Literature & Fiction
![Jessica Goodman - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B085CNC24Q.jpg)
The Counselors
**A USA TODAY BESTSELLER!**
**An INSTANT Indie Bestseller!**
"A nervy, intense, and expertly crafted thriller that kept me hooked page after page. Dark secrets? Summer camp setting? Complex teen girls? Murder? Count me in. A simply stunning book." -Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces, You'd Be Home Now, and The Agathas
From New York Times bestselling author Jessica Goodman comes a twisty new thriller about three best friends, one elite summer camp, and the dark secrets that lead to a body in the lake.
Camp Alpine Lake is the only place where Goldie Easton feels safe.
She's always had a special connection to the place, even before she was old enough to attend. The camp is the lifeline of Roxwood, the small town she lives in. Alpine Lake provides jobs, money and prestige to the region. Few Roxwood locals, though, get to reap the rewards of living so close to the glam summer that camp, with its five-figure tuition and rich kids who have been dumped there for eight weeks by their powerful parents. Goldie's one of them.
Even with her "townie" background, Goldie has never felt more at home at camp and now she's back as a counselor, desperate for summer to start and her best friends, Ava and Imogen, to arrive. Because Goldie has a terrible dark secret she's been keeping and she is more in need of the comfort than ever.
But Goldie's not the only person at camp who has been lying. When a teen turns up dead in the lake late one night, she knows that the death couldn't have been an accident. She also knows that Ava was at the lake that same night.
What did Ava see and what does she know? Why hasn't she said anything to Goldie about the death? Worse-what did Ava do?
But asking questions offers no answers, only broken bonds of lifelong friendship, with hidden danger and betrayals deeper than Goldie ever imagined.
**An INSTANT Indie Bestseller!**
"A nervy, intense, and expertly crafted thriller that kept me hooked page after page. Dark secrets? Summer camp setting? Complex teen girls? Murder? Count me in. A simply stunning book." -Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces, You'd Be Home Now, and The Agathas
From New York Times bestselling author Jessica Goodman comes a twisty new thriller about three best friends, one elite summer camp, and the dark secrets that lead to a body in the lake.
Camp Alpine Lake is the only place where Goldie Easton feels safe.
She's always had a special connection to the place, even before she was old enough to attend. The camp is the lifeline of Roxwood, the small town she lives in. Alpine Lake provides jobs, money and prestige to the region. Few Roxwood locals, though, get to reap the rewards of living so close to the glam summer that camp, with its five-figure tuition and rich kids who have been dumped there for eight weeks by their powerful parents. Goldie's one of them.
Even with her "townie" background, Goldie has never felt more at home at camp and now she's back as a counselor, desperate for summer to start and her best friends, Ava and Imogen, to arrive. Because Goldie has a terrible dark secret she's been keeping and she is more in need of the comfort than ever.
But Goldie's not the only person at camp who has been lying. When a teen turns up dead in the lake late one night, she knows that the death couldn't have been an accident. She also knows that Ava was at the lake that same night.
What did Ava see and what does she know? Why hasn't she said anything to Goldie about the death? Worse-what did Ava do?
But asking questions offers no answers, only broken bonds of lifelong friendship, with hidden danger and betrayals deeper than Goldie ever imagined.
Editorial Reviews
"[A] delicious and layered thrill ride." -Marie Claire
"If you're a fan of Friday the 13th or the many, many summer camp-set slashers that came in its wake, then you can't miss The Counselors…. Sure to become one of your favorite books to read on a chilly night." -The Nerdist
"A summer without a juicy young adult mystery from Goodman would be like going to a bonfire without s'mores." -E! online
"[P]ositively thrilling…narrative catnip that brings readers to must-finish-this-at-all-costs-who-cares-if-it's-2-a.m.-levels of suspense."-Cosmopolitan.com
"Author Jessica Goodman keeps readers engaged in the thrilling mystery novel "The Counselors."
-PopSugar
"Jessica Goodman perfectly captures the wonder of summer camp and the horrors that can lurk beneath the safest of harbors. The Counselors is an engrossing page-turner." -Kit Frick, author of Very Bad People and I Killed Zoe Spanos
"With her bold and powerful prose, unforgettable main characters, sophisticated and nuanced plots and strikingly clever twists that leave you guessing and breathlessly turning pages, Jessica Goodman has cemented herself as an incisive and exciting must-read author on the thriller scene. An incredible talent." -Courtney Summers, New York Times bestselling author of Sadie and The Project
"A nervy, intense, and expertly crafted thriller tha...
