Book Summary

This month’s book club pick took us deep into the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, where summer camp vibes, wealthy family secrets, suspicious disappearances, and enough emotional trauma to fuel an entire HBO miniseries kept us hooked from start to finish. Liz Moore delivered a suspenseful, character-driven thriller that had us convinced every single week that we had finally solved the mystery… only to discover we absolutely had not.

The novel follows the disappearance of a teenage girl from a wealthy family’s summer camp — eerily mirroring the earlier disappearance of her brother years before. Along the way, the story digs into family dysfunction, class divides, buried secrets, and the complicated lives of the people surrounding the camp. We spent weeks debating theories, defending (and attacking) characters, and changing our minds repeatedly. One member strongly disliked one of the main characters, while others felt sympathy for her because of the time period and expectations placed on women at that time. Nobody guessed the ending correctly, which honestly made the book even better.

As usual, our food themes were elite. During the reading, we celebrated:

• Chips & Dip Day
• Chia Day
• Wendy Day (featuring Frostys, obviously)
• Caramel Popcorn Day
• Theresa Day, complete with peach cobbler and a competitive game of Scrabble that Theresa won (this is not surprising)
• Patricia Day, hosted by Lisa in honor of both Patty T. and Lisa’s Aunt Patricia. It was also Devil Dog day and there is a photo included in our gallery commemorating that!
• We may have accidentally failed to properly celebrate 420 Day, but nobody’s perfect.

Since our last book trip involved flights to Colorado, we decided to stay local this time and lean fully into the summer camp atmosphere. We rented a cabin at Deep Lakes Campground near Muscatine, Iowa, because if there’s one thing our group excels at, it’s fully committing to the theme.

One of the main characters in the book is camp director TJ, and almost immediately we realized our friend Allie had to become our real-life TJ for the weekend. This turned out to be one of our better decisions.

Friday started at one of our favorite Davenport spots, The Circle Tap, where we gathered while Jess finished bartending. Once she was done, we somehow managed to cram an absolutely unreasonable amount of luggage, snacks, drinks, and miscellaneous supplies into three vehicles and headed to Muscatine. TJ repeatedly informed us throughout the weekend that we had “A LOT of things,” which was both accurate and an understatement.

On the way, we made a quick stop at Pete’s Tap, which looked suspiciously like someone’s house but was packed with locals insisting they had the best wings around. We stayed committed to our “one shot only” rule due to our later than usual start and therefore cannot confirm or deny the wing situation.

The cabin itself was surprisingly nice, although located in what felt like the middle of an industrial park apocalypse. Still, there were tiny lakes, a great deck, and enough room for seven women and approximately 4,000 personal belongings. The bathroom situation, however, was criminal. One toilet. One shower. Approximately zero understanding from the cabin designers about how long it takes seven women to get ready.

Dinner eventually happened around 10 PM after unpacking, fire-starting, charcoal grilling, vegetable chopping, and general chaos management. We wrapped up the night with Truth or Dare around the campfire, which revealed things we probably did not need to know about one another.

Saturday morning featured an impressive breakfast spread before we headed to Muscatine’s first Farmers Market of the season. From there, we met up with Allie/TJ at Nahant Marsh, where she taught us survival and camp skills including archery, atlatl dart throwing, and wilderness emergency response scenarios.

Apparently atlatl darts were once used to hunt buffalo. Based on our skill levels, we probably could have mildly inconvenienced one.

TJ then divided us into teams and handed us survival scenarios involving snake bites, bee stings, and bike accidents. We were also given backpacks filled with supplies — some useful, some clearly included to confuse us. The exercise confirmed that most of us should not be trusted alone in the wilderness without adult supervision.

Lunch took us to Boondocks, located next to the Mississippi River and, more importantly, train tracks. Whenever a train passes, they offer $1 “train shots,” and we are simply not strong enough to resist traditions like that.

Back at the cabin, some people relaxed while others recreated one of the book’s darker scenes by burying our inflatable victim dummy, Fernando, near the shoreline. His identity changes based on each book’s villain or victim, but in the interest of avoiding spoilers, we’ll keep his temporary name confidential.

That evening we transformed into Kentucky Derby attendees and headed to Hubble’s Tap for mint juleps (not; those are simply awful), betting pools, and horse race commentary from people who know absolutely nothing about horse racing. Theresa won the betting pool because apparently she can also predict horses in addition to dominating Scrabble.

After additional stops at Boonie’s on the Avenue and more campfire activities, TJ taught us how to start fires using ferrocerium rods. We also played Green Glass Door, a game that nearly caused several emotional breakdowns before everyone finally understood the pattern.

At one point, Lindsey spotted a strange glowing formation moving across the night sky. We expected migrating birds. Instead, it was a line of Starlink satellites silently floating overhead like the opening scene of a sci-fi thriller. Honestly, it fit the mood of the book perfectly.

Sunday morning required us to repack all of our belongings — once again, A LOT of things — before heading to The Pearl Martini Bar & Lounge for Bloody Marys large enough to qualify as a full brunch buffet. We made additional stops at Missipi Brewing Company, The Lighthouse, Mr. Ed’s, and eventually back to The Circle Tap to retrieve vehicles, recap the weekend, and squeeze in one final drink or three.

Overall, it was another wildly successful book club trip full of mystery, campfire chaos, themed activities, survival skills we probably already forgot, and far too many bags packed by fully grown women who absolutely knew better.

We would highly recommend this book — and honestly, the experience of fully immersing yourself in it with good friends makes it even better.