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Wilderness Reform

A Novel

ebook
0 of 1 copy available
0 of 1 copy available
With "an ever-rising tone of dread that builds to a terrifying crescendo" (Marcus Kliewar, author of We Used to Live Here), this unputdownable horror novel follows a teenager searching for answers about the mysterious events and disappearances that plague the wilderness camp for troubled teens he was sent to, taking survival and discipline to a frightening extreme.
Thirteen-year-old Ben is sent to an isolated reform program for troubled teens by a juvenile court judge. But when he arrives at the camp, located on the edge of the vast wilderness of northwestern Montana, he immediately recognizes that there is something weird about the counselors. They're too friendly and upbeat...yet Ben can tell there's an undercurrent of menace.

As he gets to know the boys in his cabin, he soon discovers that they each have far more going for them than whatever crime landed them there. And each has a different critical skill, one that could help them unearth what is really going on in this place—and how to make it out alive. They are inching ever closer to the truth, but the hidden evil beneath the camp's surface will make itself known in order to deter them. Brooding, clever, and sinister, Wilderness Reform will keep you "in a vice-grip until the very end" (Matt Wesolowski, author of the Six Stories series).
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    • Booklist

      May 15, 2024
      Riding high on the success of their first novel, Old Country (2022), the Query brothers bring readers to Lafitte, Louisiana to meet a troubled thirteen-year-old, Ben, who keeps getting into trouble with the law and is destined for a life in prison. He wants to escape his aunt's house to give himself and his younger brother Wade a better life. When a director of a wilderness reform school comes to Ben's house to tell his aunt about the wilderness program for boys, it's clear this is not any ordinary summer camp. With no choice, Ben heads to Montana to meet the other teens in this program. Ben's bunkmates repeat rumors about this place being evil and ""not right."" Although the tensions between them increase as the narrative continues, the scares take their time to manifest, which may frustrate readers who want to know what's at stake up-front and in a more engaging way. Readers who enjoyed Nick Cutter's The Troop (2014) may enjoy Wilderness Reform; it already has a film deal in the works, even before its release.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 24, 2024
      The Query brothers follow Old Country with another spine-tingling suspense novel, this time centered on a wilderness reform school. In Lafitte, La., 13-year-old Ben Thibodaux is arrested for robbing a gas station with a fake gun. Rather than sending Ben to juvenile detention—where he’d happily reunite with several friends—a judge ships him to Bear Springs Academy in Montana. Ben’s fierce objections to being sent away grow more pronounced when he arrives and gets strange vibes from the program director, Reid, and the counselors assigned to whip Ben into shape. While learning to fly fish and build fires, Ben forms alliances with other boys in his cabin, many of whom also sense unease beneath their counselors’ placid smiles. After former campers warn Ben and his new friends that there’s evil coursing through the camp, the boys prepare to fight an otherwordly enemy. While the setup is familiar and the pacing is leisurely, the Querys set themselves apart with sterling prose (a muffled scream sounds “like the mountains themselves threw a wet, lead blanket over chaos”) and three-dimensional characters. Not every reader will stick around until the action heats up, but supernatural thriller fans will find plenty to enjoy. Agent: Liz Parker, Verve Talent & Literary.

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  • English

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