A review by emilybennett
Secrets of Camp Whatever Vol. 1 by Chris Grine

funny mysterious fast-paced

4.0

I received a copy of this book on netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Secrets of Camp Whatever centers around 11 year old Willow, a deaf, Latinx girl who is being sent to Camp Whatever for the summer against her wishes. Once there however, she finds herself on an island shrouded by mystery and legends. 

This was a very fun and enjoyable read! The pace is fast and the twists and turns are engaging, especially for the young audience this is written for. In some parts I found the characters annoying (most likely due to their age) however there were things Willow said or certain things she picked up on that made me laugh. Another character I found quite funny was Toast, in particular a comment he makes about dragons. 

While there was disability rep as Willow is hard of hearing, I can't comment on it as I'm not ownvoices, but the fact that it was included at all was a very nice surprise as I rarely see deaf/hoh characters in books. 
The art style, while not very detailed, was attractive to me so that massively increased my enjoyment of this book, and added to the spooky atmosphere present in the book as a whole. 

There were some points in this comic where I struggled to fully follow the plot which threw me off a bit but didn't impact my enjoyment too much, and I found it quite predictable (some of the 'twists' and 'reveals' were unsurprising) but I expect that that is because it's a middle grade. 

Overall I thought that it was a very fun and spooky read, with definite similarities to Gravity Falls. I would recommend this book primarily to younger readers but I believe it can be enjoyed by people of any age, and anyone who is looking for a fun, spooky comic. 
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