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Savage Lake
A mother and son travel to a dilapidated cabin in the woods that haunts more than just her memories in this new unnerving horror from the author of The Whistler and Sisters of the Lost Nation.
Nell Marin swore she would never return to the place where part of her died.
The passing of her estranged father, however, leaves her with no choice but to take her teenage son, Oscar, back to the run-down family cabin on Torchlight Lake, where horrific memories linger. The two will fix the place up, sell it, and ensure Nell never has to return to that dreaded lake again.
But when the roads—which pass through Native land—are barricaded by the local Tribe, the quick trip turns into weeks. Oscar, a horror movie buff, knows this is exactly how it starts. As the long summer days drag on, unsettling things begin to occur: screams ring out over the water and a mysterious figure watches the cabin from the trees at night. Most disturbing of all, his mother is becoming less and less herself.
As the strange events lead Oscar to uncover the secrets Nell has shielded him from, he is forced to confront a reality that is far more frightening than movie monsters. He must uncover answers to the questions that stole so much from his mother…before the horror that traumatized Nell drags him under as well.
Nell Marin swore she would never return to the place where part of her died.
The passing of her estranged father, however, leaves her with no choice but to take her teenage son, Oscar, back to the run-down family cabin on Torchlight Lake, where horrific memories linger. The two will fix the place up, sell it, and ensure Nell never has to return to that dreaded lake again.
But when the roads—which pass through Native land—are barricaded by the local Tribe, the quick trip turns into weeks. Oscar, a horror movie buff, knows this is exactly how it starts. As the long summer days drag on, unsettling things begin to occur: screams ring out over the water and a mysterious figure watches the cabin from the trees at night. Most disturbing of all, his mother is becoming less and less herself.
As the strange events lead Oscar to uncover the secrets Nell has shielded him from, he is forced to confront a reality that is far more frightening than movie monsters. He must uncover answers to the questions that stole so much from his mother…before the horror that traumatized Nell drags him under as well.
321 pages, Hardcover
First published October 27, 2026
About the author
Nick Medina
16 books741 followersBorn in Chicago, Illinois, Nick Medina is an enthusiast of local and Native lore. His debut novel, Sisters of the Lost Nation, features several supernatural myths and legends and earned a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection Award and was a Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Horror (2023). He became interested in the problem of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls after reading an article in the Chicago Tribune about Ashley Loring Heavyrunner, who went missing from the Blackfoot reservation in 2017. He enjoys exploring the strange and unusual, haunted cemeteries, and other spooky places, playing guitar, physical fitness, and spending time with family. He is a member of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Well sadly I didn’t care for this much at all. I was lured in by the premise of a mother/son who have returned to the family’s Summer cabin for a clean out before putting it up for sale and who then get stuck there with potentially scurrrrry things going bump in the night. What I got was a then and now story with the main focus being what happened during the Summer of 1999 and a present where the son Oscar spends most of his time imagining a horror story playing out in his head about the kids in the cabin across the lake rather than anything actually going on at all. Oh and there is also a search for Bigfoot. Eesh.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
July 16, 2026
2.75/5
Thank you NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group, and the author Nick Medina for gifting me with this ARC to review!
I struggled with what I was going to rate this book, because while I did enjoy the premise I really couldn’t get into the writing.
Liked:
-creepy cabin in the woods, no cell service, and spooky things happening (sounds like a dream vacay to me!) let me tell you though if I was in Oscar’s shoes and my mom framed a dilapidated cabin as a lakefront house, I’d be so pissed. I’m surprised that they had electricity in that thing! At that point I don’t think any type of cleaning it out would make it sellable (just tear it down and sell the lot lol).
Disliked:
-the writing. At certain points it felt clunky to me and at others sporadic. I will have to say I read through the story pretty fast but the writing just didn’t impress me too much.
-maybe one too many horror tropes (ghosts, Bigfoot, serial killers murdering a group teens). I thought it was just a lot to throw in the book personally. I don’t think the Bigfoot subplot was really required to get the point of the story across.
Thank you NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group, and the author Nick Medina for gifting me with this ARC to review!
I struggled with what I was going to rate this book, because while I did enjoy the premise I really couldn’t get into the writing.
Liked:
-creepy cabin in the woods, no cell service, and spooky things happening (sounds like a dream vacay to me!) let me tell you though if I was in Oscar’s shoes and my mom framed a dilapidated cabin as a lakefront house, I’d be so pissed. I’m surprised that they had electricity in that thing! At that point I don’t think any type of cleaning it out would make it sellable (just tear it down and sell the lot lol).
Disliked:
-the writing. At certain points it felt clunky to me and at others sporadic. I will have to say I read through the story pretty fast but the writing just didn’t impress me too much.
-maybe one too many horror tropes (ghosts, Bigfoot, serial killers murdering a group teens). I thought it was just a lot to throw in the book personally. I don’t think the Bigfoot subplot was really required to get the point of the story across.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Hello creepy vibes! This book was one of the first books I read to usher in the spooky season and I loved it so much. There are two timelines in this book and it worked so well. In one we have Nell and her son Oscar, and in the other, we have Nell growing up. Ah as soon as Nell and Oscar became trapped I knew things were getting going and I strapped in. Nick Medina sure knows how to write Native lore well, like seriously he is amazing at it. This is my second or third book by him and each time I love it more than the last. I got a kick out of Oscar, like he knew things were not going to go well, he’s read too much horror for it to go well. You need to read this book if you are looking for an emotional horror read. Seriously don’t sleep on this one.
Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy. All thoughts are my own.
Thank you to the publisher for a gifted copy. All thoughts are my own.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Oscar has seen enough horror movies to know that “isolated cabin, no cell service, screaming lake, mysterious hairy man in the woods” is not a vacation itinerary, but unfortunately his mother has already unpacked. And by “cabin,” Nell apparently means the dilapidated family property she hasn't visited in twenty-seven years because the last summer she spent there ended with her brother Benny dead and her entire family emotionally detonated. They are supposed to clean it out, sell it, and leave. Very HGTV, except the renovation budget is grief and something may be watching them from the trees.
Then the local Tribe barricades the roads over an access dispute and suddenly the quick cleanup trip becomes an extended stay at Torchlight Lake, which would already be terrible because Nell very clearly does not want to be there. Except now there are screams coming across the water. Strange things around the cabin. A figure lurking in the woods. Nell is disappearing further into herself by the day, and Oscar is looking around like, I have watched this movie and nobody survives by pretending everything is fine. Honestly, having the horror nerd be the person trapped inside the horror story is deeply satisfying because at least ONE person is properly alarmed.
Oscar was my guy immediately. He processes the increasingly weird situation by turning the people around him into horror-movie scenarios in his head, complete with all the familiar slasher rules and terrible choices. Sometimes he gets a little carried away with it, but sir, there are teenagers across the lake, your mother is acting increasingly unlike herself, there may or may not be a cryptid wandering around, and you've heard unexplained screaming. I will allow the genre awareness. At this point, start assigning everyone Final Girl probabilities and pack snacks.
Meanwhile, we keep slipping back to 1999 and teenage Nell, and this is where Savage Lake started getting under my skin. You know Benny is going to die. Nell knows, decades later, exactly what that summer cost her. But teenage Nell doesn't know yet, so you're stuck watching this family stumble toward something awful while every relationship is already held together with resentment, favoritism, anger, and approximately one damp Band-Aid. I kept wanting to grab these people by the shoulders because you can feel the fracture coming long before anyone admits the family is already broken.
