Yes, girls, forgive me! When I finished "Flights," by Olga Tokarczuk, I knew I had to cleanse my palette of the burden of having read that book, finish it, though I did.
So, when I saw Lisa Jackson's novel "You Will Pay," which outlined a prank gone wrong at a Summer camp--shades of "Friday The 13th!!!!!!!!!"-- and revenge seeking two decades later, I thought this would be perfect.
It would have been--in its own way--if Jackson could write.
Alas, she could not. A story that should and could easily have been told in 150 to slightly over 200 pages, is stretched out, tediously, to over 500 pages.
Everything from the contrivance pot is thrown in--a supposed Christian Bible camp, run by two hypocrites, a son who sleeps with his stepmother, knocks up (or does he?) another girl, breaks off with the one he likes, with repercussions from all this being brought back after twenty years. And when the former camp counsellors--females--come to town to be questioned, and one of them is bumped off--shades of Agatha Christie.
I usually enjoy this type of story. See my post, years back on Gerald Di Pego's "With A Vengeance," and Tom Savage's "Valentine." Both are excellent examples of how novels of these type should work.
Lisa, honey, get yourself a day job, or a writing staff that can churn out better trash than this. I love good trash, once in awhile, but this was not even good. I could not wait until I had finished it.
It only made me glad I was never sent to Summer camp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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