Book Review: Camp by L. C. Rosen

I feel bad because Camp is cancelled.

Sixteen-year-old Randy Kapplehoff loves spending the summer at Camp Outland, a camp for queer teens. It's where he met his best friends. It's where he takes to the stage in the big musical. And it's where he fell for Hudson Aaronson-Lim - who's only into straight-acting guys and barely knows not-at-all-straight-acting Randy even exists.

This year, though, it's going to be different. Randy has reinvented himself as 'Del' - buff, masculine and on the market. Even if it means giving up show tunes, nail polish and his unicorn bedsheets, he's determined to get Hudson to fall for him.

But as he and Hudson grow closer, Randy has to ask himself how much is he willing to change for love. And is it really love anyway, if Hudson doesn't know who he truly is?

I didn't read the summary of this book before reading it. I requested it solely on it being Gay and set at summer camp. A Queer Summer camp. So I was immediately turned off by Randy having changed himself completely for a guy. Queer people do have to change ourself around people for safety reasons, but doing it at the ultimate safe place was painful. It's handled well, and everyone around Randy tells him that this is a terrible idea. Its definitely a teenager's plan of rom-com.

The book is told in first person pov of view of Randy, during the current and past summers so we do get a glimpse to what made Randy decide to go to this extreme to impress a boy.

I love all the characters and how Queer they all are. We have gay, demisexual, Asexual, Trans binary and non-binary characters. It's really nice and great. As demisexual person, I would say the rep for demi and ace was good. It was minor because they not the main character but what was said was accurate and also two Ace people living their lives, who do contribute to the story. The supporting characters are well developed outside of their gender and sexuality as well. I can't actually decide who my favourite one is.

I'm also very jealous of a musical that doesn't care about casting for gender. I've read a few YA books lately that heavy feature musicals, this was the one that felt the most genuine. It also really captures the chaos of musical productions

This novel also deals with internal homophobia and toxic masculinity. This something I've never dealt with (I just didn't have the words for my deal was), but I sure did cry a lot through those scenes. There's a lot of love and fun in this book, but there's is also a lot of serious talks because being a Queer person even in 2020s western society is not easy.

This is on the older side of YA because does have sexual scenes, but it does demonstrate safe sex. Ideally, teenagers should wait till they're 25 and their brains have stopped developing but highly unrealistic even to wait till they're 18 so I do appreciate a YA book that has safe and healthy sex scenes.

Overall, I give this book 5/5 stars for Unicorn Nails. This works as a standalone but I do think a Camp Outland series following different campers would be great. It's really left me in a mood for queer camp stories. I'll definitely read more Rosen (I owe one of his other books already). This the sort of book I wish I could give to my teen-self. Yeah, it would taught me the word Demisexual which would have been usefully but mainly because of all different queer characters. You have no rep, here's all the rep. My main point is that I love this book. Its does cover serious issues, so that's something to be aware of that going in. It's not all fun, true to life that way. This is my favourite book of this year so far, so of course, I think you should read it.

Read: 16/5/2020 to 21/5/2020
Reviewed: 21/5/2020 - 26/05/2020
Medium: E-Arc
Published Date: 28/05/2020
Publisher: Penguin
Source: NetGalley
CW: Homophobia (Challenged, Discussed); Queerphobia (challenged, Discussed); Homophobic Slur used; Internal Homophobia; Death of Grandparent; Death Ally family member;

Book Review: Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

When you've got to be slightly different?

What if everything you set yourself up to be was wrong? 

Frances has always been a study machine with one goal, elite university. Nothing will stand in her way; not friends, not a guilty secret – not even the person she is on the inside.

But when Frances meets Aled, the shy genius behind her favourite podcast, she discovers a new freedom. He unlocks the door to Real Frances and for the first time she experiences true friendship, unafraid to be herself. Then the podcast goes viral and the fragile trust between them is broken.
Caught between who she was and who she longs to be, Frances’ dreams come crashing down. Suffocating with guilt, she knows that she has to confront her past…

She has to confess why Carys disappeared…

Meanwhile at uni, Aled is alone, fighting even darker secrets.

It’s only by facing up to your fears that you can overcome them. And it’s only by being your true self that you can find happiness.