And there is a LOT happening at this lake. Ghost story? Maybe. Slasher? Pull up a chair. Serial-killer possibilities? Sure. Sabe? Apparently we're doing cryptids now. Family secrets? We brought those in bulk. At one point I realized Nick Medina had emptied the entire horror junk drawer onto the table and somehow I was still digging through it with him. A couple of those threads had me wondering where exactly we were going, but the more Nell's past and Oscar's present started bleeding together, the more I needed to know what actually happened to Benny and what this place had been holding onto ever since.
The thing that got me, though, wasn't whatever might be in the woods. It was Oscar slowly realizing that his mother's behavior isn't some spooky cabin transformation that began when they arrived. Nell came back carrying twenty-seven years of something she never survived so much as learned to live around. And now her kid is trying to understand a woman who protected him from her past so thoroughly that he doesn't have the information he needs to help her. That hurt. Parents can hide the story from their children. They cannot always hide what the story did to them.
There's also something much uglier underneath the supernatural questions. Racism, who gets treated like they belong, who gets labeled an outsider, whose land people feel entitled to use, and the kind of violence human beings manage perfectly well without assistance from ghosts or monsters. Savage Lake kept offering me creepy things to fear and then quietly reminding me that people have historically been more than capable of handling the horror themselves. Rude, but fair.
By the final stretch, all the seemingly unrelated weirdness I'd been collecting started snapping into place, including things I'd mentally filed under, “Nick, I trust you, but explain yourself.” I did not have the whole thing figured out, and I especially liked realizing afterward that some of the answers had been sitting there while I was busy staring suspiciously at everything else. The last part goes from simmering dread to OH, WE'RE DOING THIS NOW with remarkable efficiency, and Benny's story landed harder than I expected it to.
Also, how is Savage Lake my first Nick Medina? Four stars, and apparently I've been negligent. This gave me grief horror, a deeply screwed-up family, an isolated cabin, Indigenous lore, a horror-obsessed teenager who understands that going toward the strange noise is generally frowned upon, and enough competing possibilities that I spent a substantial amount of time wondering whether I should fear a ghost, a murderer, a cryptid, the lake, or somebody's relatives. Turns out that was the correct emotional posture.
Whodunity Award: For Making Me Ask “Ghost, Bigfoot, Serial Killer, or Generational Trauma?” Like Those Were the Only Four Multiple-Choice Options
Huge thanks to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC. You sent me to a collapsing cabin with no cell service, blocked roads, screams across the water, decades of family trauma, and something hairy wandering through the woods. I have learned nothing except that if my mother ever says, “We're just going to the lake for a few days,” I'm suddenly very busy.
Then the local Tribe barricades the roads over an access dispute and suddenly the quick cleanup trip becomes an extended stay at Torchlight Lake, which would already be terrible because Nell very clearly does not want to be there. Except now there are screams coming across the water. Strange things around the cabin. A figure lurking in the woods. Nell is disappearing further into herself by the day, and Oscar is looking around like, I have watched this movie and nobody survives by pretending everything is fine. Honestly, having the horror nerd be the person trapped inside the horror story is deeply satisfying because at least ONE person is properly alarmed.
Oscar was my guy immediately. He processes the increasingly weird situation by turning the people around him into horror-movie scenarios in his head, complete with all the familiar slasher rules and terrible choices. Sometimes he gets a little carried away with it, but sir, there are teenagers across the lake, your mother is acting increasingly unlike herself, there may or may not be a cryptid wandering around, and you've heard unexplained screaming. I will allow the genre awareness. At this point, start assigning everyone Final Girl probabilities and pack snacks.
Meanwhile, we keep slipping back to 1999 and teenage Nell, and this is where Savage Lake started getting under my skin. You know Benny is going to die. Nell knows, decades later, exactly what that summer cost her. But teenage Nell doesn't know yet, so you're stuck watching this family stumble toward something awful while every relationship is already held together with resentment, favoritism, anger, and approximately one damp Band-Aid. I kept wanting to grab these people by the shoulders because you can feel the fracture coming long before anyone admits the family is already broken.
And there is a LOT happening at this lake. Ghost story? Maybe. Slasher? Pull up a chair. Serial-killer possibilities? Sure. Sabe? Apparently we're doing cryptids now. Family secrets? We brought those in bulk. At one point I realized Nick Medina had emptied the entire horror junk drawer onto the table and somehow I was still digging through it with him. A couple of those threads had me wondering where exactly we were going, but the more Nell's past and Oscar's present started bleeding together, the more I needed to know what actually happened to Benny and what this place had been holding onto ever since.
The thing that got me, though, wasn't whatever might be in the woods. It was Oscar slowly realizing that his mother's behavior isn't some spooky cabin transformation that began when they arrived. Nell came back carrying twenty-seven years of something she never survived so much as learned to live around. And now her kid is trying to understand a woman who protected him from her past so thoroughly that he doesn't have the information he needs to help her. That hurt. Parents can hide the story from their children. They cannot always hide what the story did to them.
There's also something much uglier underneath the supernatural questions. Racism, who gets treated like they belong, who gets labeled an outsider, whose land people feel entitled to use, and the kind of violence human beings manage perfectly well without assistance from ghosts or monsters. Savage Lake kept offering me creepy things to fear and then quietly reminding me that people have historically been more than capable of handling the horror themselves. Rude, but fair.
By the final stretch, all the seemingly unrelated weirdness I'd been collecting started snapping into place, including things I'd mentally filed under, “Nick, I trust you, but explain yourself.” I did not have the whole thing figured out, and I especially liked realizing afterward that some of the answers had been sitting there while I was busy staring suspiciously at everything else. The last part goes from simmering dread to OH, WE'RE DOING THIS NOW with remarkable efficiency, and Benny's story landed harder than I expected it to.
Also, how is Savage Lake my first Nick Medina? Four stars, and apparently I've been negligent. This gave me grief horror, a deeply screwed-up family, an isolated cabin, Indigenous lore, a horror-obsessed teenager who understands that going toward the strange noise is generally frowned upon, and enough competing possibilities that I spent a substantial amount of time wondering whether I should fear a ghost, a murderer, a cryptid, the lake, or somebody's relatives. Turns out that was the correct emotional posture.
Whodunity Award: For Making Me Ask “Ghost, Bigfoot, Serial Killer, or Generational Trauma?” Like Those Were the Only Four Multiple-Choice Options
Huge thanks to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC. You sent me to a collapsing cabin with no cell service, blocked roads, screams across the water, decades of family trauma, and something hairy wandering through the woods. I have learned nothing except that if my mother ever says, “We're just going to the lake for a few days,” I'm suddenly very busy.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley for the pre-release copy of Nick Medina's Savage Lake. Below is my honest review.
Trauma has this way of infecting places, and the brutal events of Nell Marin's young-adulthood definitely changed Torchlight Lake for her. She swore she'd never go back, but she's taken her teenaged son there to the dilapidated cabin that her parents left her, so they can get it ready and sell it.
But things take a turn, as the places seems to drain the life and energy out of her.
We follow Oscar, her son, as he tries to take care of her and figure out what the mysteries of this place mean to her and to him as history decides its going to rear its violent and ugly head.
