"Bad Call"

"Bad Call"
Written by Stephen Wallenfels
Review written by Diana Iozzia

I was really excited to read this, but I think the anticipation had to do with the length of time I waited for my complementary copy to come. Not to be disparaging, but I think I built up a huge amount of excitement. When I do this, I do find myself becoming a little let down and disappointed. "Bad Call" let my twenty-two year old self down, but would have really impressed my 13 - 16 year old self. This is a book created by Disney's teen imprint, Hyperion, so it is really marketed at teens. I still read young adult / teen fiction, so I had thought that this would still be a relatively good read for that young adult side of my reading. This follows a group of five high school seniors, 4 boys and 1 girl, as they lose their way while camping in Yellowstone National Park.

Perhaps I was going into this thinking that it was going to be significantly creepier than it actually was. It sounded like a twisty Donner party reimagining, so I was hoping for some creeps and spooks. When I found out that this was an imprint of Disney, I was surprised to see cursing and foul language as well as bloody violence. However, this was slightly disappointing. I have always been a fan of "The Lord of the Flies" and other survival in the elements stories, but this turned out to be a little more frothy and sugarcoated than I expected. 

There are a quite a few complements that I have for this book, although I was relatively disappointed. Like I said, my younger self would have loved this book if it was written when I was younger, so I think I still resulted in liking it. Although there weren't people roasting others' limbs, it was still relatively creepy. It's weird to phrase this, but I liked that one of the characters, Grahame, was creepy in the sexual, awkward advances. He was very uncomfortable and eerie, and a perfect almost villain. I also thought that the language and dialogue was very realistic for teen fiction. Sometimes, I feel that some teen characters sound like adults, or they sound like caricatures of teens. Okay, save Grahame's weird fake Jamaican accent. Yes, we are supposed to think he is annoying and weird, but it seems like a step too far. I also enjoyed the map in the beginning of the book and the descriptions of Yellowstone National Park. The locations and scenery seemed very realistic and well-described. In the last few pages, we also receive a few newspaper clippings. I often enjoy extra additions to books like maps and newspaper articles.

I think my main complaint about "Bad Call" is the build-up to the action. About 150 pages before the characters even slightly seem to be in danger. There's a gigantic amount of backstory and perspectives that collide and are repetitive. I guess the backstory is in place to show how some of the characters could have secret agendas and aren't always the nicest people. Unfortunately, I felt this was a massively slow start. By the time it became interesting, it was great, but it took a while to get to the exciting point. 

Okay, I have one last funny gripe to make. Characters that don't understand references to Sir Isaac Newton? High school seniors don't have a clue who he is??? Characters that go viral and become popular on Jimmy Fallon's talk show because of a funny Q-Tip picture????

* I was sent a complementary finished copy for reviewing purposes. *