3.5 stars? By god Randy pissed me off for most of the book, but by the end he redeemed himself and so did his love interest, Hudson. Kind of weird reading about a summer camp and living vicariously through the characters in the middle of October, but it made me feel a kind of nostalgia for a camp experience I never got to have. Side characters were pretty charming, the diversity in identities was very appreciated, but like..some of the things Ashleigh and George would say uncensored caught me so off-guard, lol. (Do they have filters?!?! At all????)

I liked the message and some of the writing, though. It’s just that I didn’t really like Randy as a protagonist for most of the book because he was meant to be messy, and accidentally selfish just to get this boy, and in a few ways still figuring out how to express himself. Yes, the narrative addressed this and signaled that he was in the *wrong* for going to this concerning, comical length to do so(he also got lust confused with love more than a couple times we love teenage hormones), but we still spent the entire book inside his head and inner monologue. So…

But! I did really enjoy the setting!!! Camp Outland felt so real in its different landmarks, how the campers interacted with each other and the overall plot, and everyone’s day-to-day routines! Again, I’ve never stayed at a summer camp, but it felt like some of my camping trips I’d been on with classmates but if we were all older. And more of us were visibly queer/out. Lol.

Anyhow! I can see why people find this one fun or really enjoy it, but it’s just not 100% my thing.