"If you're a fan of Friday the 13th or the many, many summer camp-set slashers that came in its wake, then you can't miss The Counselors…. Sure to become one of your favorite books to read on a chilly night." -The Nerdist
"A summer without a juicy young adult mystery from Goodman would be like going to a bonfire without s'mores." -E! online
"[P]ositively thrilling…narrative catnip that brings readers to must-finish-this-at-all-costs-who-cares-if-it's-2-a.m.-levels of suspense."-Cosmopolitan.com
"Author Jessica Goodman keeps readers engaged in the thrilling mystery novel "The Counselors."
-PopSugar
"Jessica Goodman perfectly captures the wonder of summer camp and the horrors that can lurk beneath the safest of harbors. The Counselors is an engrossing page-turner." -Kit Frick, author of Very Bad People and I Killed Zoe Spanos
"With her bold and powerful prose, unforgettable main characters, sophisticated and nuanced plots and strikingly clever twists that leave you guessing and breathlessly turning pages, Jessica Goodman has cemented herself as an incisive and exciting must-read author on the thriller scene. An incredible talent." -Courtney Summers, New York Times bestselling author of Sadie and The Project
"A nervy, intense, and expertly crafted thriller tha...
Readers Top Reviews
Steven StacyMilli
The story of camp counsellors sounds interesting, but Tbh this story was really slow in telling its tale, the main character's, except for the glamorous Ava, are boring. The lead character, Goldie, sounds interesting on paper, but all she does is moan and whine the entire way through the book. a a should've been the main character, beautiful, troubled, and witty. The story is thin and I doubt that if the writer didn't work for cosmopolitan magazine if this novel would ever have been published. It's sorely lacking in action and the three main friends are meant to be so close, but they act like frenemies, not sharing secrets or downright lying to each other. It's a good premise but the delivery is miserable and unfortunately, a laborious process to get through.
Tiffany KnowlesSt
This YA suspense was set at a summer camp, the one we’ve always heard stories about (or we’re lucky enough to go to one) where you go all summer and have the time of your life. Goldie is our main character, and she, Ava, and Imogen bonded at summer camp when they were 8 and haven’t looked back. They were an odd trio, and definitely wouldn’t have been friends outside of camp, but they stuck with each other, loyally texting, calling and visiting throughout the years. Then, their senior year they started drifting apart, for different reasons. Will going back for one last summer be the same? And then, a body is found floating in the lake the morning before campers arrive. What happened? Was it really an accident like they are reporting? Who would have done it and why? Whew. Let me just say I am happy I’m not a teenager anymore. I have finally learned that keeping up appearances is for the birds, that letting others know when you are hurting and something is wrong isn’t shameful. If you have the right kind of friends, they won’t judge you for mistakes.
alexisTiffany Kno
Seems like a perfect summer read. I just started it. It’s good so far !
Kelsey L. Kicklig
I guess I was expecting a slasher, final girl style novel, but this was more about friendships and secrets and mysteries, which is still good.
