The Counselors Paperback – May 30, 2023

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 drawn by the author. If you enjoy the book as much as I, you’ll want to read Goodman’s other works, “The Wish They Were Us” and "They’ll Never Catch Us.”...Jim Glynn

This book was not what I was expecting. Well written and characters are well done. Easy read for a quick enjoyable plot.

This is officially a 3.5 for me. Book was fun overall. The relationships between the three girls felt real altho their reasons for each keeping a pretty big secret seemed kinda silly. I was kind of expecting a little more murder or horror than there actually was, but in retrospect it probably kept it from being a little too campy. The ending wasn't necessarily telegraphed, but it wasn't too hard to guess exactly what was behind everything. It was still a fun, fairly light summer read and that's exactly why I picked the book up.

I'm 67 and I thought this book would be a good one to read even if it is for YA's. I'm not a very good person at reviewing books but, this book is about three young girls who meet at a camp in Vermont when they are 8 years old and become close friends. I went to a camp for the blind with my twin brother and another girl from our town. We be came real good friends until we were in our 20's. She had left town to become a nanny. So I really enjoyed this book for that reason. Well Ava is described as White and rich. Imogen is half White and Asian, also rich, whereas Goldie is someone said white and Africa American. The other girls, Ava is from New York and Imogen is from New Jersey whereas Goldie is from Roxwood just down from this camp. She's a regular girl, a "townie". Not rich like all the other kids who come to the camp. Camp Alpine Lake is for the uber rich, which caters to the rich. Called a sleepaway camp, somewhere to send your children for 8 weeks in the summer. So for 10 years the 3 girls have been coming to this camp. Stu and Mellie are the owners and Christina works in the kitchen there and at the high school.Goldie's parents work at the camp too. Her father as the nurse and her mother works in the workshop. Ava has always considered her friends, Goldie and Imogen as her first loves and will love them forever. Every year though since her father ran off to Florida with his mistress and had twin girls with her. Ava meets and falls in love with a boy at camp or a girl. She breaks up with them after the 8 weeks. Goldie after the last summer falls for Heller the "Golden Boy" from school the Hockey star, before that she was a shadow at school, a nobody but becomes his girlfriend, gets invited to all the parties and is seen as one of the elite. She keeps trying to tell her friends about Heller but things happen in their life's that she ends up not being able to tell Ava or Imogen when they FaceTime or do 3 way calls. She's afraid of what Ava will say. Since Ava hates having a lasting relationship with a guy since her dad left her. Goldie's afraid Ava will think she has betrayed her. Will things happen to each of them. Two spoilers here, there's an accident News Year's Eve which Goldie ends up a pariah at school. Then when they all go to Camp Alpine Lake the next summer there's death at the camp. The rest I will let you read. I really really wish and hope the author writes a sequel like Goldie's parents and Christina somehow gets an award for catching Heller's killer or gets someone of the money back from bank accounts from overseas. Oops a spoiler.

The Counselors by Jessica Goodman is everything I hoped it would be! It’s the perfect young adult mystery that takes place at a summer camp in the summer (my favorite season!). While her books are what I would consider to be a “slow burn” she’s able to pack a lot into it with only 330 pages. I did have a feeling as to “who-dun-it” and why (which isn’t revealed until the end) but I enjoyed the story despite that. Normally that puts me off, but it doesn’t seem to phase me when Jessica Goodman is writing it!If you enjoy young adult mysteries, then I not only recommend tis book but her backlist as well. I like how she takes mundane things and turns them into stories with good plots, fantastic characters, and nostalgic settings!𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗦 𝗢𝗙:• Young Adult Mysteries• Summer Camp• Summer Mysteries𝗠𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐⭐⭐⭐