While we are in the head of the teenager, this definitely isn't a YA book. It's brutal and dark and full of trauma, and it's absolutely delicious in the way that only seeing someone else's darkness on the page can be. As the past begins to intertwine with the present, we get to see Oscar discover the things that bind his family's history, and he's racing against time to understand it.
Highly recommended for fans of isolated settings, family/generational trauma, dual timelines, and twists and turns. Oh, and horror movies, because there are a LOT of references to so many good ones.
Trauma has this way of infecting places, and the brutal events of Nell Marin's young-adulthood definitely changed Torchlight Lake for her. She swore she'd never go back, but she's taken her teenaged son there to the dilapidated cabin that her parents left her, so they can get it ready and sell it.
But things take a turn, as the places seems to drain the life and energy out of her.
We follow Oscar, her son, as he tries to take care of her and figure out what the mysteries of this place mean to her and to him as history decides its going to rear its violent and ugly head.
While we are in the head of the teenager, this definitely isn't a YA book. It's brutal and dark and full of trauma, and it's absolutely delicious in the way that only seeing someone else's darkness on the page can be. As the past begins to intertwine with the present, we get to see Oscar discover the things that bind his family's history, and he's racing against time to understand it.
Highly recommended for fans of isolated settings, family/generational trauma, dual timelines, and twists and turns. Oh, and horror movies, because there are a LOT of references to so many good ones.
August 11, 2026
Nick Medina continues to solidify his position as a favorite author every time I pick up a new book from him. I was fully sucked into this from the moment I started it. I stayed up until I could no longer keep my eyes open just to devour the poetry that is this haunting tale. Medina has a beautiful way of immersing you into harrowing tales that you can’t look away from, no matter how tragic and heartbreaking they are. This is for the grief-horror lovers, hands down. It packs a punch!
If you haven’t picked up a book from this author yet, I HIGHLY recommend you do! I’ll be anxiously waiting for my preorder to come in 👀
• cabin in the woods
• grief horror
• difficult family dynamics
• monster in the lake
• ghost story (dare I say)
• haunting past
• murder mystery
• ode to slasher films
• CRYPTIDS!
CHECK THE TW! This does contain familial abuse, racism, and gore that could be a sensitive subject to some, amongst other subjects. Please take care of your mental health.
Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion!
If you haven’t picked up a book from this author yet, I HIGHLY recommend you do! I’ll be anxiously waiting for my preorder to come in 👀
• cabin in the woods
• grief horror
• difficult family dynamics
• monster in the lake
• ghost story (dare I say)
• haunting past
• murder mystery
• ode to slasher films
• CRYPTIDS!
CHECK THE TW! This does contain familial abuse, racism, and gore that could be a sensitive subject to some, amongst other subjects. Please take care of your mental health.
Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
If Nick Medina writes it I know that I need to be prepared for emotionally-charged horror, but I wasn't ready for Savage Lake. This book is a wholely intoxicating blend of familial grief horror, the classic lakeside cabin slasher, and Indigenous lore in the form of the Sabe. Every page of this book felt heavy, the tension radiating off of the pages, the reader stuck both in the summer of 1999 alongside Nell, feeling something ominous on the horizon, but being powerless to stop it, and seeing her years later through the eyes of her teenaged son as he grapples with the past, what his mother lost, and how to make things right... if that's even possible when the lake has grown tired of staying quiet and keeping secrets.
I truly believe that the best horror makes readers think and to that end, Savage Lake is a masterclass. How do you watch your family implode while knowing you can't stop it? What happens when the guilt and grief eat you alive? How do you process going back to the place that broke you? Where do you turn when you're watching someone you love self-destruct? How do you fight off generational trauma when you haven't healed from the trauma yourself? How do so many different types of evil continue to exist? Why do people refuse to learn?
This book is for my readers who want their horror to hurt, who crave excruciating levels of tension, who love their characters to feel real and flawed and compelling, and who are beyond sick and tired of the hatred, ignorance, and injustices forced onto Indigenous people and other people of color. Sometimes the sickest horror is what people do to each other.
There is so much more I want to say, but it would give the entire book away and I urge you to go in blind. With Savage Lake set to release on 10/27/26, please make the time to preorder, add to your TBR, and ask every library you have access to use to ensure they have copies requested. And while you wait, I encourage you to look into more of Nick Medina's work. He's a truly talented author and I don't see his books shared nearly enough. At this point, his publishers may as well just charge my card in advance when a new release is announced. I'm going to buy it, I'm going to love it, and it would just save me some time.
((While the viewpoints shared are my own, I want to thank NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group, & Nick Medina for this complimentary copy.))
I truly believe that the best horror makes readers think and to that end, Savage Lake is a masterclass. How do you watch your family implode while knowing you can't stop it? What happens when the guilt and grief eat you alive? How do you process going back to the place that broke you? Where do you turn when you're watching someone you love self-destruct? How do you fight off generational trauma when you haven't healed from the trauma yourself? How do so many different types of evil continue to exist? Why do people refuse to learn?
This book is for my readers who want their horror to hurt, who crave excruciating levels of tension, who love their characters to feel real and flawed and compelling, and who are beyond sick and tired of the hatred, ignorance, and injustices forced onto Indigenous people and other people of color. Sometimes the sickest horror is what people do to each other.
There is so much more I want to say, but it would give the entire book away and I urge you to go in blind. With Savage Lake set to release on 10/27/26, please make the time to preorder, add to your TBR, and ask every library you have access to use to ensure they have copies requested. And while you wait, I encourage you to look into more of Nick Medina's work. He's a truly talented author and I don't see his books shared nearly enough. At this point, his publishers may as well just charge my card in advance when a new release is announced. I'm going to buy it, I'm going to love it, and it would just save me some time.
((While the viewpoints shared are my own, I want to thank NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group, & Nick Medina for this complimentary copy.))
Want to Read
May 15, 2026New Nick Medina!!!!!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Savage Lake is a blend of supernatural horror, mystery, and family trauma. Nick Medina takes the familiar “isolated cabin in the woods” setup and gives it much more emotional weight through Nell and her son Oscar.
I liked the way the story moves between Nell’s teenage years in 1999 and the present day. The two timelines slowly reveal what happened to Nell’s brother and why returning to the lake brings so much buried pain back to the surface. Oscar was probably my favorite character—his obsession with horror movies adds some dark humor, but it also makes the increasingly strange events around the cabin even more unsettling.
The lake, the woods, the mysterious sounds, and the feeling that something is watching from the darkness create a constant sense of dread. I also appreciated how Medina connects the supernatural elements to grief, generational trauma, racism, and the damage that families can carry for decades.
My only real issue was the pacing. It takes a while for everything to come together, and some of Oscar’s horror-movie references felt a little overused.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read in advance of the release date, October 27, 2060.
I liked the way the story moves between Nell’s teenage years in 1999 and the present day. The two timelines slowly reveal what happened to Nell’s brother and why returning to the lake brings so much buried pain back to the surface. Oscar was probably my favorite character—his obsession with horror movies adds some dark humor, but it also makes the increasingly strange events around the cabin even more unsettling.
The lake, the woods, the mysterious sounds, and the feeling that something is watching from the darkness create a constant sense of dread. I also appreciated how Medina connects the supernatural elements to grief, generational trauma, racism, and the damage that families can carry for decades.
