The Troop by Nick Cutter

Goodreads summary:

Once a year, scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a three-day camping trip—a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story and a roaring bonfire. But when an unexpected intruder—shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry—stumbles upon their campsite, Tim and the boys are exposed to something far more frightening than any tale of terror. The human carrier of a bioengineered nightmare. An inexplicable horror that spreads faster than fear. A harrowing struggle for survival that will pit the troop against the elements, the infected...and one another.

I wanted to love this one so much. I'd heard it was horrifying. It was boring at first and more gross and disgusting rather than terrifying.

It's an interesting premise. What do you when a Scout troop loses its Scoutmaster and a viral agent takes over? That alone would've been great. But Cutter had make all his boys stereotypes and tropes. I knew who would die and who would live.

But it is disgusting. Just think genetically-modified tape worms that are highly contagious and are set loose....there is some low-hanging fruit here. Cutter went more low than high but his descriptions of the worms were pretty terrifying. Those scenes alone were probably worth the read.