CAMP SO-AND-SO

Camp is supposed to be about arts and crafts, capture the flag, and lazy days swimming in the lake, but at Camp So-and-So, nothing is as it's supposed to be, or even as it seems.

Several mysteries await the 25 female campers whose parents make the drive up the “unnecessarily winding road” to the five cabins that don't even have walls. They've been tempted with shiny brochures that offer a week of fun and friends, but when they arrive, they're greeted by a problem, the nature of which depends on which cabin they've been assigned to. The mystery about Camp So-and-So deepens the longer the girls are trapped, and trapped they are, a fact that dawns on them as they find little help in the form of adult supervision. McCoy has written a downright peculiar book that manages to deliver a compelling tale of friendship and survival. The characters—which include at least two young black women and two lesbians—are easy to distinguish and follow, even as the narrative is required to dive into different scenes. A self-consciously omniscient narrator is a helpful technique that folds well into the plot. A loose relationship with A Midsummer Night's Dream helps explain the hazier bits, though knowledge of Shakespeare isn't required to enjoy the book.

Weird, fun, clever, and different—in a good way.