Camp

off to summer camp now! byeeeeeeee! this book was hilarious, romantic, adorable and sweet, but it also covered some heavy yet important themes. right from the very first page, this book did so many important things. it destroyed toxic masculinity in such a kind and nuanced way, without villainizing Hudson. because there are a lot of queer kids like Hudson and they deserve to be treated kindly and they’re not bad people because of internalized BS they never asked for. i wish i could've found books like this when i was younger.. Lev Rosen is the KING of writing books that queer teens need to read. overall, i'm very impressed with how much the author covered about gay culture and the toxic aspects of it. i love how he shows that show more there’s so many different ways to be queer and by that he’s consciously created a safe space for all queer people, including, for instance, people on the asexual and aromantic spectrum and non-binary people. i especially loved is how no one interferes with the ways Randy changes. they do voice their concerns, but in a very respectful way. no one oversteps. and they all seem to respect that this is ultimately something Randy needs to figure out himself. there’s just something so special about reading about a queer summer camp for teens. MY HEART!!! the teens get a four week vacation from any kind of homophobia and transphobia in their lives, they get queer camp counselors who introduce them into queer culture and queer history and everything a queer teen would need to know, on top of giving them a space where they can meet other teens like them show less

A book with the biggest hearts and brightest rainbows. It's set in a queer camp where teenagers get to be themselves in the best ways once a year. Randy has a crush on Hudson who is a jock and only goes for butch boys, so Randy reinvented himself to try and get Hudson to fall for him. It worked in the worst ways at first and then in the best ways. It took me longer than usual to read this because the toxic masculinity plot was hard to read but the ending was equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming. One of the camp counsellors telling the kids about how to not be fully out for their own safety without losing themselves destroyed me a bit. My favourite character was Mark the theatre counsellor who has his therapist in speed dial. If show more you have a queer kid in your life, please love them unapologetically. show less

This book, with its sex positivity and rainbow diversity, made me feel really old and conservative! The setting is a summer camp for under 18 LGBTQ+ kids, and the plot is that Randy, a flamboyant drama loving boy who likes glitter and nail varnish, has decided to try and seduce his crush by losing weight, cutting his hair, dressing in a more masculine way, and avoiding the camp play in favour of the obstacle course. Despite this being The Worst Idea Ever, it actually works - Hudson doesn’t recognise him, thinks he’s new, and falls for him. You’d think that kind of deeply being lied to would not lead to good outcomes when found out, but this is a fluffy romance, so Hudson is a bit sad, but then True Love conquers all. And in this show more case, the ‘conquering all’ is Hudson realising that his own masc4masc sexual preferences are just internalised homophobia from his parents, and that actually a bit of nail polish would be good for him. I found it a bit uncomfortable in places, both the ‘you should change to make people love you’ plot, and the ‘everyone who wants to should gleefully leap into bed with their summer camp flings, have more condoms’ sex positivity. But it was lots of fun show less

Every summer Randy Kapplehoff goes to a camp for LGTBQ+ teens, a place where he feels safe to be the nail polish wearing, musical theater loving, fabulous fashion rocking gay he truly is (something he can't do at school) along with all the friends he's made there over the years. He's also harbored a massive crush on another camp member for several of those summers, and this year he has a plan to win over the masc4masc playboy and make him fall in love, although that plan means he'll need to put all those things he loves being and doing on hold. A Shakespeare romcom plopped down into a gay summer camp: both main characters pretending to be something they're not, fun side characters with their own romance stories going on, and a play (or show more musical, in this case) within a play (novel). For me the working through the "it's okay to be the gay you you are, no matter what form of gay that takes" seemed a little belabored and the dialogue around it a bit repetitive and very slightly clunky at times, but for a teen audience who may be struggling with those issues, it's probably just the right amount. And so, I think it's fun and doing important work in the field, and I can happily recommend it. show less

Review:

When I picked up this book, I knew it would be a good read but nothing could have prepared me for the unique and essential storyline that hit me.

The book was not only fresh but also close to reality. It had one of the best queer representations of all the sapphic books I've read.

Camp is set in a queer camp where queer teens can go to find acceptance and overcome bias by being themselves unapologetically for a month. Like any other camp, it has activities to do but most of all, it uplifts the once that need to be.

The narrator of the book is Randy aka Del aka Randall and he has transformed himself for love. It seems to be working pretty well. What I liked here is that as absurd as it sounds he always maintained that it's not show more permanent and that he will slowly turn back.

The story does flow in two timelines, the present with Del and the past with the original Randy. I was expecting them to coincide sometime but I realised that it's only to give us a glimpse to the past and an idea about how Randy came to this decision in the first place.

He has got some amazing friends who support him but also give him their honest opinion. What the author managed to do it share the spotlight equally among all the characters. The supporting characters don't even feel like side characters. They glow with their own glitter.

The character development is also immense and commendable. As irritating as Del may seem, he is a teenager and being irritating is almost every teenagers secong nature. So, the author nailed it. But, he also grows so much.

The best part of the story is how we are shown all the sides and edges there are to the life of queer folks. Not everyone is readily accepted and not everyone is free to be who they are even after being out. And this is expressed very well in the book.

We definitely need more books like this. It's the need of the hour.

I rate the book 4/5 for being so important and just.

What I liked about it:

- very easy read
- one of the best queer reps ever
- a realistic story showing us both the sides of the coin
- pleasing ending
- smooth writing
- the unique acknowledgements in the end was amazing
- Friendship goals show less

How far is too far when it comes to changing yourself to catch someone’s eye? Randy is a high femme gay kid who has been going to Camp Outland for years. As long as he’s been there he’s had a planet sized crush on Hudson, a hyper masc hottie who is tragically only into other masc guys. Over the rest of the year Randy has been working out and ‘manning up’ to turn himself into “Del”, a masc version of himself who is sure to catch Hudson’s eye. But to make this transformation work Del can’t act like Randy. He’s giving up a lot of the things that he loves to become Del. Will this plan work and is it worth changing who you are for someone else?
This was the May pick for the Reading Rainbow Queer Book Club that I run at my show more library. I was excited to read it because I really liked another of Rosen’s books, Lavender House. This book is a different genre and while I didn’t enjoy it as much as Lavender House, it was still pretty good. I full on think that Randy was nuts to change himself so much as he did just for some stupid boy, but that’s teenage hormones I guess. It was tough to listen to Hudson throwing out so much internalized toxic masculinity even at a safe space queer camp. We learn where he picked it up, from his crappy family, but it still felt like Hudson was stuck as a character. Should he not maybe have learned some of this stuff in the other years he’d been going to camp?
I have to keep reminding myself that these are teenagers doing dumb teenage things and that I did PLENTY of dumb teenage things when I was one as well. I’m looking forward to the book discussion we’ll have when we next meet! show less

(I received a free arc as part of a NOVL promotion.)

I want to previse my review by stating I am a straight cisgender female, who's been an ally as long as I can remember.
And I highly recommend every straight person, along with just everyone in general, read this book.

This book tells the story of a gay boy who changes his persona to that of a masc male to win over the "love of his life" who only dates other masc men at gay camp. Through this they both learn more about their identity as people and how who they are at camp can't always be who they are to the outside world. And what it's like to be seen, or afraid to be seen, as a stereotype.

I wish I could write more eloquently about the lessons in this book, but honestly just go pick it show more up and read it yourself! show less