Fatal Glitch: Camp Zero

Kelly, Erin Entrada and Schrefer, Eliot. Fatal Glitch: Camp Zero

July 21, 2026 by Stonefruit Studio
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Sofia Mendoz isn’t particularly nice; she tripped her sister Isabella, a promising gymnast who is now laid up with injuries, and doesn’t even feel bad about it. After a similar incident at school, her Dad is taking her to Camp Forestjaw whose motto is “where you show your true self”. It is run by the sinister looking Monarch, who has animatronic birds called razors to do her bidding. Sofia is put in Cabin Zero with several other children, all of whom have done something to land them in the camp. They all get “rankles” that are ankle monitors. Sofia, who is obsessed with the Sandbox video game is both intrigued and a bit weirded out by the NPC (nonplayer character) waiters who work in the mess hall; they are shadowy robot figures who are pictured in some of the illustrations. The kids think about breaking out several times, since the food is horrible and the camp generally is not a pleasant place to be. They all know that their parents will not be saving them. They eventually turn against each other, and Monarch “dismisses” them one at a time in disturbing ways. Sofia tries to turn the kids against each other to further her own agenda, and seizes every opportunity to get more points, even if it hurts others. She overhears Booth telling Murphy about his problems, then lies to Booth and claims Murphy told her everything. She ranks herself first, doesn’t split prizes, and is generally unpleasant. This puts her on top of the leader board, but is this really how the game is won?
Strengths: Readers who are obsessed with video games will relate to Sofia and her love of Sandbox. Gaining points and skills, dealing with NPCs, being ranked, and working through levels will appeal to tweens who spend way more time on the computer than they should. Camp Forestjaw is eerily creepy, and losing campers in violent ways shakes things up. (Jack is eaten by wild animals, for example.) This is the start of a series of thematically connected titles revolving around games that can be read in any order.

Weaknesses: I struggle with books that feel like a playthrough of a video game, but younger readers will not have that problem. Dahlia was a very unpleasant character who never really grew and changed, which would have been interesting to see.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed the Five Nights at Freddy’s novelizations or the Stranger Things graphic novels. It was sort of a mix of Tales From Cabin 23 and Cube Kid’s Minecraft novels. There is another book in the series coming out in September, entitled Let’s Play a Game.