhood mentor, Bill.

It feels like an opportunity for a little redemption—almost like fate.

From the opening pages, Devecchi grabs readers by the short hairs, pulling them into the plight of her main character’s daily life with careful deliberation. You get a real sense of the players through their exchanges with one another as carrots are dangled and parallels are drawn between Charlie’s questionable past and Alex’s currently unfolding drama, and it keeps the pages steadily flipping until Tommy and Lindsey finally board their European flight, and Charlie and Alex are left to their own devices.

That’s when things REALLY take off.  

Skillfully executed with revelations dispensed with deliberation, this was an incredibly engrossing read from start to finish. As we get to know more about Charlie’s past, we are reminded that we all have things we’re not so proud of lurking in the background, and vanquishing those demons is far easier said than done.

I hate to say anything even remotely spoilery, but I guessed a final-act revelation very early on, but that is through no fault of the author. There was just something about it that niggled at me despite the author’s deft ability at obfuscation, and I felt a rush of vindication once it was finally confirmed, and any book that makes me feel smarter is an automatic thumbs up for me! 😄 My feeling was a little short-lived; I hadn’t read the book’s Amazon description before diving right in, and I was shocked to see that this particular twist is spoiled right in its own description—and I would fix that ASAP. It’s really rather jaw-dropping if you don’t see it coming.

Perhaps an even bigger surprise is how few ratings/reviews this book has received. It deserves a much wider audience. I was randomly assigned this book as part of an “Adopt-an-Author” FB event, and WOW, what a find! Devecchi’s capable storytelling absolutely shines, and I look forward to reading her other work soon.

Highly recommended.

REVIEW

Terror at Camp Silverside – Danielle Meuthing

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Summer has finally arrived! Three whole months without early morning alarm clocks, homework, and claustrophobic school bus rides is pretty much every kid’s dream, and Cammie Winters has been relishing the idea of doing exactly what she wants during this sacred time of year. Imagine her utter dismay when she learns her mother has kicked the summer off by signing her and her brother, Joey, up for a mandatory week of “fun in the sun” at Camp Silverside, bunking with most of the same kids she’d hoped to catch a break from while school was out of session. As it turns out, moms require an occasional break, too, and no amount of reasoning will interfere with her mother’s hard-earned respite. Resigned to a week that’s likely to feel like a month in H-E-double toothpicks, Cammie boards yet another bus, bound for a destination not of her own choosing and more than a little bitter that her brother seems to be taking it all in stride. Of course, she values her privacy more than he ever would, so it probably isn’t such a big deal to him.

They haven’t even arrived at camp when Cammie’s privacy is invaded by a strange girl named Alice, who has a penchant for silently staring while saying very little. It’s unnerving to say the least. It only gets worse once Cammie realizes they’ve been assigned to the same cabin, and Alice occupies the bunk directly above hers. Rounding out the occupancy of the Sunfish Cabin are the camp’s resident mean girls, Rachel, Sonja, and Laura, as well as Darci, their bubbly, red-headed counselor. When it rains, it absolutely pours. But after seeing how the snobbish trio of friends mock and belittle Alice, Cammie is compelled to take the girl under her wing. She’s never had much patience for bullying, and strange as Alice may seem, she doesn’t deserve to be the butt of some entitled girls’ endless jokes. To paraphrase Willie Shakespeare, misery most certainly DOES make for strange bedfellows.

And that’s when things start to get weird.

Just like a scene from an early Friday the 13th movie, a crazy man interrupts the introductory meeting warning the campers of imminent doom. There’s something in the lake that’s been abducting campers throughout the years. It’s the sort of local legend you’d expect to hear while huddled around a campfire in the dark, but this is bright and early, and the man is dead serious. The camp’s proprietor, Ms. Hines, obviously knows the man, and after a tense exchange, he scurries away, leaving the campers to wonder what all the hubbub is about. Ms. Hines certainly isn’t telling—it’s the family business at stake, after all.

When Alice nonchalantly reveals the man is her Uncle Gus, the former groundskeeper for Camp Silverside, Cammie can’t fight the compulsion to unlock whatever secrets Ms. Hines seems intent to bury, and she’ll enlist all the help she can get—even from the mean girls she barely tolerates.

Meuthing does a fantastic job capturing the essence of that dreaded summer camp experience most of us have experienced and none of us wanted, spinning her version of a cryptid tale that is a loving homage to those who inspired her as a child, R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike. Fans of those authors’ books will find much to love here, as will fans of fellow Ohio indie author, Scott Donnelly, who writes in a similar vein. Nicely paced page-turner is exactly the sort of book that can lure a non-reader into reading—and actually enjoying the experience!

I know I did.