Brain Camp

Locations
Call Number: Teen Graphic Novel / Kim, Susan
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Graphic Novel / Kim, Susan	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Lucas and Jenna are chosen to attend a camp that promises to turn delinquents into high achieving students, but when they arrive, they realize that the camp is not what it seems.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Great art, but... submitted by wampishing on June 24, 2013, 2:54pm Both Jenna and Lucas, chronic underachievers, find themselves shipped off to the Camp Fielding, which promises to mold "losers" like themselves into instant brainiacs. It doesn't take long for the pair to realize that the camp is too good to be true, as strange disappearances, overnight personality changes, and disgusting bird corpses define their days. Fighting against the warping of their own minds, they team up to investigate.

While the art of the book is bright, crisp and well-defined, the plot does not have the same distinction. A message at odds with the initial appeal of its protagonists and an overall lack of clarity undercuts the story. One might expect the kids to triumph over the camp counselors through their unique strengths as people, thus postulating that academic achievement isn't the only measure of a person's worth. Instead, they only manage to beat the strange system through a mix of hormones and artificially created smarts administered by the camp itself. Their victory has a ring of hollowness to it, because they had to undergo an unnatural personality overhaul in order to achieve it. The motivations for, and mechanics of, the grotesque changes caused in the campers remain vague, to the point where it's unclear whether Jenna and Lucas have really saved anyone from anything. However, the book's art, excellent pacing, and startling twists bolster its quality, making for a solidly enjoyable reading experience.

Good but a little too gross submitted by Elliottman on July 2, 2015, 8:02am Good book but it was really gross that they gave them a serum to make them throw up the baby birds. That was a little too much for me!

very strange submitted by camelsamba on August 11, 2022, 10:53pm Well, that was ... strange. I must not be the target audience.

(I saw this book from a free shelf and took it because I've enjoyed other work of Faith Erin Hicks; however, I really didn't like this one. The target age group might though.)