Primal Animals

 

Are we really good people, or are we hiding a monster within ourselves that might someday awaken?

Well, this was weird. 
At the beginning, the book seemed really promising. The writing and the general vibe reminded me of Rory Powers, an author whose books I've enjoyed a lot. I was looking forward to unraveling this story of an elite summer camp with a murder cult. However, the way the story was constructed didn't really work for me. I think my main issues were pacing and flow. All of it just didn't feel... consistent, I think? Very few things seemed properly foreshadowed, and the transitions between the story beats were the opposite of smooth.
I suppose the author may have been aiming to recreate the teenage emotional experience, in a way. You know how it is, when emotions run wild, and something may feel like the best thing ever one day and the total end of the world the next day. However, I don't think these extremes were handled properly here. It's hard to connect to the character or the plot when everything's so all over the place. One moment the character is all shy and socially awkward and desperate to fit in; then a few chapters in, she suddenly reveals a hidden depth that's supposedly always been there. "Oh, I've always had this hidden side where I make people feel afraid of me" — really? Because it feels like that side spawned into existence randomly when the plot demanded it. 

Overall, it seemed to me like Arlee spent most of the story reacting only to the latest story development, and not to the entire sequence of events she's a part of. As soon as the situation changes around her, her reactions and plans take a dramatic turn, too, with very little internal struggle. The things that mattered to her a few chapters ago stop being that big of a deal as soon as new circumstances present themselves or a revelation occurs. She's also incredibly quick to take things at face value. Someone's nice to her, so she loves them. Someone she doesn't even trust tells her a person she cares for is bad, and she immediately starts treating them as a bad person. Etc, etc.

Perhaps this is meant to be a feature and not a bug, but it made it really hard for me to relate to Arlee or her story. And the funny thing is, I'm saying this as a person who's actually very prone to emotional extremes. It also didn't help that the characters who were actually driving the plot lacked depth and clear motivation. All of it really felt more like a collection of random events than a plot.

That said, I did like the book enough to finish it. There were scenes that hit hard in isolation. There were moments I really vibed with. I enjoyed how queernorm the book is; no one made a big deal out of the MC's sexuality, and there were plenty of other queer characters, including a trans girl in the MC's cabin, and characters with queer parents—and those things were just mentioned, accepted, and, once again, no one made a big deal out of it. That's something I always enjoy seeing. I also enjoyed how the scenes with the secret society's rituals were written; each was really vivid, making me feel like I was watching a cool horror movie.