Camp is a wonderfully queer YA novel that will teach us not only how to be ourselves, but also to never let anyone’s prejudice define us. And also to kick toxic masculinity to the curb!

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First of all, Camp was funny and so wonderfully queer that I want to hold the physical copy in my hand and just hold it.

The writing was good; it was light-hearted and funny, and was able to give the reader a personal connection to the main character. I have to say though, I struggled to like Randy, especially in the early parts of the book. There were so many things wrong with his “I’m-going-to-change-myself-and-make-Hudson-fall-in-love-plan”, and more often than not I wanted to shake him and tell him, “No, you don’t need to do this!“. I also didn’t like that he seemed to have forgotten about his friends in the midst of going with this plan. I was really rooting for him to get that character development. And he did, mostly. While Randy achieved character development, I still feel like it lacked. I was waiting for him to acknowledge some of his own faults/wrongdoings, but it didn’t exactly meet my expectations.

I did love the other characters, though: George, Ashleigh, Paz, even Brad! I’ve been wary about Hudson since the first page (he likes only “straight-acting” guys, and I’m just appalled), but I did get to know him at the end of the book and he achieved character development, which was really nice.

Despite a few shortcomings, I loved the core message that Camp was trying to send to the readers. At the very heart of this book is the idea that we should not hide our true selves and succumb to the faulty logic of those who are narrow-minded. This particularly applies to those who think masculine gay guys are better than those who are gender nonconforming. This toxic masculinity is so much more harmful than we realize, and I’m so glad the author chose to tackle this in the book, and in Randy and Hudson’s story.

I also loved all the discussions about sexuality and the freedom of being queer depicted in the book. In a way, I felt like one of the characters, like I was at Camp Outland as well, and I could simply be me.

Overall, Camp was such a great read and it’s such a necessary book tackling necessary issues within the queer community.

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(This review was first published on Enthralled Bookworm as part of the Camp Blog Tour by The FFBC.

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