Kill River by Cameron Roubique

This book was such a weird experience. I was really excited to read some oldschool-style over the top horror and that's exactly what you get...after you've slugged through the first thirteen chapters. I just feel the set up to this premise was so unnecessary and drawn out. Instead of starting the book with the teenagers just finding the abandoned waterpark and breaking in, it instead starts with our main character Cyndi going off to camp. At camp she meets the other teenagers and then nothing really interesting happens until they decide to escape the camp in the middle of the night, float down a river and end up at the waterpark. At this point nearly half the book is over. I can understand maybe not wanting Cyndi to know the others that well but the camp has nothing to do with the rest of the book and there are much easier ways (have her be new to the town and casually mention she knows the kids from school but they've not hung out before, for example).

After this halfway point though, this book delivered everything I wanted. This is a traditional slasher with an unknown attacker and a bunch of graphically violent scenes at a great setting. The characters were a bit stereotypical but had enough depth for you to not completely detach from them. The waterpark is a perfect setting for some really good horror moments and I had an utter blast reading this. My only other criticism is that I felt the characters should have been around 15 instead of 13. There's not a ton of sexual stuff but there are hints of it and while this might be technically accurate for 13 year olds, it made me slightly uncomfortable to read about. It was just distracting.

If I had to rate this book accurately, the first half would be 2 stars and the second half would easily get 4. I've averaged this out to a 3 but it seems a shame when the second half was so strong and it delivers on the premise so well. I'm hoping the sequel will have less unnecessary setup.

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