Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Camp by L.C. Rosen

13 reviews

ollie_again's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia

Moderate: Grief, Bullying, and Sexual content

Minor: Death

bumblemee's review against another edition

funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

A lot of things I liked, some things I have mixed feelings about.
I really liked how diverse the cast was. It managed to spread a little awareness for different struggles of different identities, even if it was just a few sentences. That was included easily, which was cool. Everything theater and stage production was great, too! As well as the setting itself, where queer kids can just be themselves in a safer space accompanied by queer adults. It's just great. I would've loved this when I was a teenager. Oh, and I also liked the sex positivity. 

Randy was a likeable protagonist, he's funny and very dramatic (a lot of exploding stars inside of him and the world applauding him while having sex or something? .. a man of big words). Sometimes I wanted to shake him, though. I know that him changing and hiding things about himself is the premise of this book, but it was still frustatring sometimes. His stoic determination to continue with this ludicrous plan of his, my god. Especially because he barely knows Hudson at all - yeah, he's an allosexual/alloromantic teenager, so maybe that's just normal, but it seemed so weird to me, because it's very different from what I experience. I don't really get why Randy is so set on Hudson, even though Hudson says and does things that should ring some alarm bells for Randy. Randy explains his reasoning, we get to see scenes from the past that shaped Randys perception of Hudson, but I don't know if I understand how that weighs out the experiences he has when actually getting to know Hudson. (Again, maybe just normal teenager behavior that contradicts how I would've acted as a teenager.)
I don't know how much I want to go into Hudsons character here. He has problematic views of course, which lead him to behave according to them, but since that is the center point of his character arc, I don't think there's much to say other than: prepare for internalised homophobia and some blatant toxic masculinity and infuriating statements as a result. Personally, I had empathy for him and I liked seeing him grow, but I understand everyone who can't look past that, since a lot of queer people have their own traume from people who behaved like Hudson. (Trauma doesn't excuse shitty behavior and so on.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Homophobia

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Minor: Grief

traceyanderson's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny informative lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Mental illness, Grief, Outing, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Biphobia, Blood, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

iane_reads's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Classism, and Homophobia

Moderate: Grief, Child abuse, Cursing, Transphobia, and Homophobia

Minor: Death, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Outing, and Physical abuse

fanboyriot's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Read For:

Theater Kids

Summer Camp

Everyone is Queer

Wholesome Friendships

Destroying Toxic Masculinity

Absolutely loved the idea of a queer summer camp.  This was really wholesome and there was SO much queer rep I can not get over how amazing the setting of this was.  I wasn’t sure if I’d like it with the whole plot of being someone you’re not to get a guy but it was actually written really well.  The characters were detailed and the character development was done really nicely. 

(First Person POV)

Spice: 🌶🌶🌶

Rep: Gay Jewish MC, Gay Half-Korean Jewish LI, Demisexual Lesbian SC, POC characters, Trans characters, queer characters 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Body shaming, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Transphobia, Death, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

tinytrashqueen's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Sexual content

Moderate: Grief, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 - CAMP is one of the most adorable books I've ever read. I loved the setting of a camp for queer kids: a place where they could fully be themselves, even if it's only for a few weeks out of the year.
- I loved that this book tackled toxic masculinity within the gay community, showing clearly how internalized homophobia and misogyny can embed themselves out of fear of being punished by cishet people.
- A few times it felt like it was verging on Very Special Episode territory, but it's YA, so there's room there. The one thing I simply could not get my head around was exactly how big was this camp?? There are like 19 cabins but everyone fits under the tarp to roast s'mores in the rain? Lol. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Grief and Death

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia and Transphobia

mightyola's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Transphobia, Bullying, and Sexual content

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia, Death, and Grief

alyshkalia's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Sexual content

Minor: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Transphobia

the main character lying to/deceiving the love interest is a major plot point

violet_pages's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Transphobia, Death, Grief, Racism, and Sexism