Book Review: Camp
Nov. 25th, 2019 09:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI’ve gone on a bit of a graphic novel spree recently, and just read Kayla Miller’s Camp, in which two friends, Olive and Willow, go to summer camp together. Olive dives into camp activities, while Willow won’t join in and tries to make Olive spend all of her time with her.
In the days of my youth I was 100% a Willow, which may be why I found Willow so gosh darn frustrating to read about. Or not exactly Willow herself, but I felt that the narrative didn’t deal honestly with the situation, which should have been much more emotionally messy than the book portrayed. When Olive doesn’t knuckle under to spend every minute of every day with Willow, Willow doesn't just sulk; she meddles with the Rube Goldberg machine that Olive built with her other friends while Willow and Olive were fighting.
And then Olive forgives her! Really quickly! And, okay, “I set off your Rube Goldberg machine and destroyed one of the parts, and the machine itself took a photo of me doing so” is not an unforgivable sin, but at the same time… and it’s not just Olive. Olive’s two friends, who unlike Olive have no investment in Willow as a person, get over it even faster than Olive. Right after they find out that they won’t be able to film their Rube Goldberg machine in action, literally seconds after they discover the photo of Willow meddling, they’re all “Well, Willow’s been having a rough time recently, and I don’t want to get her in trouble…”
I can buy Olive forgiving her friend. People forgive their friends far worse things. And I could even buy one of Olive’s new buddies being a lily-livered sapsucker who is too chicken to confront Willow despite literal photographic evidence of her guilt. But both of them? Neither one of them is furious at having their machine, which they spent two hours putting together, set off before they get to film it in action??
It also annoyed me that when Willow and Olive make up, they both apologize to each other, even though Willow is the only one who actually behaved badly. Olive is all “I’m sorry I didn’t make you feel supported,” even though the only thing that would have made Willow feel supported was if Olive cast aside all her new friends aside and joined Willow in a codependent bubble, which is an unreasonable thing to demand of another human being. And in any case, making Willow feel supported is not Olive’s job.
Often when two people fight, there is blame on both sides, but this situation was not one of those times.
I’ve noticed a trend recently in children’s books of unnaturally good children, like the modern-day version of Victorian Sunday school book characters, and everyone in this book except Willow fits right into this mold. If you’re going to set your characters up as a moral example, then you’d better be damn sure that they are, in fact, setting a good example that children would do well to follow.
In the days of my youth I was 100% a Willow, which may be why I found Willow so gosh darn frustrating to read about. Or not exactly Willow herself, but I felt that the narrative didn’t deal honestly with the situation, which should have been much more emotionally messy than the book portrayed. When Olive doesn’t knuckle under to spend every minute of every day with Willow, Willow doesn't just sulk; she meddles with the Rube Goldberg machine that Olive built with her other friends while Willow and Olive were fighting.
And then Olive forgives her! Really quickly! And, okay, “I set off your Rube Goldberg machine and destroyed one of the parts, and the machine itself took a photo of me doing so” is not an unforgivable sin, but at the same time… and it’s not just Olive. Olive’s two friends, who unlike Olive have no investment in Willow as a person, get over it even faster than Olive. Right after they find out that they won’t be able to film their Rube Goldberg machine in action, literally seconds after they discover the photo of Willow meddling, they’re all “Well, Willow’s been having a rough time recently, and I don’t want to get her in trouble…”
I can buy Olive forgiving her friend. People forgive their friends far worse things. And I could even buy one of Olive’s new buddies being a lily-livered sapsucker who is too chicken to confront Willow despite literal photographic evidence of her guilt. But both of them? Neither one of them is furious at having their machine, which they spent two hours putting together, set off before they get to film it in action??
It also annoyed me that when Willow and Olive make up, they both apologize to each other, even though Willow is the only one who actually behaved badly. Olive is all “I’m sorry I didn’t make you feel supported,” even though the only thing that would have made Willow feel supported was if Olive cast aside all her new friends aside and joined Willow in a codependent bubble, which is an unreasonable thing to demand of another human being. And in any case, making Willow feel supported is not Olive’s job.
Often when two people fight, there is blame on both sides, but this situation was not one of those times.
I’ve noticed a trend recently in children’s books of unnaturally good children, like the modern-day version of Victorian Sunday school book characters, and everyone in this book except Willow fits right into this mold. If you’re going to set your characters up as a moral example, then you’d better be damn sure that they are, in fact, setting a good example that children would do well to follow.
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Date: 2019-11-25 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-26 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-25 09:40 pm (UTC)Really, the book sounds like a self-soothing creation of an adult who grew up as a Willow but who, unlike you or me, didn't learn that no: the world doesn't owe you accommodation.
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Date: 2019-11-26 12:55 am (UTC)The book is from Olive's POV, so I'm not sure if the author is projecting on Willow. At very least, she clearly didn't realize how much the destruction of the Rube Goldberg project should have ratcheted up the conflict - not least because it widens the circle of conflict beyond Willow & Olive to include Olive's new friends, too. (And hey! Don't they deserve apologies, too?)
The book would have held together much better if that Rube Goldberg tampering scene didn't exist. It would have kept the conflict a strictly Olive & Willow affair and it would have made the apology scene more successful, because it wouldn't have felt like it was sweeping this whole big issue under the rug.