My only real issue was the pacing. It takes a while for everything to come together, and some of Oscar’s horror-movie references felt a little overused.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read in advance of the release date, October 27, 2060.
October 1, 2026
Some places don't only hold memories. Some keep everything we tried to bury with them. In Nick Medina's Savage Lake, Nell returns to her family's dilapidated cabin with her son Oscar. She intends to fix up the property, sell it, and leave the past behind. Instead, Torchlight Lake becomes increasingly sinister, and Oscar begins to realize that the scary stories surrounding his mother's childhood days may be way more true than he imagined. What makes Savage Lake stand out is the way its horror grows from deeply human wounds. Medina creates an atmosphere where screams across the water, a figure in the mist, and a mother transforming into someone else carry the same weight that the quiet terror of memory and resentment. The supernatural never feels separate from our characters' emotional realities. It gives shape to what they spend years trying to suppress. Oscar's perspective adds an affecting "teenager venturing into adulthood' element as he begins to look beyond the version of his mother he has always known. Their relationship is the heart of the novel, particularly as he realizes how much pain can be inherited without ever being explained. Haunting and atmospheric, Savage Lake asks us to confront things that happened before they ever became yours to carry. Thank you Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC. You can pick this book up October 27th, 2026 wherever you buy your books.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to Berkley for sending me an ARC of Savage Lake!
Horror isn’t a genre I usually reach for, so picking this up meant stepping outside my comfort zone. I’m glad I did! Sometimes trying something different is the best way to discover what else you might enjoy as a reader.
Savage Lake kept me intrigued. There were so many questions I wanted answered, and I kept reading because I needed to understand what had happened. The reveal of how the central event unfolded was the biggest surprise for me. I genuinely did not see it coming, and I appreciated that the story managed to catch me off guard.
That said, I sometimes felt that the book was juggling too many horror elements. Some threads received more development than others, and their combination occasionally made the story feel a little crowded. There were also moments in the present-day storyline when I felt confused about what was happening.
Despite those issues, I enjoyed the story overall. As someone who considers this their first real venture into horror, I found it to be an interesting introduction to the genre. It left me glad I had tried something outside my usual reading preferences, and I would recommend giving it a chance if you enjoy horror.
Horror isn’t a genre I usually reach for, so picking this up meant stepping outside my comfort zone. I’m glad I did! Sometimes trying something different is the best way to discover what else you might enjoy as a reader.
Savage Lake kept me intrigued. There were so many questions I wanted answered, and I kept reading because I needed to understand what had happened. The reveal of how the central event unfolded was the biggest surprise for me. I genuinely did not see it coming, and I appreciated that the story managed to catch me off guard.
That said, I sometimes felt that the book was juggling too many horror elements. Some threads received more development than others, and their combination occasionally made the story feel a little crowded. There were also moments in the present-day storyline when I felt confused about what was happening.
Despite those issues, I enjoyed the story overall. As someone who considers this their first real venture into horror, I found it to be an interesting introduction to the genre. It left me glad I had tried something outside my usual reading preferences, and I would recommend giving it a chance if you enjoy horror.
September 9, 2026
Thank you Berkley and NetGalley for my eARC
Savage Lake follows Nell and her teenage son, Oscar, as they travel to the run-down family cabin from Nell’s childhood after her estranged father passes away. Their hope is to fix up the dilapidated cabin and sell it, but their plans quickly unravel.
The story also follows another timeline from Nell’s perspective from the tragic summer of 1999, the summer when everything changed.
Dual timeline
🔥 Cursed lake
🪵 Isolated cabin in the woods
🛶 Horror with grief
This was so unsettling and atmospheric! The eerie lakeside cabin setting immediately pulled me in, and I especially liked how Oscar is very aware of all the classic ‘horror movie rules’ and tries to play by them.
The dual timeline was definitely a highlight for me. The way the past and present slowly come together builds so much suspense and tension. Knowing something happened without knowing the full story creates this constant dread - it was like a weight in my stomach.
There were just enough pieces of the puzzle revealed along the way to keep me turning pages, desperately trying to connect the past with the present. Such a great read!
Savage Lake follows Nell and her teenage son, Oscar, as they travel to the run-down family cabin from Nell’s childhood after her estranged father passes away. Their hope is to fix up the dilapidated cabin and sell it, but their plans quickly unravel.
The story also follows another timeline from Nell’s perspective from the tragic summer of 1999, the summer when everything changed.
Dual timeline
🔥 Cursed lake
🪵 Isolated cabin in the woods
🛶 Horror with grief
This was so unsettling and atmospheric! The eerie lakeside cabin setting immediately pulled me in, and I especially liked how Oscar is very aware of all the classic ‘horror movie rules’ and tries to play by them.
The dual timeline was definitely a highlight for me. The way the past and present slowly come together builds so much suspense and tension. Knowing something happened without knowing the full story creates this constant dread - it was like a weight in my stomach.
There were just enough pieces of the puzzle revealed along the way to keep me turning pages, desperately trying to connect the past with the present. Such a great read!
October 30, 2026
Moving back and forth between 1999 and current day, Savage Lake meticulously lays out the tragic and mysterious events that have taken place at Torchlight Lake over the decades. Events which, up until now, have kept Nell away from the cabin she and her family spent their summers in, up until the horrific summer of 1999.
After her father's passing, Nell and her young son, Oscar, have finally retured to Torchlight Lake to prepare the cabin to be sold. What was supposed to be a short trip, however, was made much longer when the roads are barricaded by the local Tribe.
Oscar, who was just wanting to help his mother finally close out this chapter in her life, is now faced with the task of trying to care for her in her traumatized state, all while little mysteries keep making themselves known around him, causing hir to dig deeper into what really happened in 1999, and what evil really resides in Torchlight Lake.
This was a completely new, brilliant, and dread-inducing take on the "cabin in the woods" type of story, and I loved every single second of it. Medina perfectly balanced mystery, horror, and emotion to create a story that I know is going to stay in my head for a long time. This book made me cry, laugh, scream, gasp, and sit in stunned silence. Easily a 5- star read, and one that I absolutely recommend adding to your TBR. The narration was excellent, and I felt the audiobook was the perfect way to enjoy this story.
After her father's passing, Nell and her young son, Oscar, have finally retured to Torchlight Lake to prepare the cabin to be sold. What was supposed to be a short trip, however, was made much longer when the roads are barricaded by the local Tribe.
Oscar, who was just wanting to help his mother finally close out this chapter in her life, is now faced with the task of trying to care for her in her traumatized state, all while little mysteries keep making themselves known around him, causing hir to dig deeper into what really happened in 1999, and what evil really resides in Torchlight Lake.
This was a completely new, brilliant, and dread-inducing take on the "cabin in the woods" type of story, and I loved every single second of it. Medina perfectly balanced mystery, horror, and emotion to create a story that I know is going to stay in my head for a long time. This book made me cry, laugh, scream, gasp, and sit in stunned silence. Easily a 5- star read, and one that I absolutely recommend adding to your TBR. The narration was excellent, and I felt the audiobook was the perfect way to enjoy this story.
October 30, 2026
This was my first book by Nick Medina. It switches between the present and the past. The past takes you back to Nell’s teenage days in 1999 and the events that led to her brother’s death at the lake. Right now, 18-year-old Oscar and his mom Nell head to the family lake house for what should be a quick trip to clean it up and sell it after his grandpa dies. But a local tribe has a land dispute with the federal government and barricades all the roads, so they’re stuck there. Oscar just wants to finish and get back to Chicago for his summer job and a possible date. He’s obsessed with horror movies, so the isolated cabin makes him jumpy. He starts watching the five teenagers next door through binoculars and imagines them as horror movie characters who all end up dead. Something feels off about the house and the lake.
