WILDERNESS REFORM by Matt Query & Harrison Query – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Wilderness Reform by Matt Query, Harrison Query
Published by Atria/Emily Bestler Books on July 2 2024
Genres: Adult, Horror, Suspense
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: An ultra slow-burn story made this a tedious read in the beginning, but the fantastic ending was worth the wait.

“Something quiet but catastrophic had happened inside them all through that terrible night. Something had changed, irrevocably. They all had realized, in their own way, that they were either going to die in these mountains, or escape them, but there would be no easy or painless moment to come until one or the other finally happened.”

Never have I had so many mixed feelings about a book. Wilderness Reform has both good and bad elements, but the good elements are so good it was tough to settle on a final rating. I really struggled with the pacing and almost DNF’d this book at the halfway point, but I was curious about what the heck was going on, so I decided to push through. Ultimately I’m glad I did!

Ben is thirteen when he’s caught by police in an armed robbery attempt. Because of his age, his Aunt Nicki agrees to send him away to a camp for troubled boys, where camp counselors will try to rehabilitate him. Ben has no say in the matter, and even though he’s worried about leaving his little brother Wade behind with his abusive aunt, he has no choice but to be whisked away to Bear Springs Academy, a sprawling upscale camp nestled in the mountains of Montana.

Along with twenty or so other boys his age, Ben is told that he’ll spend the summer learning camping and survival skills, like fishing, hunting, hiking, making fires and going on overnight backpack trips. Supervising the boys are a bunch of friendly, enthusiastic counselors who encourage them to work together and bond over the life skills they’re learning. It all seems so positive, but Ben knows something isn’t quite right. The head counselor, a man named Reid, seems to be hiding something and Ben senses there is much more to him than meets the eye. 

The culmination of the summer ends with each boy going on an overnight solo trip, and Ben’s intuition tells him that nothing good happens on those trips. Along with his cabin mates Trent, Rodrigo and Billy, Ben begins to plan their escape—before the unknown terrors of solo night can claim them.

Let’s start with my main complaint: this is the slowest of slow burn stories I’ve ever read, and the exciting parts don’t really start until about 85% into the story. For me that was almost a deal breaker, but luckily the authors created a menacing atmosphere and dropped enough hints about the nature of the evil in the story, that I found myself caught up and wanted to see it through to the end. I also want to mention that the book felt extremely long, and I couldn’t believe it was only 350 pages (according to Goodreads—maybe that’s a typo?) It took me a solid week and a half to read, and I’m sure it just felt long because nothing was happening for quite a long time.

I also struggled with the authors’ writing style, which feels very formal and a bit old fashioned. The story feels overwritten at times, with long paragraphs of descriptions and narrative passages that, in my opinion, could have been trimmed down to make the story flow better and improve the pacing. We don’t really find out what’s going on until the end, and the story would have held my attention more if we’d been given more hints about Reid and who he is earlier on. There is a lot of repetition once Ben gets to the camp, and it took way too long to get to the good stuff. The boys are taken on multiple camping trips, and the authors’ spend a great deal of time on these, describing each aspect of hunting, fishing and even skinning rabbits to eat (do beware if you’re sensitive to animal killings. For me, the kids were learning survival skills, so I was OK with it.)

And one more comment before I get to the positives. Ben is an extremely unlikable character, and while I understand he’s had a tough life and is in a horrible situation, it was hard to root for him at times. He’s described as being “profoundly different from anyone else who has been through the program (camp)” which made me laugh. He’s very intelligent and has an uncanny intuitiveness that helps him cope with what’s happening at Bear Springs. This means he’s able to read people and manipulate them in very uncomfortable ways. He gets the best of just about every adult in the camp, although Reid is much tougher to figure out.

Now for the elements I enjoyed. I loved the vibe of the story, which reminded me of both Lord of the Flies and Boys in the Valley, so if you’re a fan of either book, definitely give this a try. I love the “kids against the adults” trope, especially the way the boys befriend and support each other. Despite my dislike of Ben, he immediately bonds with his cabin mates Trent and Rodrigo, and the three become tight friends and help each other out. Billy is the fourth member of their cabin, and at first he comes across as mean and scary (he’s physically bigger than the other boys). But eventually Billy proves to be very important to the other boys, and he ended up being my favorite character of the bunch. 

I also loved the wilderness setting and descriptions of the mountains. The authors did a great job of conveying the feeling that these boys are stranded in a remote setting, with only a group of adults to (supposedly) keep them safe. There’s a sense of claustrophobia as well, being trapped by the mountains and unable to get out, and this adds a nice touch of unease to the story.

As for the exciting action, the story literally explodes into violence in the last several chapters, and my horror loving heart was finally happy. The authors did a fantastic job of bringing together all the earlier hints into a thrilling and extremely bloody showdown between the boys and, well, the evil. There’s a reason the boys were being taught how to shoot bows and arrows and wield axes for the first 250 pages, and they finally get to put their skills to good use. If only this dynamic pacing had been present in the first part of the book, Wilderness Reform would have ended up being a favorite book of mine. And despite my negatives, I will definitely check out the Query’s next book.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.