Review: Camp

Camp by Lev A.C. Rosen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It took me a while to remember this book existed, and then again to place an e-book order at the library, and then to read it - in one sitting, strangely enough. Well, one and a half - I only took a break to get out of the car I'd been riding in while getting through about the first 40-50 percent or so of the book. I just wish my thoughts on this weren't so...muddled. I mean, it's not a bad book, but it's also definitely one of those YA contemporaries that just didn't feel right for me for some reason or another. Though I do appreciate how much it delves into certain intra-community conflicts, especially among gay guys - critique of toxic masculinity and "masc4masc" attitudes, it's pretty important to bring up so we all remember that the gay community, like any other, isn't a monolith. 

But it did feel a bit strangely like the narrative was continuing to pit masc and femme gay guys at odds, suggesting that one had to be one or the other and any deviation was either a sign of weak character, or (especially in the case of Del, aka Randy, our protagonist), deceptive to try and get into the pants of his longtime crush. I mean, I get that it's supposed to be confusing and stuff, with no right answers really. Hell, as a queer dude myself, I feel like I have some things in common with Del's crush Hudson, not wanting to present femme or be perceived that way. Then again, Hudson and I don't quite have the same reasons for feeling this way - hell, as I said in my recent review of Somebody Told Me, I feel like being autistic makes me automatically genderless as far as most people are concerned, and that me trying to masc up (or even femme up a tad bit; I'm sure I'll be experimenting with makeup and especially nail polish when I'm up in Oregon) is my best way to rebel against such attitudes. But then there's Del, deliberately mascing up in such a way that his friends all rag on him and think he's super fake about it (and let's face it, he kind of is...) 

Yeah, the book's a mess, but then again I've kinda accepted that a lot of YA contemporary, especially about sex and romance, brings that with the territory. Which, again, makes me super sad that I didn't get to experience that as a teen or even a young adult...but I digress.

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