It started strong but dragged a little in the middle. The setting is great—that lonely lake cabin. I couldn’t quite tell if it was ghosts, a serial killer, or something else. All of Oscar’s horror movie imaginations made me a little confused at times, and there was a lot going on that didn’t fully click for me. Still, I’d love to see this as a movie.
Thank you Berkley Publishing and Netgalley for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
It started strong but dragged a little in the middle. The setting is great—that lonely lake cabin. I couldn’t quite tell if it was ghosts, a serial killer, or something else. All of Oscar’s horror movie imaginations made me a little confused at times, and there was a lot going on that didn’t fully click for me. Still, I’d love to see this as a movie.
Thank you Berkley Publishing and Netgalley for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
September 29, 2026
I love Medina’s work and I have to say…this is my favorite to date. I was pulled in the moment this one started. I loved the dual timeline and the separate POVs, the cabin in the woods setting (near a lake), creature features, mystery, family issues, ode to slashers AND Big Foot. Yep…all that. I loved learning about the lore of Sabe (Big Foot) and the Indigenous stories interweaved into this, as his previous work. Although, this doesn’t take place on a Reservation you do get to learn some things about the Anishinaabe tribe.
The family abuse, racism and hatred are difficult in this and heartbreaking. Nell’s grief drips from the pages and you feel for her past and present. I thought Oscar made a great MC. He was brave and yet native at times which made him tug at my heartstrings. Lots happen here but it all comes together in the end in heartbreaking tragedy and understanding.
The family abuse, racism and hatred are difficult in this and heartbreaking. Nell’s grief drips from the pages and you feel for her past and present. I thought Oscar made a great MC. He was brave and yet native at times which made him tug at my heartstrings. Lots happen here but it all comes together in the end in heartbreaking tragedy and understanding.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Oh my heart. This book put me through the wringer, both because of all the grief and all the horror.
Nell Marin has to go back to the cabin in the woods where Terrible Things Happened. While she means to pop in, clean it up, and get it listed to sell, we know that it will not be that easy. Her son, Oscar, a fan of horror, knows this is exactly how many horror stories begin, getting stranded at some creepy cabin surrounded by creepy woods.
There are two timelines, and we know that each will lead to some awful event or revelation, but the writing is such that I could not stop reading. Nell is haunted by what happened, and Oscar will need every resource to get them both out of there in one piece.
This is my second book by Nick Medina and I very much look forward to whatever he writes next.
Nell Marin has to go back to the cabin in the woods where Terrible Things Happened. While she means to pop in, clean it up, and get it listed to sell, we know that it will not be that easy. Her son, Oscar, a fan of horror, knows this is exactly how many horror stories begin, getting stranded at some creepy cabin surrounded by creepy woods.
There are two timelines, and we know that each will lead to some awful event or revelation, but the writing is such that I could not stop reading. Nell is haunted by what happened, and Oscar will need every resource to get them both out of there in one piece.
This is my second book by Nick Medina and I very much look forward to whatever he writes next.
October 31, 2026
The gas station has two pumps, a bait fridge and an attendant with bloodshot eyes who refuses to let anyone near the beer. Oscar Marin, eighteen, is only there to use the bathroom, but when five teenagers pile in on their way to a lake, he cannot help sorting them the way his favourite films would: the jock, the blonde, the stoner, the brain, the girl next door. He even guesses which one survives. Savage Lake by Nick Medina begins with a boy who reads the world as a horror script, then spends three hundred pages asking what happens when the genre's rules meet a family's real ones.
How It Works
Oscar and his mother, Nell, have driven up from Chicago to empty the cabin on Torchlight Lake that her estranged father, George, left her when he died. It is a weekend job. Then the local Tribe, owed years of unpaid fees for the roads that cross its reservation, lowers concrete barricades across every access road, and the weekend becomes an open-ended sentence with dwindling food, no phone signal and a mother who stops getting out of bed.
That present-day story runs day by day, each chapter stamped with a weekday and a time. Between them, chapters headed only with the summer and the year follow Nell at sixteen on her family's last holiday at the same cabin: her charming, self-destructive older brother Benny, a father whose patience with him has run out, and a mother who keeps her wine in a juice glass. Oscar knows only that his uncle died that year. Savage Lake by Nick Medina lets the reader learn how, one alternating chapter at a time.
On top of both timelines sits a third layer. Oscar narrates his fear through the films he loves, and at moments of stress he plays an entire imagined slasher in his head, starring the five teens he can see through binoculars across the water.
A Lake Where Two Summers Rhyme
What the structure of Savage Lake by Nick Medina is really doing is building echoes. Objects cross from 1999 into the present: an old aluminium boat, a hoop earring, a length of green fishing line that Oscar pulls, and keeps pulling, out of a shower drain. Each 1999 chapter tends to end on an image the next present-day chapter answers, so the ghosts Oscar sees feel less like jump scares than like memories with nowhere else to go. Nell suffers the past; her son is the one who starts to see it.
The mystery is played fair. The clues to what happened in 1999 are planted early and in plain sight, and the father who looks so obviously guilty is drawn with enough tenderness and enough rage that you keep changing your mind about him. Underneath it all is a quieter subject, which Medina's afterword says was the seed of the book: the things parents hand to children without meaning to, depression above all.
What Works
The 1999 chapters. A family coming apart over one summer, told without melodrama. George's fury at his son, and the fishing trip he insists on so the two of them can settle their differences, are more frightening than anything in the woods.
Racism as the real monster. The slurs, and the polite questions about where the family is really from, come from ordinary locals, and the book knows perfectly well which of its threats are documented and which are folklore.
The Bigfoot thread. Tess, a lonely local girl who hunts for Sabe with her elkhound, gives the book its warmth and its strangest, most humane image.
Motifs that pay off. Fishing line, a mood ring and a loon's laugh all come back carrying more weight than when they left.
Where the Savage Lake Story Gives Ground
The imagined film runs long. Oscar's mental slasher, featuring a hook-handed killer he names the Loonatic, takes over whole chapters while the real plot waits. It pays off thematically, but the gore-for-gore's-sake stretches will test readers who came for the family story.
A tic that wears thin. Oscar's habit of breaking into his own sentences with bracketed alarm words is funny at first and grating by the halfway mark.
The middle sags. Repeated trips to the barricades, odd jobs for a neighbour and nights on the pier slow the momentum just as the mystery should tighten.
The ending crowds itself. Once Savage Lake by Nick Medina delivers its answer, the villain turns broad and the coincidences pile up, and a run of codas leaves the supernatural rules deliberately, and sometimes frustratingly, vague.
The Last Word
Savage Lake by Nick Medina, out now, is two books braided together: a tender, unhurried account of a family losing a son in 1999, and a self-aware slasher riff that does not always know when to stop. The first is very good. The second is fun in doses and indulgent at length, and the final act leans harder on coincidence than the careful early chapters deserve. Still, the people stay with you, and so does the idea that the cruellest things in the woods are rarely the ones with fur.
Some families inherit a cabin. This one inherits the silence that came with it.