James A. GlynnKel
I flat-out love Jessica Goodman. She is to today’s wealthy and pampered teenaged girls what J.D. Salinger was to Holden Caulfield, including parallels to Holden’s former school, Pencey Prep. You know, that school that advertised in magazines, “always showing some hotshot guy on a horse jumping over a fence.” “The Counselors” (2022, 345 pages) is Goodman’s third novel, and each confronts the angst of teenage girls who circulate in a milieu of wealth and who have aspirations to attend Ivy League or other A-list colleges. Specifically, this novel centers on the friendship that Goldie Easton has formed with Ana and Imogen, a friendship that is so strong that the girls practically function as a single unit. The girls first met when they were nine years old and attending Alpine Lake Camp in Vermont, a summer camp that is so selective that one must pass a test in order to be admitted. Then, their gazillionaire parents have to shovel heaps of money to the camp’s owners for their eight-week stay. This year, however, will be the trio’s last summer before they head off to their respective colleges, and they are now camp counselors and lifeguards. The camp is located near Roxwood, a small town of working-class people who are not allowed to enter campgrounds. Goldie is a “townie,” but she has attended camp every summer for no charge because her parents work for the camp owners. Over the years, Goldie, Ava, and Imo have vowed never to keep secrets from one another. But this summer, each has secrets that she fears will pull their friendship apart. Goldie is our narrator for this story, and we know that her secret is that during the past year she fell in love with Heller, a local boy. One night, while driving drunk, Heller accidentally hits a classmate who dies. Fearing to lose his scholarship to Princeton, Heller asks Goldie if she will say that she was the driver, and she agrees. Because Heller was captain of the championship hockey team and the pride of the town, Goldie is shunned by the people of Roxwood. Having flunked out of high school and, therefore, losing her chance to attend any college in the fall, Goldie manages to trudge through the end of the school year because Alpine Lake Camp and her best friends await. But before camp opens, Heller is found dead, floating in the lake. His death is declared to have been accidental, but Goldie knows that he was the best swimmer in town and suspects that he was murdered. As the weeks unfold, it begins to appear than Heller had some sort of connection to Alpine Lake Camp. Moreover, there are tiny hints that something is wrong with camp, itself. As Goldie tries to knit the bits and pieces together, she risks rending her relationship with Ava and alienating Imo in the process. This novel is an intelligent and interesting mystery thriller with complex characters, cleverly draw...
Short Excerpt Teaser
Prologue
Evil doesn't exist at Camp Alpine Lake. Not inside the wrought-iron gate that separates camp from the town of Roxwood, andnot at the waterfront, where far-out buoys keep us isolated from the rest of New England. Everything here is safe. The tennis courts. The arts and crafts shed. The cabins. The Lodge. Camp is a bubble, made for bonfires and sing-alongs and friendships formed under the beam of a flashlight.
Even when I was eight and the group leaders would huddle us together on the man-made beach in neat little rows so we could watch the lifeguards line up in the water to practice safety drills, we knew they were all for show. We were never in danger. Not here.
We'd watch the lifeguards dive in unison, touching the ground beneath the surface, even if it was eleven or twelve feet below. They'd come up with nothing, handfuls of dirt. No harmed child, no limp arm. They'd do this over and over until they reached the end of the boundaries, never screaming in horror. Never fearful that a precious camper was gone.
Even when I became a counselor and was tasked with keeping the children alive, healthy, and well fed, I knew there was never any real danger here. Not on the edges of the forest up by the cliffs where loose rocks threatened to fall silently into the abyss. Not along the ropes course where harnesses always stayed buckled. And certainly not in the lake, where I wore my red lifeguard suit like a superhero's costume.
But that was before I knew what kind of dark secrets were hidden in the corners of Camp Alpine Lake, out of sight of campers, counselors, and lifers like me, who would give everything we had to keep this place whole.
That was before we learned the truth. About Ava, Imogen, and me-and how far we'd go to protect each other even after we had been exposed.
Before this summer, Camp Alpine Lake was a haven. An escape from what I could not face back home in Roxwood, only a few miles outside the gate.
But now Camp Alpine Lake is another place where I'll never feel safe.
Chapter 1
Now
The summer will begin like it always does, with me wandering the grounds of Camp Alpine Lake alone. It's the first day of maintenance week, when all the counselors arrive to get the place ready for campers. But I'm the only one who can come early.
No one else gets to experience how the cabins smell like cedar and lemon when they're empty, not yet filled with other counselors or twelve-year-old boys who don't know about deodorant. How the sun bounces off the lake when there aren't any swimmers bobbing in the lap lanes. Or how you can stand at the edge of Creepy Cliff and scream, loud and long, listening to your voice echo all across New England.
"This place is your home, too, Goldie," Mellie has always said. I've heard the words enough times to believe them, even though myactual home is right down the road from Truly's, the dive bar we go to on nights off.
But this summer is different. And Stu and Mellie are the only people at Alpine Lake who know why.
Mom and Dad insist I shouldn't break tradition. "You can't let what happened ruin every single thing you love," Dad says, gripping the steering wheel of our old Subaru as we pull up to the gate. "You deserve to have fun. We'll see you later at orientation."
Mom turns around from the passenger seat and squeezes my bare knee. "You're going to be okay."
