Review Detail

PRIMAL ANIMALS is an intriguing YA contemporary thriller/horror about hazing, group mentality, and finding your place. Arlee is 16 years old and excited to go to the summer camp that shaped her mother's life. Starting at 16, she will be relatively old to begin going, as most teens begin when they are 14. Once she arrives, she finds that sharing her mother's last name provides her with a very specific reaction, and she begins to wonder what her mother's legacy was.

As she is beginning to find her place amongst the girls in her unit, she is also tapped for a secret society at the camp and curious to learn more about what it is they are/do. As she becomes entangled in this group, her experience at camp begins to evolve into something more frightening than she ever could have imagined.

What I loved: The summer camp atmosphere was really intriguing and set the stage for the isolation and fear that Arlee begins to experience. Themes around peer pressure, hazing and secret societies, and drug/alcohol abuse were really potent as the reader experiences the difficulties Arlee faces in the camp. These elements are likely faced by several teens and the darker sides of these can bring up some important discussions around trusting your gut and what true friends should look like.

Arlee is a character who is still finding herself and who she wants to be. She is beginning to come to terms with her parents and the things they have done in the past that hurt her. At the same time, she is coping with her anxiety and phobia of insects. She is hoping the camp will be transformative, and her journey once there is a search for belonging. Her budding romantic relationship was a great driver of the story for the first parts before things became darker.

What left me wanting more: There were a lot of things that did not seem to flow well, and the reader is left with a lot of questions. It was easy to feel lost in the story or like there was something we missed, and Arlee's motivations seemed to be switching a lot in different places. There are also a lot of characters, and it was a lot to keep track of. Arlee's motivations in getting to know different circles seemed tenuous at best, and I felt like she was inconsistent, but maybe some of that is just due to her age. I still overall found the story interesting, and some of these may be improved in later edits of the story if it becomes more focused.

Final verdict: An atmospheric read about summer camps, PRIMAL ANIMALS is a YA contemporary thriller about secret societies and the search for belonging.