Camp-- "I don't mind the masc-only thing, but if you can't enjoy a drag queen, you're probably a soulless monster"

Title: Camp
    

Author: L.C. Rosen


LGBTQ+ Representation: Main characters are gay, and everything across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum is included


Content Warning: The f-word that rhymes with "bag it" is used as a pejorative

   
What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): In order to get adorable Hudson to fall in love with him, Randy makes himself over as Del, a masculine, short-haired jock. For a while, it seems that his plan is working, and Del and Hudson become the "it" couple at camp, even though Del is depressed to have ditched the annual musical for sports. But how long can Del keep up his facade, and will Hudson love Randy as much as he loves Del?


What I think: I was a Girl Scout Camp counselor for five summers, and I think working at Camp Outland (or its real-life counterpart) would be AWESOME. What a great place it would be! And a musical every year? My high school self would have been SO THERE. And my grown-up self would love to direct and watch a gender-bending, queer version of Bye Bye Birdie. So much fun! I was so asexual in high school and college that I know I would not have had the great summer romance, but the theatre would have been 😍😍😍 for me.

I have so many wonderful Camp Na-Wa-Kwa memories. For those who have never "done" summer camp, you form super-close friendships with those people you live with all summer. It makes sense that romantic relationships can also be very intense and move very quickly. Therefore, the timeline of Hudson's and Del's relationship, while rushed in realtime, is perfectly reasonable in "camp-time."

At first I was extremely upset at Del for changing everything about himself to appeal to Hudson. (I got a kick out of counselor Mark's reaction and references to his therapist.) However, I remembered my own camp days. I worked with all these athletic girls, none of whom knew how un-athletic I was (they found out), but it is amazing what you can do when you get out of your own head. Like Del, I was able to balance on a tight rope. I climbed a rope ladder into a tree thirty feet in the air and zip-lined down as part of a ropes course. I taught canoeing (and how to safely get back in when you tipped over, as I was prone to do).

I sympathized with the uncoordinated girls in square dancing and made an absolute fool out of myself with costumes, planned "skits" (like Del and Hudson do for the color wars). I sang "I'm a Little Teapot" in front of the camp every week on hotdog lunch day, since I HATE hotdogs and the cooks thought it was fun to give me them as a "special dessert" and then insist that I sing to get out of eating them. We played pranks on each other, stole flashlights and creeped our way out of the woods in the dark, and cried together over unfair camp directors. I made lifelong friends, some dating back from my first summer back in 1998 (over twenty years ago!). 

My point is, summer camp is the perfect place to get out of your comfort zone and discover different aspects of yourself. Del does not completely change himself to please Hudson: Del and Randy are different parts of the same person.

Inevitably, though, Hudson does find out that Del has not been completely honest with him--and I am not going to spoil what happens next. Let's just say it is both very true-to-life without being disappointing.


This book is too new to be on a Rainbow List--watch this space!


My final takeaway (in 75 words or fewer): Even if you are not a summer camp person, definitely read this book. If you are a summer camp person, I have to warn you that you will be flooded with camp memories and haunted with ear worms for days:

Tweet text: I just started reading "Camp" by @LevACRosen and can't stop singing Girl Scout camp songs and my children have threatened to lock me outside.

Memorable quotes/passages from the book:

• "You're smiling like a chorus boy who chugged a Red Bull before the big number" (pg. 52).
    
• "I don't mind the masc-only thing, but if you can't enjoy a drag queen, you're probably a soulless monster" (pg. 84).
     
• "It's different for a lesbian to wear jeans than it is for a straight woman. So maybe the equality we're fighting for isn't just marriage or the ability to not be fired from our jobs for being queer--which is still perfectly legal in over twenty-five states, by the way--but the ability to be whoever we want, jeans, skirts, makeup, heels, beards, whatever, and still be treated like anyone else" (pg. 154).
     
• "Are we cursed? . . . Did one of you say the name of the Scottish play out loud or say it's going to be the best show ever or 'I bet no one gets hit by a sandbag this year' or 'I bet Mark doesn't have a stroke this year?' Well? Did any of you say that? . . . Everyone go outside and turn around three times and spit!" (pg. 359).

Other reviews: Cups and Thoughts and The Book Dutchesses


If you liked this book, you should read The Gravity of Us, Drama Queens in the House, and Full Disclosure.


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This book is available here: https://library.greensboro-nc.gov/

Learn more about the Rainbow Book List here: http://www.ala.org/rt/glbtrt