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Zander’s parents signed her up for a summer camp in Michigan, far away from her home in Arizona. She’s not thrilled about it, especially since Camp Padua is filled with crazy kids. Cassie, one of her cabinmates, says she’s “manic-depressive-bipolar-anorexic.” Bek is a compulsive liar. Grover (yes, Cleveland, just like the president) is staring down the possibility of becoming schizophrenic as an adult. And these are just the teens she ends up spending most of her time with.
During camp, the teens engage in group “share-apy” sessions at the Circle of Hope and participate in various outdoor activities that aim to teach teamwork, lead to self-actualization and help them find themselves. Despite her tendency to want to keep to herself and not feel her feelings, let alone share them, she finds herself making friends with these “at-risk” teens she’s been thrown together with. Though she’d rather ignore that Cassie is escaping their cabin in the middle of the night, Zander ends up following her angry and mean roommate out to the lake. And she feels drawn to the friendly but quirkily confrontational Grover, who openly and frequently reminds her of his interest.
As the book progresses, readers slowly learn about what brought Zander to the camp, and the campers learn more about each other and even open up to each other, slowly leading to some growth.
I really enjoyed Rebekah Crane’s The Upside of Falling Down, so I wanted to read some of her other books, and this was my next read. I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as Upside. I empathized with these troubled teens and all they had faced and are dealing with, but I just didn’t fall into the story completely; I felt at a remove from the characters for some reason. I’ll probably try another of Crane’s books even so.
Rated: High. Profanity is the primary reason for the rating, with 30 instances of strong language and as many instances of more moderate profanity. Sexual content includes kissing and fairly brief vulgar references. There are allusions to attempted suicide, self-cutting, and abuse.
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