Frances is going to need every bit of courage she has.

I reviewed Alice Osman's debut, Solitaire and just to say that this book is set in the same world/town so Radio Silence spoils the end of Solitaire, not majorly but I know some people don't want to have knowledge of any kind about the books before they read them. So just a heads up.

So why don't I liked Radio Silence as much as everyone else. Okay, this story doesn't feel like it about Frances. Yes, she has a lot of growth and realisation about herself and life. However, we also  have an odd ball character that Frances saves, with me relating to that character more (shared labels and all), I didn't like that.

I do find it kinda funny that Tumblr is called Tumblr in this book instead of just refereed to as blogging like it was in Solitaire, but I suppose that was the early days of Tumblr so no way to know if it would last any point of time. The internet use to move on a lot quicker than it does now. Does anyone still use LiveJournal anymore?

This book is more than diverse than her last book, with the main character being mixed-race  and other characters clearly being described as not being white. There is a conversation about growing up in a British white dominated culture and with Frances lives with her white mum, how she feels like she is not in touch to the other side of her heritage. As I am Scottish white, I can't say how good this diversity is. It's seems like a good effect, the things I can comment on. Once again, there is a character that could be read as being autistic, as in if I met them in real life I would wonder if they were autistic.

This book might have been sold to you as having a demisexual character. It does, but it's a big reveal at the end of the book. It's discussed by other characters more than the the demisexual character themself. It's more this is a thing than exists and you shouldn't be confused by Ace/greysexual people. It's a starting point but don't get your hopes really high in finding yourself if that you. It's wrote more for others to understand than it being about that character. There's not a lot of other demisexual characters so it's something to be appreciated, but in the hope that it will cause other books to have main characters that are demisexual or even side characters from the start being stated as that.

In terms of plot structure this is a mystery, Frances wants to know who the creator is, then what happened to this person, what is behind this plot element which I guess is why the book in the point of review of Frances.

Another good thing is that this book explores possibilities outside of going to uni and how that's not for everyone, and is some for others. Not many YA books discuss this positively.

This book as also been sold on it's fandom Tumblr aspect, of this story podcast/hosted on YouTube in the vain of "Welcome to NightVale." That sounded cool, but similar to Solitaire.com in her last book, in it is more to surfiliate the characters interaction with each other. The only fandom parts it goes into is the annoying, toxic side of fandom that harass the creators of shows, the side that ruins it for everyone else. Parts of the podcast are in the book, but it was disappointingly lacking in those part of the audiobook. But hell I finished listening to this book right after Sadie by Courtney Summers which will go down as the standard to beat when having a audiobook involve a podcast. This was an okay book to listen to on audio.

I am a fan of NightVale and found it an odd choice to make it so that NightVale exist in this world. I think that always a risky thing to do to co-exist with the thing you're inspired by. I think the fictional Podcast, University City is meant to be smaller than NightVale at the start of the novel. Also University City is different, it's just be this odd alternative place like Night Vale and is also used to give insight to the Creator. Fan Theories are thing that plays into character plot.

I wouldn't recommend reading Oseman's books back to back, she could have up her game with "I was Born for this", but these books are actually really similar except now it a podcast that pushes the plot instead of a weird prank website. I definitely wouldn't recommend reading Solitaire while having Radio Silence be the audiobook you listen to while you have to do stuff other than just read all day.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for Drunken Uploads. I just didn't like it much as Solitaire, I know Oseman sees this as growth, but the only improvement I see is giving more diversity in terms of race. Maybe 'We born for this' will have disabled characters (outside of mental illness), on serious note it does explore more letters of the LGBTQ+. I guess it just might be preference and my hang up of characters with autistic traits being side characters to someone else's discovery about them. I don't think it was intentional, especially with the plot this book was meant to have with the whole podcast thing: the take on the fantasy of becoming friends with the person that made something you love so much. It also one of those rare things where the main character finds growth by making a friend, instead of getting a lovefriend, which is there is definitely not enough YA books about friendship. (Okay, imagine if Lovefriend if that becomes the acceptable gender neural term for boyfriend/girlfriend. I am sorry if it does.)

Disclaimer: A long time ago, I did received this book from NetGalley for an honest review. I also brought this book on audiobook.