How It Works
Oscar and his mother, Nell, have driven up from Chicago to empty the cabin on Torchlight Lake that her estranged father, George, left her when he died. It is a weekend job. Then the local Tribe, owed years of unpaid fees for the roads that cross its reservation, lowers concrete barricades across every access road, and the weekend becomes an open-ended sentence with dwindling food, no phone signal and a mother who stops getting out of bed.
That present-day story runs day by day, each chapter stamped with a weekday and a time. Between them, chapters headed only with the summer and the year follow Nell at sixteen on her family's last holiday at the same cabin: her charming, self-destructive older brother Benny, a father whose patience with him has run out, and a mother who keeps her wine in a juice glass. Oscar knows only that his uncle died that year. Savage Lake by Nick Medina lets the reader learn how, one alternating chapter at a time.
On top of both timelines sits a third layer. Oscar narrates his fear through the films he loves, and at moments of stress he plays an entire imagined slasher in his head, starring the five teens he can see through binoculars across the water.
A Lake Where Two Summers Rhyme
What the structure of Savage Lake by Nick Medina is really doing is building echoes. Objects cross from 1999 into the present: an old aluminium boat, a hoop earring, a length of green fishing line that Oscar pulls, and keeps pulling, out of a shower drain. Each 1999 chapter tends to end on an image the next present-day chapter answers, so the ghosts Oscar sees feel less like jump scares than like memories with nowhere else to go. Nell suffers the past; her son is the one who starts to see it.
The mystery is played fair. The clues to what happened in 1999 are planted early and in plain sight, and the father who looks so obviously guilty is drawn with enough tenderness and enough rage that you keep changing your mind about him. Underneath it all is a quieter subject, which Medina's afterword says was the seed of the book: the things parents hand to children without meaning to, depression above all.
What Works
The 1999 chapters. A family coming apart over one summer, told without melodrama. George's fury at his son, and the fishing trip he insists on so the two of them can settle their differences, are more frightening than anything in the woods.
Racism as the real monster. The slurs, and the polite questions about where the family is really from, come from ordinary locals, and the book knows perfectly well which of its threats are documented and which are folklore.
The Bigfoot thread. Tess, a lonely local girl who hunts for Sabe with her elkhound, gives the book its warmth and its strangest, most humane image.
Motifs that pay off. Fishing line, a mood ring and a loon's laugh all come back carrying more weight than when they left.
Where the Savage Lake Story Gives Ground
The imagined film runs long. Oscar's mental slasher, featuring a hook-handed killer he names the Loonatic, takes over whole chapters while the real plot waits. It pays off thematically, but the gore-for-gore's-sake stretches will test readers who came for the family story.
A tic that wears thin. Oscar's habit of breaking into his own sentences with bracketed alarm words is funny at first and grating by the halfway mark.
The middle sags. Repeated trips to the barricades, odd jobs for a neighbour and nights on the pier slow the momentum just as the mystery should tighten.
The ending crowds itself. Once Savage Lake by Nick Medina delivers its answer, the villain turns broad and the coincidences pile up, and a run of codas leaves the supernatural rules deliberately, and sometimes frustratingly, vague.
The Last Word
Savage Lake by Nick Medina, out now, is two books braided together: a tender, unhurried account of a family losing a son in 1999, and a self-aware slasher riff that does not always know when to stop. The first is very good. The second is fun in doses and indulgent at length, and the final act leans harder on coincidence than the careful early chapters deserve. Still, the people stay with you, and so does the idea that the cruellest things in the woods are rarely the ones with fur.
Some families inherit a cabin. This one inherits the silence that came with it.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Nell Marin swore she would never return to Torchlight Lake, but her father’s passing sends her and her teenage son, Oscar, back to the run-down family cabin. When the roads are barricaded, a quick trip turns into weeks, and unsettling things begin to happen.
Put a story in the middle of nowhere, sprinkle it with beasts of lore, and I’ll be the first in line. Nick Medina’s latest, Savage Lake, is a departure from his previous novels. The characters and setting are different, and the story takes place near Native land instead of on a reservation. It was still quite a read.
The story starts with Oscar, who travels with his mother to a cabin in the woods by a lake. He seems the quiet type with a penchant for horror movies, especially slashers, but what made him stand out was how he cared for his mother, doing things for her so she wouldn’t have to struggle. That got me invested in him from the start.
His story unfolds alongside another timeline. The book moves between Oscar and his mother at the cabin in the present and his mother’s tense, toxic final family summer there years earlier. The dual structure kept the story moving, painting the family drama, father-and-son friction, sibling dynamics, and even racism, all woven into the present. As the mysteries of the past come forward, they add a sense of dread, and I was on the edge of my seat wondering whether the threat was supernatural or something else.
That dread lives in the setting, which, as is Medina’s strength and signature, is rife with atmosphere and quiet eeriness. The woods and the lake each get the treatment of a character, not a backdrop, and even the barricading of the road is grounded in real events.
Within that setting, one moment made the hairs on my arms stand up. When one of the five teenagers in the cabin across from theirs picks up a penny on the floor that isn’t meant to be touched, the gas station attendant warns that anyone who does calls trouble. The warning is delivered so casually, but it packs a punch.
Those five teenagers had me second-guessing what was real. At first I thought what was happening there was all in Oscar’s imagination, since he’s a horror buff who labels each teen with a horror stereotype and conjures up a story about them. Little did I know.
The audiobook (10hrs 3 mins) made all of this feel even more immersive. Kevin Orduño’s portrayal of Oscar brings out the vulnerable side of a son trying to understand while being there for his mother. Johnny Rey Diaz is fantastic as Benny, bringing out the teenage angst and rebellious streak of the most misunderstood character in the story. Inés Del Castillo’s raspy voice is perfect for Nell, crushed by the growing animosity between her father and brother and heartbroken at her loss.
This is for readers who like the eerie feel of a cabin in the woods and monsters of lore.
Thank you, Berkley, Penguin Random House Audio, and NetGalley, for my advance review copies. All opinions are my own.
Put a story in the middle of nowhere, sprinkle it with beasts of lore, and I’ll be the first in line. Nick Medina’s latest, Savage Lake, is a departure from his previous novels. The characters and setting are different, and the story takes place near Native land instead of on a reservation. It was still quite a read.
The story starts with Oscar, who travels with his mother to a cabin in the woods by a lake. He seems the quiet type with a penchant for horror movies, especially slashers, but what made him stand out was how he cared for his mother, doing things for her so she wouldn’t have to struggle. That got me invested in him from the start.
His story unfolds alongside another timeline. The book moves between Oscar and his mother at the cabin in the present and his mother’s tense, toxic final family summer there years earlier. The dual structure kept the story moving, painting the family drama, father-and-son friction, sibling dynamics, and even racism, all woven into the present. As the mysteries of the past come forward, they add a sense of dread, and I was on the edge of my seat wondering whether the threat was supernatural or something else.
That dread lives in the setting, which, as is Medina’s strength and signature, is rife with atmosphere and quiet eeriness. The woods and the lake each get the treatment of a character, not a backdrop, and even the barricading of the road is grounded in real events.
Within that setting, one moment made the hairs on my arms stand up. When one of the five teenagers in the cabin across from theirs picks up a penny on the floor that isn’t meant to be touched, the gas station attendant warns that anyone who does calls trouble. The warning is delivered so casually, but it packs a punch.
