Sunken Forest – Des Hunt

Sunken Forest is an action-packed adventure novel set in a fictitious school camp in the wilds of Lake Waikaremoana, featuring a sunken forest and a giant longfin eel. It explores meaningful issues, such as friendships, peer pressure, bullying, environment, family and heritage.

Sent to live with his grandmother in Hastings after his father is jailed, Matt becomes the victim of bad friends and false accusations, concerning a sum of money stolen from an old woman he had helped out one morning. Sent off on a military-style school camp to the wilds of Lake Waikaremoana, Matt again gets in trouble for something he didn’t do, and is unjustly punished. Not allowed to join his school friends on their activities, he spends time alone down by the lake where he discovers a massive eel. Unfortunately, news gets out about the eel Matt has nicknamed Elsa, and the class bad-boy, Cameron, is determined to kill it. Matt is determined not to let him … but then, following a night of torrential rain, catastrophe strikes the camp when a higher lake bursts its banks and Matt ends up saving Cam’s life.