Kill River by Cameron Roubique on August 1, 2015
Genres: Horror
Pages: 345
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
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In the summer of 1983, thirteen-year-old Cyndi and her three new-found friends Stacy, Zack, and Brad decide to sneak away from their summer camp in the middle of the night by rafting down the nearby rivers. After spending a tense night lost in the woods, the four teenagers stumble into a mysterious water park that appears to be completely empty.
At first, they are thrilled to have the rides all to themselves, at least until one of them disappears. Soon they discover that they are trapped in the park, and a dark figure is stalking them from the shadows, picking them off one by one. Once night falls, Cyndi will have to fight to escape the park, a masked maniac, and a living nightmare.
Kill River is a wild water park ride filled with blood, gore, and '80s nostalgia. Slasher fans rejoice, old-school horror is back!
This book had endless possibilities, I just think the kids were too young and there needed to be more. While I liked the idea of not knowing a lot about the killer and only finding out bits and pieces about him, I was just a bit confused about the entire story of the water park and why it was still being cared for. Let me back track a bit, I will try not to give any spoilers but with books like this it’s hard. So I will start here by saying overall, it was ok, not my favorite and was rather interesting, just felt the kids were just too young. I do want to read the next book but I had lots of issues with this one that I am not sure if I really want to invest the time.
Ok lets start from the beginning…this section will have spoiler, if you don’t care about reading the book, you are safe to read below.
You get a mixed POV in this story but a lot of the story is told by Cyndi. Cyndi is sent to a summer camp because her parents thing she is antisocial. As most people know 13 year olds hate when parents tell them what to do and my 13 year old hates being social. So Cyndi isn’t very happy that she is being sent to a “kiddie” summer camp. On the bus to camp she meets three trouble makers, Stacy, Zack, and Brad. She isn’t too sure about them but soon they become friends. Camp is just as boring as ever and Zack and Brad cause a huge problem which gets them and Stacy in so much trouble that Brad decided to leave the camp and go home. They noticed a small stream that they decided to use to get out of camp. And that is when the shit hits the fan.
Let me tell you what I liked, I liked the idea of an abandoned water park and a summer camp. I liked the idea that the killer’s back story took some time to get to and it was interesting. I might even say I liked the idea of kids running away from camp and getting stuck in a weird park.
What I didn’t like was the age of the kids, two of them were having sex and it was almost uncomfortable. I didn’t like that the water park was pretty much brand new. I didn’t like the fact that one of the nights around the campfire at the camp, someone was about to tell a spooky story and it was stopped, it would have been the PERFECT time to set up this entire water park idea. I didn’t like the idea that the park was like in the middle of no where, no roads out or in….so how did the people building it get in? The layout was weird. Once the kids started to be picked off, I thought the girl Cyndi got away WAY too many times. Like she escaped quite a bit for a 13 year old. It sort of didn’t make sense. Like when you thought it was over, he kept coming back. It was like enough already.
The main thing I hate the most was once she got away, they never explained ANYTHING. Nothing about the kids that died, nothing about what happened to the water park. NOTHING! It was just about Cyndi just going home…but 3 kids died, why was nothing said or no explanation make. Maybe if they didn’t make her get away so often you could have had a more solid ending. As she drives with her mom she sees a sign for a new water park that is opening in the same area that everyone was killed. HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?!?! It just left such a huge gap in the ending that I wasn’t sure I even understood. 3 kids died at that part why was nothing said. I could go on for hours about how not right the end was.
So I might have lived it more if it was cleaned up a lot more and a lot of the gaps were filled in with stuff that makes sense. Overall it was ok, again not sure if I want to invest my time on book 2 but I might just to see how it’s all works but it might not be anytime soon.
Thanks for stopping by to check out my review.
Have a great day and Happy Reading!
Eh. This sounds like a mess.. The premise was a bit cliché, but fun…if it had been expanded on in a more believable and solid way. Also, they’re 13 and having sex?!? Big NOPE.
It was, I just felt like it could have been cleaned up a lot more and been a good book. Might have even been an awesome idea for a movie but the age was throwing me off so much and the sex part was really getting under my skin. It was never explained in detail but you knew what was going on .