Those five teenagers had me second-guessing what was real. At first I thought what was happening there was all in Oscar’s imagination, since he’s a horror buff who labels each teen with a horror stereotype and conjures up a story about them. Little did I know.
The audiobook (10hrs 3 mins) made all of this feel even more immersive. Kevin Orduño’s portrayal of Oscar brings out the vulnerable side of a son trying to understand while being there for his mother. Johnny Rey Diaz is fantastic as Benny, bringing out the teenage angst and rebellious streak of the most misunderstood character in the story. Inés Del Castillo’s raspy voice is perfect for Nell, crushed by the growing animosity between her father and brother and heartbroken at her loss.
This is for readers who like the eerie feel of a cabin in the woods and monsters of lore.
Thank you, Berkley, Penguin Random House Audio, and NetGalley, for my advance review copies. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Thank you to PRH Audio and Berkley Publishing Group for the gifted ALC and physical copy!
The premise of this one really had me intrigued, I love a good horror/thriller read, and this sounded like it was going to have some really cool elements. Isolated cabin, a creepy lake, horrible things that happened in the past, I was really intrigued. Despite all that I did have some issues with this book, but the narration was really well done. It's narrated by Johnny Rey Diaz, Kevin Orduño, and Inés del Castillo, we get a past and present perspective with this one and the narrators nailed it. I didn't have any issue distinguishing which characters were which or what timeline we were currently in. I really enjoyed the audio performance.
I'll start with what I enjoyed of the read. I enjoyed the idea behind this, I enjoyed the mental health representation, and I did enjoy the characters. I felt like they all were really dynamic and interesting. I enjoyed the remote setting as well, remote settings in horror/thrillers always make for an interesting time.
I struggled with this because it felt like the author threw as many horror or cliche horror things into this as they could. Oscar being a horror movie buff was overdone. I actually wrote in my reading journal at one point, "I think Oscar has seen one too many movies.". There are just so many cliche elements that you would think of when you think horror, I wish the author had just dialed into one lane and kept it there. Because of it being a bit jumbled for me it really didn't feel like a horror book.
Overall I would still recommend this, probably as a light entry into the horror realm. But I think I would recommend the audio over eyeball reading. This releases October 27th!
*This ALC was given by PRH Audio and the physical copy was given by Berkley Publishing Group. All opinions are my own.*
The premise of this one really had me intrigued, I love a good horror/thriller read, and this sounded like it was going to have some really cool elements. Isolated cabin, a creepy lake, horrible things that happened in the past, I was really intrigued. Despite all that I did have some issues with this book, but the narration was really well done. It's narrated by Johnny Rey Diaz, Kevin Orduño, and Inés del Castillo, we get a past and present perspective with this one and the narrators nailed it. I didn't have any issue distinguishing which characters were which or what timeline we were currently in. I really enjoyed the audio performance.
I'll start with what I enjoyed of the read. I enjoyed the idea behind this, I enjoyed the mental health representation, and I did enjoy the characters. I felt like they all were really dynamic and interesting. I enjoyed the remote setting as well, remote settings in horror/thrillers always make for an interesting time.
I struggled with this because it felt like the author threw as many horror or cliche horror things into this as they could. Oscar being a horror movie buff was overdone. I actually wrote in my reading journal at one point, "I think Oscar has seen one too many movies.". There are just so many cliche elements that you would think of when you think horror, I wish the author had just dialed into one lane and kept it there. Because of it being a bit jumbled for me it really didn't feel like a horror book.
Overall I would still recommend this, probably as a light entry into the horror realm. But I think I would recommend the audio over eyeball reading. This releases October 27th!
*This ALC was given by PRH Audio and the physical copy was given by Berkley Publishing Group. All opinions are my own.*
November 7, 2026
I admit I went into this book with very high expectations. I adore Medina's previous works, particularly Sisters of the Lost Nation and The Whistler. Unfortunately, Savage Lake did not hit the same for me. It is still a very good book, but it did not captivate me and relentlessly take hold of me the way the others did.
The book tries to do too much, and it leaves things feeling ancillary and unresolved. The core story is a mother and son returning to a family cabin, forcing them to confront a past tragedy. That story is great and would have been more than enough. However, there is a weird, forced meta horror side plot that does not seem to serve any purpose beyond making it more horror. It doesn't really contribute anything beyond more pages and, again, is not really needed. There is also a Bigfoot side story that logistically brings in some characters but otherwise goes nowhere. It felt like an excuse to talk about the legend but not do anything with it.
I think if the story was tightened a little more, it would be on the same level as Medina's previous works.
The book tries to do too much, and it leaves things feeling ancillary and unresolved. The core story is a mother and son returning to a family cabin, forcing them to confront a past tragedy. That story is great and would have been more than enough. However, there is a weird, forced meta horror side plot that does not seem to serve any purpose beyond making it more horror. It doesn't really contribute anything beyond more pages and, again, is not really needed. There is also a Bigfoot side story that logistically brings in some characters but otherwise goes nowhere. It felt like an excuse to talk about the legend but not do anything with it.
I think if the story was tightened a little more, it would be on the same level as Medina's previous works.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
I received an ARC of this book.
This book had way to many themes/story elements to create a cohesive story. Was it a horror book?--no, not really. The slasher/horror elements seemed tacked on and superfluous. They added nothing at all to the story and I ended up skipping the majority of the "teenagers in the cabin" inserts (because that's what they were: inserts that came out of nowhere and added nothing at all to the plot). The past storyline was tedious and not engaging. I know that the past led to the events of the present, but it just felt like a slog getting through all of it and every time a "past" chapter popped up, I just didn't care. The fact that none of the "past" characters were very likable also did not help. Benny was a jerk. George was an abusive parent. Ava was an alcoholic. And Nell had no agency. The present storyline felt juvenile, and I was surprised when I realized Oscar was 18.
I have read many books where past family trauma has created "horror" in the present, but this one felt like it was reaching. The past events didn't seem to justify the present events. And then Bigfoot? It was just too much. I forced myself to finish it, because I just did not care.
This book had way to many themes/story elements to create a cohesive story. Was it a horror book?--no, not really. The slasher/horror elements seemed tacked on and superfluous. They added nothing at all to the story and I ended up skipping the majority of the "teenagers in the cabin" inserts (because that's what they were: inserts that came out of nowhere and added nothing at all to the plot). The past storyline was tedious and not engaging. I know that the past led to the events of the present, but it just felt like a slog getting through all of it and every time a "past" chapter popped up, I just didn't care. The fact that none of the "past" characters were very likable also did not help. Benny was a jerk. George was an abusive parent. Ava was an alcoholic. And Nell had no agency. The present storyline felt juvenile, and I was surprised when I realized Oscar was 18.
I have read many books where past family trauma has created "horror" in the present, but this one felt like it was reaching. The past events didn't seem to justify the present events. And then Bigfoot? It was just too much. I forced myself to finish it, because I just did not care.
October 28, 2026
Thank you to Berkley Publishing and Netgalley for my gifted copy!