I nod, unable to find words, but I know she's right. This place has always calmed me. Always washed away whatever sorrow I held on to at the beginning of the summer. If anything can heal me, it's a summer at Camp Alpine Lake with Ava and Imogen, who have been my best friends for a decade. I may not have told them about my school year, but eight weeks with them will erase the damage and the pain. Even if we've barely spoken in the past few months. They always make everything better.
I get out of the car with shaky legs and heave my duffel over my shoulder. I walk through the gate and inhale deeply, smelling freshly cut grass and woodchips. I'm home.
I make my way to the gazebo and sit down, pushing my sunglasses up on my head. The clock on the dining hall says it's only nine in the morning. I've still got an hour before Ava and Imogen arrive on the buses. They'll bring with them all the other former campers who are now counselors. The lifers. People I've known s...
Evil doesn't exist at Camp Alpine Lake. Not inside the wrought-iron gate that separates camp from the town of Roxwood, andnot at the waterfront, where far-out buoys keep us isolated from the rest of New England. Everything here is safe. The tennis courts. The arts and crafts shed. The cabins. The Lodge. Camp is a bubble, made for bonfires and sing-alongs and friendships formed under the beam of a flashlight.
Even when I was eight and the group leaders would huddle us together on the man-made beach in neat little rows so we could watch the lifeguards line up in the water to practice safety drills, we knew they were all for show. We were never in danger. Not here.
We'd watch the lifeguards dive in unison, touching the ground beneath the surface, even if it was eleven or twelve feet below. They'd come up with nothing, handfuls of dirt. No harmed child, no limp arm. They'd do this over and over until they reached the end of the boundaries, never screaming in horror. Never fearful that a precious camper was gone.
Even when I became a counselor and was tasked with keeping the children alive, healthy, and well fed, I knew there was never any real danger here. Not on the edges of the forest up by the cliffs where loose rocks threatened to fall silently into the abyss. Not along the ropes course where harnesses always stayed buckled. And certainly not in the lake, where I wore my red lifeguard suit like a superhero's costume.
But that was before I knew what kind of dark secrets were hidden in the corners of Camp Alpine Lake, out of sight of campers, counselors, and lifers like me, who would give everything we had to keep this place whole.
That was before we learned the truth. About Ava, Imogen, and me-and how far we'd go to protect each other even after we had been exposed.
Before this summer, Camp Alpine Lake was a haven. An escape from what I could not face back home in Roxwood, only a few miles outside the gate.
But now Camp Alpine Lake is another place where I'll never feel safe.
Chapter 1
Now
The summer will begin like it always does, with me wandering the grounds of Camp Alpine Lake alone. It's the first day of maintenance week, when all the counselors arrive to get the place ready for campers. But I'm the only one who can come early.
No one else gets to experience how the cabins smell like cedar and lemon when they're empty, not yet filled with other counselors or twelve-year-old boys who don't know about deodorant. How the sun bounces off the lake when there aren't any swimmers bobbing in the lap lanes. Or how you can stand at the edge of Creepy Cliff and scream, loud and long, listening to your voice echo all across New England.
"This place is your home, too, Goldie," Mellie has always said. I've heard the words enough times to believe them, even though myactual home is right down the road from Truly's, the dive bar we go to on nights off.
But this summer is different. And Stu and Mellie are the only people at Alpine Lake who know why.
Mom and Dad insist I shouldn't break tradition. "You can't let what happened ruin every single thing you love," Dad says, gripping the steering wheel of our old Subaru as we pull up to the gate. "You deserve to have fun. We'll see you later at orientation."
Mom turns around from the passenger seat and squeezes my bare knee. "You're going to be okay."
I nod, unable to find words, but I know she's right. This place has always calmed me. Always washed away whatever sorrow I held on to at the beginning of the summer. If anything can heal me, it's a summer at Camp Alpine Lake with Ava and Imogen, who have been my best friends for a decade. I may not have told them about my school year, but eight weeks with them will erase the damage and the pain. Even if we've barely spoken in the past few months. They always make everything better.
I get out of the car with shaky legs and heave my duffel over my shoulder. I walk through the gate and inhale deeply, smelling freshly cut grass and woodchips. I'm home.
I make my way to the gazebo and sit down, pushing my sunglasses up on my head. The clock on the dining hall says it's only nine in the morning. I've still got an hour before Ava and Imogen arrive on the buses. They'll bring with them all the other former campers who are now counselors. The lifers. People I've known s...
