Fatal Glitch: Camp Zero, about an 11-year-old gamer who enters a Black Mirror-esque nightmare of her own making, is the first installment in a compelling middle-grade technological horror series by two-time Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly (Hello Universe; The First State of Being) and Stonewall and Printz Honor-winner Eliot Schrefer (The Darkness Outside Us; Queer Ducks (and Other Animals)).
Sofia Mendoza spends most of her time on her tablet, building worlds and slaying monsters in her favorite game, Sandbox. After Sofia's gymnast sister, Isabella, trips over Sofia's (purposefully?) outstretched foot and fractures her kneecap, Sofia's dad, thinking Sofia needs some "perspective," drops the girl off at Forestjaw, a remote summer camp. ("Stupid Isabella," Sofia thinks in response, "I mean, sure, her leg is in a brace--but it's her own fault.... If she hadn't been bragging about her latest competition, she would have been paying closer attention.")
Sofia is more than a little creeped out by the mechanical vulture perched upon camp head Monarch's shoulder, but she is aghast when the menacing woman demands Sofia hand over her electronics. The few shadowy cabins that make up the camp don't endear Sofia to Forestjaw, but her fear is replaced by elation when it's revealed that the camp is "sponsored" by the popular videogame Sandbox, and one of the campers will leave with one million credits to use in the game. Sofia is determined to be that camper--but first, she'll have to figure out how to play.
Camp Zero mirrors the darkly comic morality tales of R.L. Stine's iconic Goosebumps series, while keeping the reader's mortal terror at a likely lower simmer. Kelly and Schrefer replicate something like the creepily atmospheric style of The Twilight Zone, bolstered by Jeannette Arroyo's black-and-white full-page and spot illustrations of looming trees and silhouetted figures. At just under 150 pages, this is a quick-paced, accessible tale for readers who are horror-curious but not necessarily ready for anything that's explicitly frightening.
Sofia is an impressively difficult character to root for, as frustratingly lacking in empathy as she is self-awareness. For readers less experienced with unreliable or unlikable narrators, Sofia's inability to learn any lessons--and her necessarily consequential fate--may be a jarring experience. But for those who love to see a villain get their just deserts, the book's final scenes will prove to be a satisfying (if chilling) delight. --Mariel Fechik Deslaurier, librarian, freelance writer, music reviewer
Shelf Talker: In this creepy first installment in a series about uncanny, imagined dangers of technology, an entitled 11-year-old gamer learns the true cost of looking out only for herself.