This grief horror gut punch of a secluded, tense, and ,quiet atmosphere. A quiet lake, an empty cabin with a heavy past. Told in the future with Adult Nell and her teenage son and the past as Nell was a teen. Grief hits hard soon after returning to the cabin of her childhood. Bad things happened there her families last summer there. Oscar is in the dark about his mom's family because they are just so hard to talk about. There's this eerie feeling of abandonment on one side of the lake while on the other side is a group of teens making memories, But it all just feels off. Oscar a huge horror fan, makes up these horror scenes in his head, relating to this place and strange feelings of wrongness that it holds. Stuck at this lake for now Oscar trys to be a rock to his mom and make the best of this crazy situation. I really loved the way the past and present weaves together!
This grief horror gut punch of a secluded, tense, and ,quiet atmosphere. A quiet lake, an empty cabin with a heavy past. Told in the future with Adult Nell and her teenage son and the past as Nell was a teen. Grief hits hard soon after returning to the cabin of her childhood. Bad things happened there her families last summer there. Oscar is in the dark about his mom's family because they are just so hard to talk about. There's this eerie feeling of abandonment on one side of the lake while on the other side is a group of teens making memories, But it all just feels off. Oscar a huge horror fan, makes up these horror scenes in his head, relating to this place and strange feelings of wrongness that it holds. Stuck at this lake for now Oscar trys to be a rock to his mom and make the best of this crazy situation. I really loved the way the past and present weaves together!
October 29, 2026
Sometimes the true horror is life is being in a family that seems wholesome and loving on the outside, but has a whole lot of hatred and anger going on inside.
Oscar is a horror movie fan who keeps on thinking that the worst is about to happen on a trip with his mom to his grandfathers old cabin. He keeps imagining being torn up by a serial killer, or someone lurking in the woods, or even a monster awaiting in the depths of the lake. While there, he uncovers a traumatic story about how his uncle Benny died, and how the whole family tried to cope with it in devastating ways. We learn that Benny was a ‘troublemaker’, and that him and his father were always at odds. How one family vacation ended in tragedy.
I related to Benny a lot in the book. I didn’t do the crazy shit he did, but I did see myself in him in how he ‘acted’ out. Sometimes kids need a firm but loving hand after landing in deep shit
Oscar is a horror movie fan who keeps on thinking that the worst is about to happen on a trip with his mom to his grandfathers old cabin. He keeps imagining being torn up by a serial killer, or someone lurking in the woods, or even a monster awaiting in the depths of the lake. While there, he uncovers a traumatic story about how his uncle Benny died, and how the whole family tried to cope with it in devastating ways. We learn that Benny was a ‘troublemaker’, and that him and his father were always at odds. How one family vacation ended in tragedy.
I related to Benny a lot in the book. I didn’t do the crazy shit he did, but I did see myself in him in how he ‘acted’ out. Sometimes kids need a firm but loving hand after landing in deep shit
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Savage Lake by Nick Medina
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Thriller
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: October 27, 2026
While I had some issues with this one, overall it was a pretty solid read.
The pacing was a bit uneven, with the present day often feeling more like Oscar's horror movie daydreaming than actual reality, and the flashbacks being where the real story occurred. I appreciated Nell's brother's affection for her, and I understood the strained dynamic between parents and children all too well.
My main complaint is that it felt like answers were kind of just thrown at us at the end, and I was hoping for more paranormal elements. Still, an entertaining, middle-of-the-road thriller!
Thank you so much Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for the digital review copy
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Thriller
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: October 27, 2026
While I had some issues with this one, overall it was a pretty solid read.
The pacing was a bit uneven, with the present day often feeling more like Oscar's horror movie daydreaming than actual reality, and the flashbacks being where the real story occurred. I appreciated Nell's brother's affection for her, and I understood the strained dynamic between parents and children all too well.
My main complaint is that it felt like answers were kind of just thrown at us at the end, and I was hoping for more paranormal elements. Still, an entertaining, middle-of-the-road thriller!
Thank you so much Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for the digital review copy
November 9, 2026
Nick Medina always delivers an entertaining, spooky read and I especially enjoyed this dual timeline story featuring Indigenous siblings and their abusive, alcoholic father set in the summer of 1999 and then a more contemporary storyline that explores horror movie tropes and Indigenous myths. There was a lot of threads going on but it kept the story compelling. It was also good on audio. While Whistle is still my favorite Nick Media, I was glad I gave his latest a chance too and would definitely recommend it to mystery/horror fans.
November 9, 2026
There's a lot going on in this book. Creepy cabin in the woods, Bigfoot, the lake. Is it a slasher? A paranormal horror story? There's also generational trauma, flashbacks, and a dark family history. And somehow, Nick Medina makes this all work. Savage Lake is dark, twisty and mysterious, and definitely worth a read.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This book definitely exceeded my expectations!
Bigfoot
🪵 A cabin in the woods
🚣♀️ Horror
⏳ Dual timelines
This book genuinely scared me a few times, especially when I was reading alone in the early hours of the morning! 😳
Medina did a fantastic job building that unsettling, spooky vibe that kept me on edge.
If you want a good spooky read for the season, I highly suggest this book!!
Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for the eARC! 🖤
Bigfoot
🪵 A cabin in the woods
🚣♀️ Horror
⏳ Dual timelines
This book genuinely scared me a few times, especially when I was reading alone in the early hours of the morning! 😳
Medina did a fantastic job building that unsettling, spooky vibe that kept me on edge.
If you want a good spooky read for the season, I highly suggest this book!!
Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for the eARC! 🖤
September 20, 2026
2.0 ⭐️ I’m so sorry but I struggled to get through this book. The concept of a haunted lake and a past death was intriguing but the execution fell flat. It felt random and confusing and all over the place. I was confused with what was going on with all of the timelines and the “horror novel daydreams”. The ending felt really rushed and I still felt lost.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the early access copy!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the early access copy!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the advance copy of this e-book in exchange for my honest review.
Savage Lake was not quite the book I thought I had signed up for. I expected more horror, but the story felt more like a mystery with supernatural and unsettling elements. I enjoyed the themes of family and love, but I was able to predict many of the twists before they happened, which took away some of the suspense.I also struggled to understand the main character’s daydreams about the horror movies he had watched before arriving at the cabin. I’m sure they were meant to add meaning to the story, but I found them distracting rather than enlightening. Some of the symbolism, like the book in the cellar, the fishing line in the bathroom, and the fish in the bed, also felt too obvious and ultimately took me out of the story. And why was Bigfoot needed to set the atmosphere of the woods? I appreciated the nods toward Native American culture and history in the storyline, but that aspect sometimes felt forced rather than naturally integrated into the plot. While this was not my favorite Nick Medina book, I would definitely read more from him in the future. His writing continues to hold my interest, even when a particular story does not work for me as well as I had hoped.
Savage Lake was not quite the book I thought I had signed up for. I expected more horror, but the story felt more like a mystery with supernatural and unsettling elements. I enjoyed the themes of family and love, but I was able to predict many of the twists before they happened, which took away some of the suspense.I also struggled to understand the main character’s daydreams about the horror movies he had watched before arriving at the cabin. I’m sure they were meant to add meaning to the story, but I found them distracting rather than enlightening. Some of the symbolism, like the book in the cellar, the fishing line in the bathroom, and the fish in the bed, also felt too obvious and ultimately took me out of the story. And why was Bigfoot needed to set the atmosphere of the woods? I appreciated the nods toward Native American culture and history in the storyline, but that aspect sometimes felt forced rather than naturally integrated into the plot. While this was not my favorite Nick Medina book, I would definitely read more from him in the future. His writing continues to hold my interest, even when a particular story does not work for me as well as I had hoped.
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